It Goes On
by alb925
Summary: Lilah Fitzgerald has seen her share of endings and they haven't necessarily been happy. No matter how impossible it may seem, she promises to protect herself from being a victim of any more. It turns out she has a lot to learn about how life works, but luckily someone comes along who, while they can't change her story's beginning, may be able to do something about the ending.
1. Chapter 1

_"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on."  
_

_-_**Robert Frost**

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I'm sure the phrase _You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone_ is a phrase that both Muggles and wizards are familiar with. I know I grew up hearing it quite a bit, but never thought much of it until my eleventh birthday. That's when things began to really change and put that saying into perspective.

I know that every witch and wizard associates the age of eleven with getting their Hogwarts letters. I used to do that, too, until my eleventh birthday actually came, that is. I turned eleven on October 31st, 1988. Obviously, the September 1st deadline had already passed and I hadn't been eleven on time like all of the other kids born before the first of September. That meant that I would get my Hogwarts letter the following summer and go to Hogwarts the September after that. And, yes, my birthday does fall on Halloween. People love to point that out to me for some reason. As if I don't already know.

Anyway, my eleventh birthday started out normally enough. I was sitting at our very long, very shiny dining room table with my eight year old brother Julian. We were just wrapping up our lessons with Miss Sullivan, our tutor.

You see, magical children don't officially start school until age eleven, and even then, they're just learning how to control and improve their magic. While we don't need _all_ the skills Muggle children go to school for, we do need some. We need to learn how to read and write and do some basic math. My mum hired Miss Sullivan two years ago when I was about to turn nine and Julian was six. She worked with me alone until this fall when Julian was finally old enough to join us. By then we actually already knew how to read and write, thanks to Dad, but we still needed to learn math and apparently some grammar stuff and writing mechanics.

I never saw why my dad couldn't just do all of it. He had successfully taught two children how to read and write after all. But I guess my mother didn't think he could efficiently teach us everything else. She probably felt more secure in hiring an actual teacher for that. So, she hired Miss Sullivan to come to our house five days a week for a few hours a day, because my mother herself certainly didn't have time to teach us.

My mother works at a wizarding book publishing company. She's very driven and also very good at her job, which has resulted in quite a few promotions over the years. She likes everything to be just so and she likes everything to be perfect.

My dad, on the other hand, is more laid back. He also has a very different career. You see, my dad's best friend, Jesse—Uncle Jesse to me and Julian—is a Muggleborn. He and my dad have been friends since they first met on the Hogwarts Express at age eleven and my dad learned a lot about Muggles through Uncle Jesse. Also, if there's one thing you should know about my dad it's that he's loved to make people laugh for as long as he's lived. He positively lives off of it. Before he became friends with Uncle Jesse, my dad didn't really have any friends. He also didn't have any siblings like Julian and I at least have each other. Needless to say, my dad was lonely. To amuse himself, he would invent all these crazy voices and work on making them as funny as possible. He would also mimic any interesting voice he heard and became quite good at doing that as well.

Because the wizarding world doesn't have many job options for what my dad wanted—he couldn't really stand office work, didn't feel cut out for being a professor and didn't feel that working with plants or animals was for him—he spent most of his life unsure of what he wanted to do once he left school. But then when he and Uncle Jesse were fifteen, Uncle Jesse got an idea. He suggested my dad be a stand-up comedian. It was a Muggle job, but it was exactly the kind of thing my dad was looking for. Ever since he left Hogwarts, it's what he's been trying to do with his life, with only minimal success so far. He secured gigs and all that, but he still wasn't at the level he wanted to be at. Or the level my mother wanted him to be at, for that matter.

My mother was never really a fan of the whole comedy thing. Not as a career anyway. She thought my dad was funny and talented and he could make her laugh no matter what. But those days seemed few and far between lately. My mother always thought making a career out of jokes was foolish and she thought it was a phase for a long time. But it wasn't. The thing that annoys Mum the most is that Dad has the grades and the intelligence to get an 'amazing' and 'appropriate' job. But he loves what he does, even if he's sort of struggling, so to him, his current job _is _amazing and appropriate.

Anyway, as I was saying, Mum is too busy to teach me and Julian all we need to know prior to starting Hogwarts. She works long hours and we hardly even get to see her. Usually it's dad who's home with s all day and who spends time with us when Miss Sullivan isn't here. He even uses the time we're being tutored as time to work on material for stand-up gigs. That way, his schedule will be free to spend time with me and Julian once Miss Sullivan leaves. It was a perfect plan, really. Especially since Julian and I loved spending time with Dad. He could make us laugh just by opening his mouth. Nearly everything he said was hilarious. And sometimes when he was joking around with us or practicing a routine for us—and usually Uncle Jesse too—I'd have to ask him to do it a second time because the first time I was too preoccupied with simply watching him _go_. I don't know how else to describe it. He's a constant ball of energy, especially when he was performing. He was always moving and switching between voices, all of which were very funny. The second time he ran through a routine for me was when I had to actually try to listen to the words. Some jokes I didn't get because I wasn't old enough, but others I did and they were hilarious. Mum hated it when he practiced routines in front of us "children", but Dad said she never had to find out. Besides, I already knew that he took out anything inappropriate and simply ran those jokes by Uncle Jesse for approval. Mum was just overreacting if you ask me.

So, on this particular day—my birthday, as I've said—Julian and I were working on our math with Miss Sullivan. I hate math. The basic stuff like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division weren't so bad. Counting money—both wizard and Muggle money, which was a request from my mother. _Just in case_, she said—wasn't so bad either. But fractions, which are what we were learning now, were going to be the death of me. I just couldn't seem to understand them, no matter what I did or how much I tried.

Our time with Miss Sullivan was almost up for the day, though, and I was thankful. All I wanted to do was stop thinking about fractions and get ready to go trick-or-treating later.

Trick-or-treating had been a tradition in our family for as long as I can remember. Every year, Dad and Uncle Jesse take me, Julian and Tess, Uncle Jesse's daughter and also my best friend, trick-or-treating through our neighborhoods. This was one of the perks of Uncle Jesse living only a few streets over. Not many other kids in the area went trick-or-treating, but we didn't mind. We had fun. Also, before we left, my mother would try to make it home early from work, although she hadn't in the past few years, and we'd all eat pizza and cake and I'd open presents. All of it was part of the tradition; a tradition that I wasn't looking to break any time soon.

"Lilah Fitzgerald, where is your head today?"

Miss Sullivan's voice snapped me back to reality and I even jumped slightly in alarm as my cheeks flushed pink. Miss Sullivan wasn't exactly strict, but I still hated disappointing her. She was probably in her mid-forties and very nice and very patient. It was also obvious she wanted me and Julian to learn. I adored her and wanted to do my best for her, which was another reason why not being able to understand fractions was annoying.

"Sorry," I said, looking back down at my paper. I felt Julian lightly kick me under the table and I knew he was smirking. Part of him loved to see me get reprimanded, but that also depended on the severity of it. The more I got yelled at, the more upset he was. It was sweet, really.

Miss Sullivan sighed. "I know today is a big and exciting day for you, dear, but you still have to focus on your work."

I nodded as I stared down at the numerous math problems in front of me. All fractions. All gibberish. I sighed.

Miss Sullivan was quiet for a moment. "You know," she finally said, "considering it _is_ your birthday, I was thinking of ending your lessons a little early today."

"Yeah?" I asked, looking up in excitement. Even the prospect of ending lessons only by a few minutes was exciting. Anything to get me out of doing any more math.

She nodded and sent me a small smile. "I can see that continuing to the end of our time wouldn't be all that productive anyway."

"No, not really," I agreed cheerily as Julian and I began to pack away our things.

"I did want to give you two your last quizzes back, though," Miss Sullivan said, beginning to flip through a folder sitting on the table in front of her.

I felt myself deflate a little bit. I had been hoping Miss Sullivan would have forgotten about the quizzes. I was certain I had failed mine, just like I had failed the three math quizzes before it. And if I failed another one, Mum said she wouldn't let me go trick-or-treating or let Tess sleep over tonight. And the sleepover was a pretty big deal considering sleepovers hadn't been allowed up until now. As you've probably guessed, Mum is pretty particular about certain things, and apparently sleepovers were one of them. She always mused that she didn't know why they were even called sleepovers considering people never got any sleep, which was her biggest gripe with them. Apparently, children needed a good night's sleep. Always. It had taken a lot of convincing to get her to agree to my birthday sleepover which was why I wasn't too thrilled at the prospect of giving it up.

"Maybe we can wait until Monday," I suggested. "I mean, I wouldn't want you to waste too much time looking for them. I'm sure you're just as glad about getting out early as we are."

"I'm insulted, really," Miss Sullivan said, "but no worries. I've found them." She pulled two sheets of paper from her folder. Great.

She passed Julian's quiz to him first and he flipped it over and grinned widely. I scowled. Julian was awesome at math. Even though he got easier work because he was eight, he was still a lot better than I had been at that age. It wasn't fair. I mean, I had always been able to get by before, usually with extra help, but with fractions, well, clearly no amount of extra help could get me to understand those. Believe me, I've tried.

Miss Sullivan handed my quiz back to me then and I took a deep breath. I didn't even want to look, but I expected it was best to do it and get it over with quickly, just like ripping off a bandage.

Making my decision, I quickly flipped my paper over, looked down, and felt my heart sink. I had failed, just as I'd thought I would, but just because I had expected it didn't mean I was any less disappointed.

"Can I, um, maybe get more extra help?" I asked Miss Sullivan, my voice coming out in a whisper. "You know, and go over the problems I got wrong?"

"Perhaps on Monday," she said with a smile.

"Why not today?" I asked, mainly because I knew my mother would want me to. I still wanted the extra help, but I had no problem waiting until Monday. Part of me really wanted to go over my quiz and be able to master fractions, but another part of me just wanted to be done with lessons for the day and enjoy what I would be able to have of my birthday. Because surely trick-or-treating and the sleepover would be off.

"It's your birthday, isn't it?" Miss Sullivan asked. "Why don't you take this weekend off and enjoy your day?" She paused before continuing, surely after seeing my skeptical expression. "You work hard, Lilah, and you do put in a lot of effort. You _try_. You deserve a few days off. I'm not going to give you any homework and we can work on your fractions more on Monday. You'll understand them soon, I promise."

"How can you know that for sure?" I asked.

"Because you're a smart girl who doesn't give up," she replied.

I nodded and toyed with the corner of my quiz paper. Miss Sullivan kept saying she wanted me to enjoy my birthday, but as I said, chances were that all of my pans would be cancelled once my mother saw my quiz grade. We'd probably still have dinner, but then everyone else would go trick-or-treating without me and Tess wouldn't be able to sleep over. And I would only partly be enjoying my birthday if that happened. It would just put a damper on the whole thing.

"I'm telling you, Liles," Miss Sullivan insisted, "one day it will just click. But for now, why don't you and Julian run along and relax for a bit, okay?"

I nodded and thanked Miss Sullivan before getting up from my seat and gathering my things. Julian did the same and we walked Miss Sullivan to the front door.

"You know," Julian said, once I had shut the door behind our teacher. He nicked a piece of candy from the bowl by the front door. Mum had specifically told us it was for trick-or-treaters and to keep our hands off, but it hadn't stopped us from sneaking a few pieces here and there.

"What?" I prodded Julian as I took a piece of candy for myself. He had that look on his face as if he were lost in thought or thinking up some idea.

"Just because you got your quiz back today doesn't mean you have to tell Mum today," he said, sticking the candy into his mouth whole.

"I guess not, but isn't that really sneaky?" I asked.

"We've done plenty of sneaky things before without Mum knowing," Julian answered with a sly grin, taking a second piece of candy and dangling it in my face as he grinned even wider.

"You're corrupt for an eight year old," I giggled. But then my smile faded. "Mum knows we took a quiz recently, though. Do you think she'll ask if we got our scores back?" I knew Miss Sullivan usually talked to Mum whenever she got the chance and Julian and I always informed her about what we were learning and about any upcoming quizzes, so she was aware we had taken one recently. I just didn't know if she'd think to ask if we'd gotten them back yet.

"You could always say we didn't get them back yet," Julian shrugged. "It won't hurt. I'll even go along with you. And then you can tell her the truth on Monday so it'll all work out."

I couldn't help but giggle again. "You really are such an evil mastermind."

Julian smirked. "That's me," he said before throwing a piece of candy at me and running upstairs to his bedroom.

"Get back here!" I cried, laughing more as I picked up the fallen candy and chased after my brother, ready to pelt him with it like he had done to me. But what I didn't notice was that I had dropped my quiz in the process. It drifted down and landed on the floor right in front of the front door. And, as luck would have it, my mother actually did make it home early that day. Naturally, she walked in the door shortly after Julian and I had gone upstairs and before I could realize my mistake. And from there, everything continued to go downhill.

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**A/N: Well, it's certainly been a while, hasn't it? I didn't really intend to take such a long break from writing but that's what happened. I'm a little nervous about this story since I haven't posted in a while and I liked writing Promise of a Lifetime so much that I want this one to be just as fun. But I am really excited to get this chapter up as well because I've really missed writing.**

**So, don't be afraid to let me know what you think so far and thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

"This isn't fair," I mumbled, crossing my arms on the kitchen counter in front of me and resting my chin on my arms. I was pouting and acting like a baby and I knew it. Normally, I would have hated myself for it, but now I found myself not really caring.

What could I say? I was upset. My mother, upon finding my failed quiz in the foyer, had shouted for me to come downstairs _right this instant_. That's when I knew I was in trouble.

Just like my mother had promised, she had told me that I wouldn't be able to go trick-or-treating or have Tess sleep over that night. Needless to say, I wasn't happy. I had been prepared for this to happen, but it didn't make it any less upsetting. Going trick-or-treating was a tradition we had upheld for years. Skipping a year felt wrong. Besides, this was my last opportunity to go as it was. By next Halloween, I'd be at school. My last chance had been ruined. Perhaps it was my own fault, but then again, maybe it wasn't. I prepared for each and every quiz I took and failed anyway. It was as if my mother couldn't see that.

"Lilah, don't you think you're being a bit ridiculous?" Mum asked. She was moving around the kitchen, collecting plates, napkins and utensils for dinner. Dad had gone to Uncle Jesse's house to pick him and Tess up. Then, they were supposed to all go pick up the pizza. They were expected back any minute now.

"No," I muttered, "I don't think so." Okay, maybe I did think I was being a tiny bit ridiculous. I had a lot of things that others didn't. Food, shelter, a family. I knew how lucky I was. But even still, going trick-or-treating was a very special tradition.

It had started way back when I was a year old. Back then, both of my parents were in on taking me trick-or-treating and the three of us, plus Uncle Jesse and Tess, would go through our neighborhoods together. It was pretty much one of the only times I got to see my neighbors and a part of me wonders if my mother only let me go so we wouldn't seem totally abnormal.

I guess I should start explaining that at the beginning. I mentioned that Uncle Jesse's family were Muggles, but I didn't mention that they were very wealthy Muggles. They actually bought Uncle Jesse a house when he married his wife. And, as it turns out, Mum's family is very wealthy as well. Since my dad's family didn't have a lot of money, and my dad had only saved up enough to pay rent for the flat he was sharing with Uncle Jesse after they left school, Mum's family offered to buy them their own house. Well, more like insisted. I haven't been told all the details, but if you want my opnion, it's because they didn't want my mother living in some cramped, dingy flat. My grandparents are very stuffy people, even more so than Mum. She's picked up some of their tendencies, sure, but something tells me that she wouldn't have minded the flat as much as they did.

Anyway, Dad refused the offer at first, but like I said, my grandparents weren't really backing down. So my dad gave in, but his one condition was that the house be near Uncle Jesse's house. My grandparents weren't happy about it, and I don't think my mother was either, to be honest, but they all complied. Our house is just a few streets over from Uncle Jesse's, as I've said, and they're bot in a Muggle area. I think at first both my parents did want to live in an area where other witches and wizards lived-my mother more so than my dad-but the house is gorgeous so they took it. Besides, my dad wanted to be near his closest friend more than he wanted to live in an all magical neighborhood. Also, my parents did need somewhere to live besides the flat Dad and Uncle Jesse were sharing and at the time, both of them were struggling to get started in their careers and save up their money. As I've said, Dad really only had enough money to continue renting the flat he was in, which meant that Uncle Jesse would leave, and Mum would move in to help pay the rent, or the three of them would live together and continue to split the rent. Neither option was particularly ideal for them. And then, out of nowhere, they were offered a house of their own. A gorgeous one at that. It looked like something out of a fairy tale and the others in the neighborhood looked that way as well. My favorite part of the house has always been the curvy staircase. I always felt like I was really some kind of a princess whenever I walked down it.

Anyway, now that my parents were on their feet as far as jobs go, they were left to continue to pay the mortgage for the house. But, since my mother's job was more...steady, she was usually the one paying everything. My dad felt awful and tried to contribute and pay her back when he could, but the truth of the matter was that while he made decent money, it wasn't enough to pay the bills for the house we were in. They actually argued about it quite a bit. Even in a house the size of ours, Julian and I still somehow managed to hear every one of them.

Also, since we lived in a Muggle area, my mother was extremely paranoid about any of our neighbors finding out we weren't totally like them. There weren't many children in our neighborhood anyway, but Julian and I were never really allowed to play with what kids were there. My mother was afraid we'd let something slip in conversation, as little kids tend to do. Something along the lines of, 'my Mummy and Daddy can do magic and I will too one day'. And as we got older and neared the age of seven, interaction was definitely off limits. Mum was afraid we'd accidentally do something Muggle kids would call 'weird' and then we'd be figured out for sure. Obviously. Cue the eye rolls and the sighs.

My mother had it all figured out. She'd tell everyone that Julian and I were just very involved in certain activities and also our studies. She told people we were home schooled, which was the truth. When we eventually went to Hogwarts, if anyone asked, they would be told we were at some boarding school. Which one, I couldn't care less. I'll leave that up to Mum. She also tells people that she works from home, which is why we don't own a car. In reality, she goes to work using the Floo. Or just Apparates straight there. But she mostly uses the Floo in case someone hears the sound of her Apparating. Like I said, she figured it all out.

My dad, on the other hand, really does have a Muggle job, so that was a no-brainer. Although, I'm not sure Mum always liked him telling the truth about his job. Maybe it ruined our cookie-cutter image or something considering he wasn't exactly a famous comedian. But my dad didn't care. He talked about it with a smile on his face. Always. But not that he needed to talk about it much. Like I've said, we had next to no relationship with any of our neighbors. It was getting better now, though, at least for my parents. They loosened up a bit and started to socialize, mainly to prevent people from asking questions about why we kept so much to ourselves. I also think they realized that I was going to go to school and learn to control my magic soon and that Julian and I weren't going to accidentally tell anybody something top secret. But Julian was even worse at slipping up with magic than I was, so my mum hadn't totally loosened the reigns yet. Besides, the damage was already done. It was kind of late to make friends with any of the few kids in the neighborhood.

Essentially, Julian and I only had each other growing up, which I knew not to take for granted since my dad didn't have anyone. Like I said, both of his parents worked constantly trying to support the family so he was quite lonely, hence all the different voices he came up with and same ones that came in handy for his work now. Anyway, the bottom line is that going trick-or-treating felt like the one time Julian and I got to meet people, even if it was only briefly.

"Lilah," my mother said sternly, snapping me out of my thoughts. She was standing at the doorway, the plates, napkins and utensils stacked in her arms. "You should be grateful we're still celebrating your birthday. We could be doing nothing tonight."

I shrugged one shoulder. I knew my mother had a point. I was being a bit bratty, I supposed, but as I said, this weekend was supposed to be an important one. "I just don't want to break tradition," I finally said, choosing to trace circles on the counter instead of meeting her eyes. My mother always knew how to make me feel ashamed.

"Lilah, it's petty," Mum sighed. "Besides, you're getting a bit old for trick-or-treating, don't you think? And once you start at Hogwarts next September, you won't be going."

"Exactly! This is my last chance," I protested, irritation flaring up inside of me again. "And I'm not too old. Eleven isn't old at all. I'm still a kid."

My mother shook her head and sighed. "You'll be starting school in a year and becoming a teenager in two. I think it may actually be for the best if you started to leave childhood behind, okay?"

I scowled. It didn't sound good to me at all. It sounded terrible, actually, but arguing with my mother can be like arguing with a wall.

"Now go tell Julian to wash up for dinner. Your father will be back with the pizza any minute."

I sighed. That was my mother. Everything could be settled just as easy as that, when in reality, nothing was truly settled at all. Nevertheless, I hopped off my chair and headed upstairs to get my brother. I knocked on his bedroom door and pushed it open when I heard him tell me to come in. I plopped down into his desk chair and swiveled in a rapid circle as I let out another sigh. I will admit, I do tend to be a wee bit dramatic on some occasions. I'm totally aware of it, thank you very much.

"No luck?" Julian asked. He was sitting on his bed, writing something on a piece of paper. He had crayons scattered around him as well, but I barely noticed. I was too preoccupied with other things.

"No luck," I repeated, slowing my spinning to a stop. "She won't budge. Looks like I won't be going out tonight after all." I glanced at him. "Sorry, Jules."

He shrugged and continued to look at whatever project it was in front of him. It was probably an early start on some kind of homework, I thought, half bitterly.

"I'm sure I'll survive," Julian finally said, "but I will be lonely. Dad, Uncle Jesse and Tess are great, but I'll miss you. Dad and Uncle Jesse are adults, as fun as they are, and I'm not friends with Tess like you are. It wouldn't be the same."

I smiled. "I appreciate that, Jules. Mum thinks it's silly for me to be upset. She thinks I should be grateful I'm even able to celebrate at all. And I am. Really. It's just that trick-or-treating is important to me. I won't get to do it forever. With Hogwarts next year and everything, this is the last chance I get to do this. Maybe it is petty, and part of me feels really guilty about making such a big deal, but-"

"Liles, you're eleven years old," Julian said, finally pausing in whatever he was doing and meeting my eyes. "I think maybe you're sometimes allowed to get upset over petty things. And in some ways, it isn't petty. As you've said, it meant something to you. You look forward to it and it got taken away. You're upset. It makes sense."

I looked at him in disbelief. "So besides being devious for an eight year old, you're also incredibly insightful for your age. Interesting. And in every way better than me." I grinned to let him know I was kidding. And I was. Julian was an incredible kid, and I always found myself so average. Average, shoulder length brown hair, average hazel eyes, average height, average intelligence. The list goes on and on. I didn't think I was terrible or stupid or ugly, just not great or a genius or incredibly beautiful. But my point is that there was never any jealousy between Julian and I. I really didn't mind that he did certain things better, like think reasonably or successfully understand math.

"Don't say that," he said. "You're great, Lilah."

"Thanks, Jules. I appreciate it."

He smiled as he finished working on whatever it was that he was working on with a flourish of his crayon. He scanned it over before handing it to me. "Happy birthday, Liles," he said.

I took the piece of paper and looked down at it. It was a handmade card. Julian had written 'Happy Birthday Lilah' on the front in big letters and drawn balloons in all of my favorite colors-blue, purple and yellow. On the inside was a handwritten note that said all of the usual things you'd expect in a birthday card. _Hope your birthday's as amazing as you are_ and all that. But I knew that Julian truly meant everything he said, cliche notes or not, so the card still meant a lot. The fact that he had even made me a card himself meant a lot.

"Thank you so much," I whispered. "I love it." I stood up and crossed the room to throw my arms around him.

"Don't mention it," he said, his voice muffled by my shoulder. "I think Mum put my name on a gift downstairs, but I wanted to give you something that was more from me and not technically purchased by Mum or Dad."

"That's sweet. You really do think of everything. Thank you. Again."

"You're welcome. Again," he replied with a grin, his huge green eyes crinkling at the corners.

Just then, we heard the sound of the front door opening and the voices of my dad, Uncle Jesse and Tess filled the air. I smiled. "What do you say we go down and enjoy whatever still stands of my spectacular birthday weekend?"

"Let's do it," Julian declared.

The two of us thundered down the stairs and practically bombarded my dad, Tess and Uncle Jesse.

"What kind of pizza did you get?" Julian asked, jumping up and down as he tried to touch the pizza box.

"Doesn't matter," Dad laughed, holding the box above his head and out of Julian's reach. "Jesse, Tess and I ate it all. There's no more left. Sorry."

"No, you didn't!" Julian laughed, following Dad towards the dining room.

"So, how's it feel to be eleven years old?" Uncle Jesse asked, turning to me and ruffling my hair. "The big one-one."

I shrugged. "Fine. It feels just like being ten, though. There's no difference."

"Ah, nothing wrong with that," Uncle Jesse said with a wave of his hand. "You have to enjoy being so young."

I smiled before looking at Tess as my smile turned to a sympathetic one. "My mother said I can't go trick-or-treating tonight and she also said that the sleepover's off." I hated having to break the news to her, especially knowing that she'd be as disappointed as I was, despite how much she would act like it was fine.

"I heard," she nodded, returning the sympathetic smile. "But it's really okay. Next year we can have our own sleepover at Hogwarts."

"We might not even be in the same dorm, though," I said with a sigh.

"We'll figure out a way, then," she shrugged. Always the overly positive one in our friendship. She never failed to look on the bright side of things and could usually find something good about everything. I'm not sure how she did it. Not that I'm a negative person, either, but she could sure make me look that way, finding something good about things I was sure were hopeless.

"Don't sweat it, Liles," Uncle Jesse said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Besides, you could always introduce trick-or-treating to Hogwarts."

I snorted and actually cracked a smile. "I doubt that'll go over well. "Can you imagine two first years dressing up and going around asking for candy? We'd never live it down."

Uncle Jesse grinned and shrugged. "Or everyone will think it's great and immediately jump on the bandwagon."

"You two are so obviously related," I said with a laugh as I gestured between him and Tess. "You always look at the positive side of everything."

"And not ashamed of it," Uncle Jesse said. He smiled sadly. "Liv was the same way."

I returned the sad smile as the three of us fell quiet. Olivia-or Liv as Uncle Jesse always called her-was Uncle Jesse's wife. She had died when Tess and I were really little-only about two years old-and even though the two of us had been too young to remember her or the event of her death, I knew from my parents that Uncle Jesse had been devastated. Naturally. And I felt just as awful for Tess. It was totally unfair that she could barely even remember her mother. When we were younger, I would feel guilty about even mentioning my own mother, as if it would make Tess sad by doing so.

Just then, Julian stuck his head out of the dining room. "Hey, are you three coming or not? If you don't, the pizza really will be all gone this time!"

I laughed, and so did Tess and Uncle Jesse. "Coming, Jules," I said as we all followed him into the dining room. My mother had set the table brilliantly. I wouldn't have expected anything less actually. She had used her favorite red tablecloth and had set two candles at each end of the table. In the middle sat a vase containing a beautiful flower arrangement. It probably looked like a bit much for just pizza, but like I said, I wouldn't have expected any less from my mother. Everything had to be special and done exceptionally well. I was actually kind of honored that she considered my birthday an occasion to be so fancy for, but then again, I wondered if it was because my mother treated every event this way._  
_

"Put the pizza in the kitchen," my mother was ordering my dad now. "If you set the box right on the table, it'll leave a greasy stain on the tablecloth. Besides, it'll look a lot prettier if I set it out on a plate."

"Ooh, fancy," my dad joked, throwing a wink my way as he headed into the kitchen, my mother on his heels.

Tess, Julian, Uncle Jesse and I sat down at the table as we waited for my parents to return. A few minutes later, they did, my mother carrying a plate with the pizza arranged beautifully on it. Like I said, everything had to be done right and done well, even pizza. Mum set the plate on the table as she and Dad took their own seats. There was a second or two of silence until Julian spoke.

"Can we eat now?" he asked eagerly.

My dad chuckled and my mother sighed, despite the tiny and brief smile that appeared on her face. "Go ahead," she said.

Everyone dug in right away. I had to admit that the pizza was delicious and it was nice to celebrate my birthday in some way with the people that I cared the most about. However, that didn't stop me from feeling a pang of sadness once dinner was over, the cake was cut, the gifts were opened, the dining room was cleared and Julian and Tess were leaving the room to change into their costumes. Julian was going as a scarecrow and Tess as a mouse. I had been planning to go as a cat so that Tess and I could be cat and mouse. But now it looked as if it were going to be just mouse.

I retreated to my bedroom and dumped my gifts onto my bed. Uncle Jesse and Tess had given me a few books I had been wanting to read as well as a box of Every Flavored Beans and some chocolate frogs. My parents had given me clothes. Dresses, actually. My mother had claimed that I could wear one to her Christmas party in a few months. She held the party every year and the guests consisted of her friends and co-workers, most of whom fit into both categories. On the plus side, Tess, Uncle Jesse and Uncle Jesse's parents were invited every year too.

I picked up one of my new books and the box of Every Flavored beans and collapsed onto my bed, determined to make this night fun and cozy anyway considering I wasn't going out. I was just managing to forget about my punishment when there was a knock on my bedroom door.

"Come in," I said, looking up from my book to see who had knocked.

"Hey," my dad said quietly, sticking his head into my room. "What are you up to?"

"Reading and eating candy. Essentially, I'm drowning my sorrows in a book and some sugar."

Dad smiled and I saw his eyes fall on my new dresses lying on my bed. "Do you like them?" he sked.

I nodded. "They're beauatiful. I think I will wear one to the Christmas party."

"Your mother would probably want you to hang them in your closet to they don't get wrinkled."

I shrugged and smiled. "Yeah...I'll get to it eventually. I have all night to spend up here in my room now after all."

Dad laughed and shook his head. "Julian and Tess are almost ready, and I was actually thinking...you should come with us."

I laughed. "Are you crazy?"

Dad shook his head. "No, I"m not. I'm actually quite sane and quite serious."

I let out a snort. "Mum won't let me. She still said no even when you tried to convince her."

"I was thinking we woudn't have to let your mother know," Dad said with a sheepish smile. I also knew quite well that that smile meant nothing good. But I also didn't need the smile to know he was up to no good. His words were clear enough.

"Dad, that's ridiculous," I laughed. "That would never work. Plus, I'd feel terrible the whole time. Going out wouldn't feel right."

Dad was quiet for a moment and I continued to stare at him, unable to go back to my book knowing that he hadn't responded yet. I knew him well enough to know he was looking for a loophole. I braced myself. He could be incredibly convincing when he wanted to be.

"This is your last year to go trick-or-treating, you know," he finally said. "And you had a costume picked out and everything..."

"Uncle Jesse said I could introduce trick-or-treating to Hogwarts next year," I said. It was half-hearted and my dad knew it. I could tell. But it didn't stop me from saying it anyway. As much as I wanted to go trick-or-treating, I wanted to stay out of trouble with my mother even more.

Dad laughed. "Come on, Liles, you know as well as I do that that plan wouldn't go over well. Which is why you wouldn't even try."

He was right of course. I had laughed at the idea when Uncle Jesse had first said it, just like Dad had laughed now.

"How would I get past her? She'll see the rest of you out the door and there's no way I'd even be able to slip by."

Dad shrugged. "I'm sure you can figure out the answer to that if you think a little bit. You're a smart girl, Liles." He smiled and turned to leave, pausing for a split second to turn back. "I'll meet you outside in ten minutes." With that, he patted the doorframe twice and left the room.

I frowned. In this instance I could see why my mother got irritated with my dad. He kind of just did his own thing and made up his own rules. On one hand, he was my parent and had just as much say in my punishments as my mother. Also, this punishment was a little ridiculous. Surely he was just executing his power to make his own decisions in my punishments. But we didn't have to be so sneaky about it. That's what my mother didn't like and a part of me couldn't blame her. But I did also know that my dad had gone to bat for me tonight and she had shot him down. She was disappointed in my quiz grade and I was going to be punished for it. That was that. End of story. But my dad clearly disagreed. He knew, just like Miss Sullivan knew, how hard I tried. And he wanted me to have fun on my last Halloween at home. And maybe he did have a point when he said my mother wouldn't find out. She probably did have a lot of work to do. She and I never got to do things together like we used to due to all the work she did, so why would tonight be any different? And I _did_ still really want to go trick-or-treating.

I chewed on my lip for a moment before I set my book down and jumped up from my bed. I grabbed my costume from my closet and quickly changed. I brushed my hair and slid on my headband with the attached cat ears. Then, I pulled out my costume makeup from my drawer and drew on whiskers, trying to be fast, but also draw them well. Once I was done, I inhaled and let it out before turning towards my window and sliding it open. There was a gint tree outside with a branch that just reached my window. Maybe it was a bit _too_ cliche and convenient, but it was convenient nonetheless.

And before I could get the chance to change my mind, I climbed outside onto the branch making sure to turn and shut the window behind me, before making my way towards the tree trunk and shimmying towards the ground.


	3. Chapter 3

"Do you think I'm stupid, Chris? Did you honestly think I wouldn't notice? Honestly, how could you just go behind my back like that?"

I was sitting at the top of the staircase with my elbows on my knees and my chin in my hands as I listened to my parents argue. I had been so stupid to allow myself to be convinced to go trick-or treating after all. So, so stupid.

Getting out had been successful enough. I had gotten to the bottom of the tree perfectly fine and gotten away from the house perfectly fine, but that's as far as anything 'perfectly fine' goes. Apparently, my mother had been feeling more sentimental tonight than she had in a while and had come up to my room with two mugs of hot chocolate and her collection of nail polish. She had thought she could put her work off for one night of the weekend in order to cheer me up. She had known how upset I was and wanted to do something a little special for me on my birthday so I wouldn't be so sad. And, naturally, when she had gotten to my room, she had found not only my costume missing from my closet, but me missing from my bed. My costume makeup was still messily laid out on the dresser. She had been waiting for us when we got back and had immediately gone after my dad, knowing it had to have been mostly his doing.

Julian and I had managed to escape upstairs and Uncle Jesse and Tess had slipped back out the front door, a good choice on their part. I knew my mother would be coming upstairs to lecture me any moment, but for now, she was still unleashing some of her anger on dad.

"Come on, Joanna, punishing Lilah like that wasn't necessary and you know it!" Dad responded, his voice rising now, nearly enough to match Mum's.

"No, I'm not sure I do. I thought it was a very appropriate punishment. She knew what the consequences would be for failing another math quiz! And she still clearly didn't prepare enough."

"Merlin, Joanna, are you blind?" Dad asked in exasperation and I could picture him throwing his hands up into the air. "She works so hard, but she's struggling! I'm home with them all day. I see her studying and I see her staying late with Miss Sullivan for extra help! I'm here when Miss Sullivan updates me on how the kids are doing and she says the same thing! Lilah works so hard, but it's just taking her a little longer to understand the math lessons."

"Julian is doing spectacular in all of his subjects," Mum countered. "There's no reason for Lilah not to have the same results."

"They aren't the same person!" Dad exclaimed. "And they're just children! Wonderful children. Sure, Lilah struggles with math, but she's kind and compassionate and she would do anything for the people she loves. And she's funny, and very smart. Miss Sullivan says so, but it's also very obvious."

I could have run downstairs and hugged my dad right then. It was true that my dad was home more than my mother and saw a lot of what really went on, but it just so happened that he generally was more lenient and his standards were different. He didn't expect me and Julian to be perfect all the time. He didn't expect it and he didn't want it. Not from us and not from anyone.

"Obvious to someone who's _home_ with the kids all day?" my mother asked. I cringed. I could sense a whole different argument coming on. New argument, old topic. This was no longer about me sneaking out, but about my dad working for home and not exactly having a steady job.

"Joanna, not this again," Dad groaned.

"Chris, it's getting ridiculous! You say you're _working _from home, but you don't work! You don't always book steady shows and hardly anyone knows who you are! You're basically a nobody!"

Dad was quiet for a moment and I knew he felt like he had been slapped. Even I had felt my stomach twist at Mum's words.

"It takes time," he finally said, his voice a whisper.

"How much time?" Mum asked. "It's been fifteen years since we left school and twelve since we were married. How much time do you need?"

"I'm _trying_, Joanna, I really am, but what I do means the world to me. It's all I want to do and all I've ever wanted to do since I was fifteen. I have nothing else to fall back on anyway. I wouldn't be a good fit for some office job at the Ministry or—"

"There's the Department of Magical Games and Sports. It's where Jesse works and it would be perfect for you. You could love that department if you gave it a try. I've told you many times and I've given you multiple other suggestions, but—"

"But what I'm doing now makes me the happiest," Dad argued.

"Well, sometimes we can't always get what makes us happy," Mum snapped. "And if you ask me, I've been unhappy for a while. Do you think I _enjoy _having to work long hours and sacrifice time with my kids? I hate it. I would love to spend more time with Lilah and Julian. Why do you think I tried to spend time with Lilah tonight? But I can't do it and the one time I can, you ruin it!"

"Please, you act like you were making some big sacrifice, but…." Dad let out a puff of air. "It doesn't take much time to get to know your kids, Joanna. You have the time to get to know them, but you just don't utilize it. It's not just the fact that you're regularly scheduled to work long hours, but you choose to work even when you aren't scheduled. Your life revolves around work and our family's perfect image. If it wasn't for that, Lilah and Julian could have made friends in the neighborhood!"

Mum laughed, a high pitched, shrill sound. "And have them slip up because those neighbors are Muggles? I don't think so! And I have to enforce rules like that because it was your genius idea to live in a Muggle neighborhood!"

"I wanted to be close to Jesse. He's my best friend and the closest thing to a brother I've ever had. He was my very first friend and essentially the first form of company I had had in a while. He's been there for me from the beginning."

"And I never was?" Mum asked.

"You know what I meant. You and I never even talked until we were fourteen and didn't date until we were sixteen. It's not that Jesse means more to me than you, but he is very special to me and I wanted him in my life just as much as you and the kids. I thought we were happy," he whispered. "Despite our problems, I thought we were happy. Aren't we?"

Mum was quiet for a moment and when she spoke again, I could hear her voice cracking. "I'm tired, Chris. I'm tired of carrying all the weight around here and still being made out to be the bad guy. I'm tired of _trying_ and _still_ being the bad guy. I'm tired and I'm _not_ happy." There was a pause and I heard my mother take in a breath. When she spoke again, her voice came out in a tearful whisper, but I still managed to hear her loud and clear. "Chris, I want a divorce."

I stood up so rapidly, I'm surprised I didn't lose my balance and fall down the stairs. I couldn't breathe. Mum couldn't mean that. She just couldn't. But deep down, I knew she did. It didn't take much to see that she and dad have been having problems lately. But part of me had hoped that they were normal problems that they would work out somehow. But now I had the truth.

"Joanna…." Dad whispered. "We can work this out. We can figure it out. We can sit down and talk. We never get to do that and maybe that's the problem. Maybe it's a communication issue."

"That's part of it, but it's too late for that, Chris," Mum answered, still tearful. I could picture her shaking her head. "Don't make me say it again, but it is what I want. It's for the best and I think we'll both be happier this way."

"How can you say that? We love each other. And what about the kids?"

"What am I supposed to do? Don't you think I'm thinking of them?" Mum asked, her voice breaking again. "I want them to be happy and have the best life possible, but…how can that happen with us fighting all the time? We can't make sure they're happy if we aren't happy ourselves."

I felt like my heart was breaking in half. My eyes were welling up with tears and I squeezed them shut as I turned around, ready to head back into my room. I had heard enough. But when I finally opened my eyes, I saw Julian standing by his bedroom door. I hadn't even heard him open it.

We stared at each other for a moment before Julian spoke, his voice barely above a terrified whisper. "Mummy and Daddy don't love each other anymore?" he asked.

Oddly, it was the first time I had heard him speak like the eight year old he was in a while, and even though I thought my heart couldn't break any more, I was apparently wrong. Nevertheless, I swallowed back my own tears for my brother's sake and crossed the hallway to him. I wordlessly pulled him to me and let him cry into my arm as I tried not to cry myself.

* * *

I never knew ceiling of my bedroom could be so interesting. I had been staring at it for the past hour, although I guess I hadn't really been seeing it. Julian and I had sat on the floor in the hallway between our rooms listening to our parents' hushed and no longer audible voices for about twenty more minutes. At that point, we had heard them heading for the stairs, presumably to tell us the news, but either way we weren't going to let them see that we had been listening in from the top of the stairs. We had slipped back into our respective bedrooms and closed the doors as we tried to act natural and like we couldn't possibly have heard they're argument, even through the doors.

My parents were in Julian's room now. Maybe it had been coincidental, or maybe they were more nervous about talking to me. They knew I wouldn't take it well. Julian wouldn't either, but he was younger. If it were me, though, I would've hated having to tell Julian for just that reason. He was eight years old and so obviously hurt by this. I was eleven and could deal with it.

Except I wasn't dealing with it. I had locked my door and wasn't planning on talking to my parents when they came in. It saved me the trouble of trying to hide the fact that I was crying and pretend to be shocked when they told me the news. Why even bother? It was stupid. And I was so angry with both of them, but mostly with myself. I was mad at them for deciding to divorce, but it was entirely my fault that they had made that decision in the first place. If I hadn't failed my quiz, I wouldn't have gotten in trouble and been easily tempted to sneak out. Part of me was mad at Dad for convincing me, but another part of me didn't really blame him. I blamed myself for agreeing. If I had only held my own and not gotten so caught up in a tradition that was so stupid in comparison to having a whole, happy family.

Just as I suspected, my parents came to my door a few minutes later and knocked softly.

"Liles?" Dad asked. "Can we come in?"

"No, you can't," I answered bitterly.

"We'd like to speak with you," Mum added. "We're not going to yell at you. We'd just like to talk."

"I know. I know what you're going to say. I overheard your entire argument."

I could actually hear Dad sighing wearily from the other side of the door. "Great," I heard him mutter. Then, a bit louder, "Liles, please, let us talk to you."

"No," I said.

"Let her be, Chris," Mum said with a sigh.

"Funny, I'd expect you to be the one insisting we break the door down and force our way in to talk to her," Dad said.

"Don't start," Mum answered curtly. "Don't."

A few seconds later, I heard their footsteps retreating from the door and I relaxed slightly. They were gone for now, but I couldn't hide in my room forever. I'd have to face them eventually. And I also knew Mum wouldn't let me off the hook without a lecture for my behavior either. I'd be getting that eventually once she'd given me an appropriate amount of time to get accustomed to things. But who knew how long she would deem appropriate. It probably differed than the amount of time I had in mind and that I probably needed.

Suddenly, I felt my throat constricting again and I turned to bury my head in my pillow as I dissolved into a fresh wave of sobs that somehow managed to lull me to sleep.

* * *

The next morning, I woke up to a silent house. Not that this was unusual. Actually, our house was normally pretty quiet. Mum left for work pretty early every day and Dad would usually try to get some work done in the morning before Julian and I were awake.

Once a week, Julian, Dad and I helped to tidy the house a bit and that was the noisiest mornings ever got. Dad could do a lot of the cleaning magically, but Julian and I were assigned a few rooms to dust, vacuum and clean up. It helped us build character Dad would say in a singsong voice as he grinned cheekily and moved about, flourishing his wand dramatically.

Dad, Julian and I would always eat breakfast and lunch together, too, which I loved. We always bonded and dad would surprise us with whatever breakfast he had concocted that day. Bacon and eggs, cereal and waffles were three of his favorites, but only because they were three of the four breakfast foods he could make, not including toast. But every Saturday we had pancakes in all these weird shapes. Hearts, stars, squares, you name it. He liked to say that he did it completely on his own, but I suspected he used magic considering he usually got the shapes pretty accurate. It was another tradition that had been going on for as long as I could remember.

Then, later in the day, Miss Sullivan came over and our time with her was quiet as well since Dad would be working and Julian and I would be doing our schoolwork. A few hours later Mum would come home and Dad would usually try to have something on the table for dinner. It was never anything fancy, but he did his best.

Some Fridays and Saturdays, Dad would leave right after dinner and go perform one of his stand up gigs. It usually ended up being about two or three times a month where he'd be gone. He brought in decent audiences, but he had been aiming to be doing a lot better by this point in his life. It infuriated him and I knew it, but he never showed it. At least not in front of me and Julian. For us, he was always upbeat, always joking and always making us laugh.

Anyway, this particular morning was especially quiet. I woke up thinking—and desperately hoping—that the night before had been a dream, but seconds later everything came back to me.

I got out of bed and slipped out of my room, looking both ways and relaxing when I saw no one. Julian's bedroom door was still closed, letting me know he was still sleeping. Holding my breath, I made my way down the stairs and towards the kitchen, half expecting to smell pancakes being made as usual, but instead everything was silent. I didn't know if that was good or not. I'd have preferred to run into Dad alone as opposed to Mum or both of them together, but the best option would be to run into neither of them. I wanted to postpone talking to them for as long as possible. At this point I wasn't even mad at them. I was totally ashamed of myself and just…sad.

However, when I pushed open the door to the kitchen, I was surprised to see my mother at the kitchen counter, drinking tea and flipping through a magazine. She was dressed pristinely, as usual. It was ridiculous. She still managed to look so put together and calm in the midst of this mess. This whole scene looked so normal, except for the fact that it wasn't. She was never home at this time. She was always working. That's what threw me off. But it still irritated me that she could just sit there drinking tea and looking at magazines as if nothing was wrong. I wanted to turn and leave, but I couldn't. I knew she knew I was there. But I couldn't bring myself to talk or move.

"Lilah, why don't you sit down?" Mum finally asked, closing her magazine and looking up at me. And in those few seconds of movement, I saw the difference in her. Her voice was tired, but it was nothing compared to how tired her face looked. She had makeup on, but I could _still _see circles under her eyes. She actually looked about ten years older than she was.

I stared at her for a few seconds longer before edging my way to the chair two down from her. I turned it slightly to face her, but didn't look at her. Instead, I stared at the magazine she had been looking at. It was a catalog for furniture. I had to fight back a snort. Figures. Just one more thing to add to the fake normalcy of the entire scene.

Mum cleared her throat. "So…you heard everything last night."

"Everything. Every word. Julian too. Merlin, Mum, he's so upset."

"I know. Your father and I talked to him last night."

"How could you do this to us?" I asked, working hard to keep new tears at bay. I couldn't cry in front of my mother. I hadn't in years. Doing so always made me feel ridiculous. Crying in front of someone so put together. Get real.

"Lilah, it's for the best," Mum said. "As I told your father, it wouldn't be good for you and Julian if your father continued to live in an unhappy and failing marriage. The two of us want different things."

"Opposites attract," I muttered.

"Sometimes, but your father and I are _too_ different. I respect that he's doing what he loves, I really do, but I can't do everything alone."

"You don't though! Dad does everything here while you go to work!"

"I know, and I do appreciate it, but he does need a steadier job. He's been stuck in this fantasy for years! He's a grown man, not a child." She paused. "I shouldn't be talking to you this way about him, though. He is your father."

"We're not doing _that_ bad financially, are we?" I asked. "You don't both need to work, do you? Why can't it just be okay if he doesn't?"

"That's not your concern, but it is hard and very stressful trying to make sure everything's working out the way it should. Besides, there's more to it than his work. Like I said, he needs to learn how to take things seriously and not act like a teenager. Last night was a perfect example."

"I agreed to it, though."

"Yes, but he came to you first." She paused again. "We're still going to have to talk about that, too, you know."

I nodded before waiting a beat and speaking agian. "Lots of families are in our situation, though, I bet. I mean, Uncle Jesse is a single parent. He lives totally on one income."

Mum sighed. "Yes, but he has a family of two as opposed to four. And he works at the Ministry. He's very high up in his department and he worked hard to make his way up. It's different and still none of your concern. But things are going to get a lot tighter around here from now on. There won't be as many extras for a while. I may even have to cancel the Christmas party…."

"Hold on," I interrupted, finally meeting her gaze. My brain was whirring. "It's still an option right now with all that's happening?"

"Lilah, your father and I are divorcing. It's hard, but we can't drop everything and mope. Life goes on. But since I'm cutting back in order to pay for this house _entirely_ on my own now as opposed to adding your father's occasional input before….there are going to be some cutbacks. Not that you and your brother ask for much anyway, but…."

"Wait, you're keeping this house?" I asked.

Mum nodded. "Your father certainly can't pay for it on his own. I can at least make it work. Besides, it's in my parents' name, and I don't think they'd take too well to your dad keeping it."

I actually did snort this time. Mum was right. My grandparents would not see the fairness in that. Like I've said, they're kind of stuffy. And they aren't the biggest fans of my dad. They basically think he's a nobody and definitely not good enough for their daughter. I wondered if Mum had told them the news yet. They were probably throwing a party right this minute.

"So, where is Dad?" I asked.

There was a pause. "Upstairs. Packing."

"Packing?" I shrieked, jumping to my feet.

"Yes, he's moving out today."

"How could you kick him out so soon? Where will he go?"

"He's going to Jesse's house until he can get his own place. And I didn't _kick him out_. He offered to leave today. We talked it all over last night. It's settled."

"No, it's not, Mum," I whispered. "Nothing is settled. Nothing is _normal_, so please stop acting like it and trying to move on less than a day after you even decided to get divorced!"

With that, I turned and ran from the room as the tears started falling. I ran straight back upstairs and into my parents' room, where my dad was standing by the bed, packing things into his bags. He spun around when I threw the door open and I flung myself into his arms, sobbing hysterically. He didn't speak. Instead, he just hugged me, one arm around my shoulders and the other hand at the back of my head. I felt him plant a kiss on the top of my head.

"Please don't leave," I managed to choke out. "You can't."

He swallowed. "I have to, Liles. This is how it has to be."

"No, it doesn't," I said as I pulled away and wiped my eyes.

Dad sat down on the bed and reached out to put his hands on my arms. "Lilah, listen to me, it's all going to be fine. We'll still see each other. Your mother and I worked out a plan last night."

"I'm coming with you," I said. "Me and Julian. We'll live with you."

Dad chuckled. "No, Liles, that's not the plan. The plan is that your mother is going to have custody of you two, but once I'm settled into my own place you and Jules will be able to spend every other weekend with me. Saturday afternoon into Sunday night. Sometimes you'll be able to come on Fridays."

"No, that's not enough!" I exclaimed.

Dad smiled sadly. "I agree, but that's the best plan. You and Julian are better off with your mother right now, okay?" He smoothed my hair down and made an attempt to smile wider, but it didn't work. "She can take care of you better than I can."

"No, she can't! She wants me to be so grown up and she wants me to be so put together all the time, just like she is. She doesn't get that I'm eleven and that I don't know what I'm doing and…she only makes circle pancakes!" I was practically panicking now. It was true. My mother did give up having a close relationship with me and Julian in order to work. She was a great mother and I was lucky to have her in the first place, unlike Tess, who didn't have a mother at all, but on the other hand she wasn't as close to us as Dad was. And she was more strict and uptight and way more of a perfectionist.

Dad actually laughed. "When you and Julian start spending your weekends with me, I'll make you your shape pancakes, don't you worry."

"But it won't be every Saturday. All our traditions are falling to pieces, just like our family is and it's all my fault."

"Oh, Lilah, no," Dad whispered, pulling me into another hug. "This isn't your fault. This was just a blow up waiting to happen. You did nothing wrong."

"I failed my quiz and Mum got mad and then I snuck out when I wasn't supposed to!"

"That was my fault. It was a childish idea and I shouldn't have done it. But I just…I disagreed with your mother's decision and I felt that I was your parent too and had a say in what you could do. But I did go about it the wrong way and I'll admit that. But you are not at fault for what's going on with me and your mother. It's our business and this was a long time coming. Don't blame yourself."

I shrugged. It was easy for him to say that, but it was very hard for me to actually do. I couldn't see how I wasn't to blame in some way. Maybe I hadn't been the sole cause of the divorce, but I had been the final straw.

"Were you even going to say goodbye?" I asked.

"Liles, really?" Dad asked, giving me a look. "Of course."

I nodded and wiped my eyes again. "I don't like this arrangement at all."

"Neither do I, but I have to think of what's best for you and Julian and you need to be with your mother who has a steadier, higher paying job at the moment. I wish things were different, but they aren't. I wish I wasn't struggling so much, but then who knows? Even if I had all the money in the world, the divorce might have happened anyway. But we'll see each other soon and we can write!"

"Mum won't buy us an owl," I said. "Too weird for the Muggle neighborhood."

"But Uncle Jesse has an owl. We'll be careful about it. Sneaky so the Muggles don't see. Your Mum doesn't have to worry. Besides, she can't keep you from writing to me. I am your dad after all. If we have to, we'll use Muggle mail."

"Can I come see you at Uncle Jesse's?" I asked.

Dad hesitated before shaking his head. "I'm going to be doing my best to be getting more jobs and finding my own place. I'm going to be busy and so will you. You need to focus on your life here. And I'll tell you what. Every Sunday, I'll come by and take you and Julian out for a few hours, okay? Then, once I have my own place, you'll spend every other weekend with me. When you aren't in school, that is. It'll be okay, Liles, I promise."

"I'm not sure I believe you right now," I said quietly.

"I appreciate the honesty," Dad said, giving me a tiny smile. Then he scrunched his face up into a hilarious imitation of Grandma Eleanor—my Mum's mother—and proceeded to imitate her voice almost spot on (it was uncanny and a bit scary). "Now, Lilah, dear, make sure you are on your best behavior while I'm gone. Be a good girl, eat all your vegetables, get plenty of fresh air, sit up straight, don't fidget and don't have any fun whatsoever. Keep that up and the next time I see you, I won't be able to tell you apart from the oak tree in the backyard."

I let out a watery laugh and smiled slightly as I threw my arms around my dad again. "I love you," I whispered.

"I love you, too, Liles," he answered. "Hang in there. I know it's hard, but keep your head up and keep laughing. It's the best medicine, don't forget that." He smiled and tickled my side, getting me to laugh for real.

Ten minutes later, after Dad had woken Julian up and said his goodbyes, the three of us stood at the front door. Julian and I in the doorway and Dad out on the porch in front of us, his bags at his feet. Mum stood a few feet behind us on the bottom step of that beautiful staircase. Uncle Jesse, who was a very versatile and ambitious person and had gotten his Muggle driver's license years ago just because, was waiting in the driveway in his car.

"See you soon?" I asked, giving Dad a small smile. Julian hadn't said a word since Dad had gone into his room to say goodbye earlier. Even now, he was standing silently and solemnly at my side.

Dad nodded. "Next Sunday at noon. We'll go to the park or something, okay?"

I agreed as Julian and I gave Dad one last hug. When he pulled away, he looked back at Mum and met her eyes. "Bye, Joanna," he whispered, bending down to get his bags without breaking eye contact.

"Bye, Chris," she said, her face neutral. How she wasn't bawling right now was beyond me. I was on the verge of it again as it was. "Good luck…with everything. I really do wish you the best."

Dad gave her a curt nod. "You too." He flashed me and Julian a smile before turning and walking to Uncle Jesse's car. He got in on the passenger side and shut the door. I saw Uncle Jesse give him a reassuring smile and clap him on the shoulder before putting the car in reverse and backing out of the driveway. As they drove past the house and down the street, I met my dad's eyes through the car window. He lifted a hand and waved and Julian and I did the same. Not even a minute later, the car was going around the corner and it was gone.


	4. Chapter 4

It was nearly midnight and even though Mum had insisted I go to bed two hours ago, I hadn't fallen asleep. I was actually wide awake with no idea how to accurately decipher anything I was feeling.

Nearly a year had passed since my parents had decided to get divorced. Ten months to the day, actually. And tomorrow I was leaving for Hogwarts.

I had thought things might get easier after the initial shock and hurt of my parents' failed relationship had worn off. But that's not how I would put it now. It wasn't that things had necessarily gotten easier, but I had learned how to better deal with them.

Dad had managed to find his own place about a month after he had left our house. It wasn't anything special, but it put a roof over his head and it meant that he had stable enough living conditions to have Julian and I come stay there every other weekend, just like he had told me would happen. And he seemed to be working harder than ever to work on his acts and expand the locations he would travel to. He was more open to taking jobs on weekdays as opposed to just the weekends and he seemed to be working a lot more, actually. He never said it directly, but I figured it was because before the divorce, he wanted to be around me and Julian more, knowing how much Mum worked. How could he leave us alone to fend for ourselves while he went to work multiple nights a week to all these places? But the Saturday nights when Julian and I stayed over were always just for us. And sometimes, if Dad didn't have anything booked on Friday nights, we'd go over a day early, which was great.

At first, it was hard because we'd be on Mum's schedule all the time and we relied on her to bring us to Dad's seeing as we couldn't Apparate and Dad hadn't hooked his fireplace up to the Floo network yet. So, Mum would Apparate us there. But even with the quick transportation, her timing would always be off. The first time she brought us over, she took us an hour late and picked us up an hour early the next day. When Dad brought it up to her, she sighed and rubbed her forehead saying that she was very busy and had things to do.

I knew things were hard for her as well now. I lived with her. I saw it firsthand. Sure, she was already pretty secure in her job at the time of the divorce and sure she didn't have to find a new place to live, but as she had told me the day Dad moved out, there were going to have to be a few cutbacks until she could adjust to three of us on one income. Not that it took all that much time. She worked harder and longer than ever. Lots of times, Julian and I were home alone all day, except for when Miss Sullivan came over. I don't know why she thought it was a good idea to leave two children our age home alone, but she did. Maybe it was because she knew we were pretty responsible for our ages. We could handle it. The two of us were left to do the cleaning and light cooking ourselves because Mum would simply be exhausted when she came home. Since Julian and I hadn't been able to cook all that much at first, we made simple easy things or ordered food from Muggle places that actually brought food to your house. It was fascinating, really, and I was glad Uncle Jesse had told us about those places.

As time went on, though, I became sick of eating the same stuff over and over, so I dug out my mother's cookbooks, dusty from lack of use, and attempted some of the easier recipes I found. Cooking, I discovered, wasn't all that hard as long as I could read. And also as long as I didn't have to double or halve the recipe because that involved adding and dividing fractions and I'd probably blow the house to smithereens.

Because of Mum's long work hours and extra effort, she ended up getting a promotion a couple of months later. Which was wonderful and I was very happy for her, but it also meant that her work load and hours weren't going to change much. If anything, they'd only get worse.

It did mean, however, that we were more financially stable than we had been at the beginning of the divorce. We didn't have to cut back as much anymore, which was a lot less stressful for Mum. And for all of us really.

It was because of Mum's work schedule that I was so worried about going to Hogwarts as opposed to being excited. I was worried about Julian. He still had another two years before he'd be off to school as well, which meant another two years of practically being on his own. I knew Mum had pretty much decided to leave him with her parents for the day while she was at work so he wouldn't technically be home alone, but either way, he'd be lonely. Grandma and Grandpa wouldn't give him the time of day. Either that or they'd try to lecture him on every little thing he was doing _improperly_. They'd completely forget he's a nine year old boy and expect him to act like a grown up. A _perfect_ grown up, which is something that doesn't exist.

On the other hand, I was naturally very excited to start Hogwarts. It's something I've dreamed about since I was little. Every witch and wizard does, for that matter. And now I was finally going. But I just wanted to know that everything would be okay at home without me.

Just then, there was a knock on the door and I looked up, startled out of my thoughts.

"Liles, are you awake?" The door opened a sliver and though I couldn't make out any of Julian's features, I could see him silhouetted against the hallway light that he had presumably just turned on.

"Yeah," I said, sitting up and pulling my knees to my chest. "What's up?"

Julian slipped into the room and shut the door before coming to sit on my bed. Moonlight shone through the window and spilled across his face, making his light brown hair look silvery and lighting up his green eyes that looked a little worried.

"Are you nervous?" he asked.

I nodded as my brother averted his gaze to my trunk, lying filled with my things at the end of my bed. "Jules, what's wrong?" I asked.

"I'm just going to miss you is all," he responded, his voice surprisingly even and calm. "It really is going to be just me, by myself at Grandma and Grandpa's. We both know they'll be around less than Mum is and they're both retired."

"I know, Jules, and I'm so sorry," I said, a pang of guilt hitting me as I reached out and put a hand over his. "I wish I didn't have to go for that reason."

"No, Lilah, I want you to be excited. Don't worry about me. You can't take care of me forever."

"But you're nine," I responded. "You're just a kid."

"And you're almost twelve! Just a kid yourself. Liles, you've always helped take care of me, even more so in the past year. I can survive an entire two school years on my own. I don't like it, but I can do it."

I smiled. "You're very brave," I said. "I'll bet you anything you'll be sorted into Gryffindor within two seconds."

"So will you," he answered.

I smiled. "I hope so," I replied, nudging his shoulder. There was a pause. "Come here, Jules," I whispered, pulling him into a hug. We sat like that for a little while longer until he disappeared back into his room and I tried once again to get some sleep.

* * *

"Well, there it is," Mum said with a sigh as she, Julian and I stared at the brick barrier between platforms nine and ten. She glanced at me. "You remember how I instructed you to go through, don't you?"

"I do," I replied, taking a deep breath and exhaling as I adjusted my owl cage resting on top of my trunk. The cage consisted of a beautiful pale grey owl with white markings here and there. According to Mum, it was an early birthday gift and it was probably my favorite gift from her ever. My very own owl. I had named him Casper and had used him almost at once to send a letter to my Dad, telling him the news. But as it turned out, he already knew. Mum had warned him not to get me a pet when he took me to get my school supplies. It was actually one of the few times she had spoken to him in the past year.

"Well, your father should be here any minute," Mum said impatiently, "and he'll be able to see you off the rest of the way. Where is he, anyway?" She checked her watch. "I have to be at work in fifteen minutes. I already took a few hours off so that I could get you to the station, but I really can't postpone going in any longer. I have many important meetings today."

"Great," I muttered, searching the station for my Dad. I was just as impatient for him to get here, but not for the same reasons my mother was. Obviously. Mostly, I was just excited that he was coming today in the first place, but I also didn't want to hear my mother complain anymore.

"There he is!" Julian finally called, pointing. I turned just in time to see my dad hurrying towards us. Julian started running towards him, despite my mother's orders for him to stop, and threw his arms around Dad when he reached him.

"Julian, you really shouldn't have run off like that," Mum scolded as Julian and Dad made their way back to us. "The station is crowded. You could easily get lost."

"But I saw Dad," Julian said as if Mum was being slow on the uptake. "I was running to him."

"Watch your tone, Julian," Mum said, pursing her lips as Dad threw one arm around my shoulders and kissed my head. When he noticed Julian's scowl, he reached out with his free hand and gently ruffled his hair before attempting to tickle his neck, effectively causing Julian to laugh.

"Chris, honestly," Mum sighed. "Must you always goof off?"

Dad raised his eyebrows. "I didn't know making my children laugh was goofing off."

Mum let out a tired sigh. "I don't have time for this right now," she said. "I have to get to work and you're late."

"Not even by five minutes," Dad protested.

"I have to go," Mum said. She gave Julian and I swift kisses goodbye before she started backing away from us. "Have fun, Lilah. Make sure you do all your homework and study hard. And make sure you _behave_. I'll see you at Christmas. I'll need a pair of extra hands to prepare for the Christmas party." With that, she blew me a kiss, turned around and hurried away.

I sighed. "I can't believe her."

"She's working hard to make sure she can provide for you two," Dad pointed out.

I bit my lip. I knew that, but because of that I had even less of a relationship with her now than I had before the divorce. "Even still, all she cares about is me behaving like a perfect angel and getting good grades and all that. I couldn't even tell her that I'm still nervous about going and that I worry about Jules being lonely. She'd laugh at me."

"I already told you, Liles, you don't have to worry about me. I'm going to be fine." Julian gave me an earnest look as he crossed his arms defiantly. "I'll survive Grandma and Grandpa's and I'll still be seeing Dad every other weekend. It'll be fine."

"It's nice of you to worry about your brother," Dad said, "but he will be okay. Seeing me every other weekend will luckily make sure he doesn't end up bored to death at your grandparents' house."

I smiled and took a deep breath. "Should we get going, then?" I gestured to the barrier.

Dad nodded. "Together?"

"Together," I nodded, slipping my hand into my dad's as he grabbed Julian's hand with his free one. He counted to three and we ran at the wall. At the last second, I squeezed my eyes shut as part of me worried that somehow the wall wouldn't work right. But it worked fine. I didn't feel a thing and when I opened my eyes, I couldn't help but smile and let out a laugh of excitement. The bright red Hogwarts Express stood in front of me, billowing steam and looking ready to get going. "It's beautiful," I whispered.

"Isn't it?" Dad asked. He looked at Julian. "What do you think, Jules?"

"Can I just get on it now?" Julian asked, his eyes wide.

Dad and I laughed. "Unfortunately, no, but your time will come soon enough." There was a moment of silence as he looked around the platform. "Hey, there's Jesse and Tess."

I tore my gaze away from the train to see my best friend and Uncle Jesse standing near the middle of the train, talking to each other. "Let's go say hi," I suggested, my excitement growing at the sight of familiar faces.

Tess squealed with excitement when she saw us and ran over to throw her arms around me. She then hugged Dad and Julian and even stuck her finger into Casper's cage and began cooing at him. "He's beautiful," she said.

"So is Ruby," I said, gesturing to the carrier case containing Ruby, Tess's calico cat.

Tess smiled and peered into the cage to look at her cat. "She is pretty cute, isn't she?"

I nodded and grinned back. It was obvious that Tess was radiating nothing but excitement. It was typical of her. As I've said, she was always the one looking on the bright side, and always the one to be so positive. She was also the one who was always smiling and showing her excitement. There was usually no room for nervousness with her, although I'm sure she felt it. It was just only on occasions where it was extremely necessary.

Just then, the train's whistle blew, signaling we only had a limited amount of time before it would be departing. Dad and Uncle Jesse helped us load our trunks onto the train and then it was time to say goodbye for real. The nerves were coming back again full force as I turned and hugged my Dad.

"You'll do amazing, Liles," he said, as if he were reading my mind. "You'll have Tess and I'm sure you'll make plenty of new friends. Your mother was right when she said you have to do your homework and study, but make sure you have fun, too. Seven years may seem like a long time, but it'll be over before you know it. Besides, you're only a first year once." He paused. "Unless you fail miserably, of course."

"Dad," I groaned, pulling out of the hug.

"You won't fail," he laughed. "Even I didn't fail. You'll do great. I promise."

I nodded and turned to Julian, hugging him tightly. "I'll miss you," I whispered.

"I'll miss you more," he whispered back. "But honestly, don't worry about me so much that you don't have any fun."

I let out a quiet laugh. "I'll throw wild parties in the common room every night," I told him. "Sound good to you?"

He laughed. "Sounds perfect."

I kissed his cheek and whispered that I'd see him at Christmas before breaking out of the hug and turning to Uncle Jesse to give him a hug goodbye as well. Then, I turned to face the train, where Tess was already waiting, hanging out of a window.

"Liles, hold on just one more minute," Dad said. "I have something for you," he added, when I turned around. "Uncle Jesse gave one to Tess too, and we thought it would only be fitting for you to have matching ones…." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box before handing it to me. "Go on, open it."

I gazed down at the box before gently pulling open the top. My mouth dropped open in surprise. Inside the box was a silver bracelet with a single charm dangling from it. I pulled it out of the box and held it up to my face as I examined the circular charm with an opal in the middle—my birthstone. "Dad, it's beautiful," I whispered.

"Tess has the same one, except with an amethyst for February," Dad responded. He paused. "Do you like it?"

"I love it!" I threw my arms around him before pulling away and slipping the bracelet on. I stared at it happily before my smile faded. "Do you…can you afford to buy gifts like this?"

Dad snorted. "Liles, can you stop worrying about stuff like that? You're only eleven years old. You're too young to be worrying about that just yet. Besides, it's my business. And it's fine. I've been working a lot more these days. I think my career's really taking off now."

"Because you don't have to take care of me and Julian anymore?" I whispered.

Dad stared at me in shock. "No, Liles, don't think of it like that. Sure, living on my own has given me more time to work, but…" he sighed. "If I could have you and Julian with me full time, it would mean so much more. I loved taking care of you two. Don't ever think for a second this situation really makes me happier. I'm glad I've been working more, but I'd be even happier if I got to see you two more often. Trust me."

"But that's why you were limiting yourself before the divorce, right? That's what you were doing, weren't you? However subconsciously it was, that's what happened. Because of me and Julian, you limited yourself and it led to a divorce."

"Liles, will you _stop_ finding ways to blame yourself for what happened?" Dad asked forcefully. It was one of the rare times I ever saw him like that. "What happened is _not _your fault."

"Fine," I muttered, turning away.

"Lilah, it's not fine. I—"

Just then, the train's whistle blew a second time and Tess started to hurriedly gesture for me to get on board. Dad let out a puff of air. "Terrible timing," he muttered.

"I have to go," I said, turning away.

"I don't want you to leave on a bad note," Dad said worriedly.

"We aren't," I assured him as I climbed on the train, which was now starting to move. I stuck my head out of the window beside Tess. "I love you. Thanks for the bracelet. I really do love it."

Dad nodded as he, Julian, and Uncle Jesse started to wave goodbye. "Have a good time," he called, "and we'll see you at Christmas."

"Bye," I called back, raising my own hand in a wave. I kept my head out the window until I could no longer see any of them. That's when I finally pulled my head back in and sighed as I grabbed my trunk. "Should we find a compartment?" I asked Tess.

She nodded. "I don't really fancy standing here the whole ride," she said with a smile.

I agreed and began leading the way down the train. Since we had most likely been the last two to begin searching for a compartment, there was no surprise that every single one we looked in was full.

"What should we do?" I asked, pausing in front of the last two compartments. "They're all full, so should we just join one of the emptier ones?"

"I think that's really our only option, yes," Tess said, nodding her head and smiling. Her blonde curls bounced with the movement. I never knew hair could look excited, but leave it to Tess to have that kind of hair.

"Well, which one do you suggest, then?" I asked.

Tess shrugged and turned in a slow circle as if our lives depended on her choice. Luckily, we didn't even have to wait for her to pick one. The compartment door to my left slid open just then and we turned at the sudden sound and movement. A boy who looked about our age was standing there, grinning at us.

"Hi," he said casually. "Looking for a compartment?"

I nodded. "We are, actually."

"Well, we have room in here, if you'd like to sit with us. There's only room for two to fit comfortably, so it's a really good offer. If you don't take it, you'll be sorry."

"Oh, will we?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

The boy nodded and I gave him a once over. He was a little taller than me with bright red hair that looked perfectly messy, if that even makes sense. He was also covered in freckles and had the brightest blue eyes I had ever seen in my life.

I glanced at Tess. "What do you think?"

Tess smiled. "I think we should take it. He seems very friendly."

I snorted. She was right; the boy was friendly. And he _had_ offered, so why not? I turned back to the redheaded boy. "Okay," I told him. "We'll sit with you."

"Excellent," he said, grinning even more widely. He held out his hand to me. "Fred Weasley, by the way."

"Lilah Fitzgerald." I answered, taking his hand and shaking it before gesturing to Tess. "This is my best friend, Tess Clarkson."

"Pleasure to meet you," Fred said, shaking Tess' hand as well.

"Hey, Fred, stop being such a charmer and introduce your new friends to the rest of us," another voice said from inside the compartment.

Fred smiled and gestured for us to follow him with a tilt of his head. "Come on," he said, leading us inside. There were three more people sitting there. A boy with dreadlocks was sitting by the window on the bench to my left and a girl with long dark hair was sitting across from him. Next to the girl was a boy that looked identical to Fred. I blinked in surprise and glanced between him and Fred. "You have a twin?"

Fred nodded. "This is George," he said, pointing to his twin. Then he nodded to the boy with dreadlocks. "That's Lee, and across from him is Angelina." The girl with the dark hair waved and smiled. "We just met them on the platform," Fred continued before turning to address the others. "Everyone, this is Lilah and Tess," he said, sitting in the empty spot next to George. I waved shyly at everyone before beginning to put my trunk on one of the overhead racks.

"Merlin, Fred," George piped up from behind me, "why don't you help her out? Where are your manners?"

"Where are yours?" Fred asked with a snort.

They both snickered before George appeared at my elbow. "Let me help you with that."

"You aren't much taller than I am," I said with a smile and another raised eyebrow.

"I will be," George answered with a grin as he stepped up on the seat to gain enough height to put my trunk on the rack. He gestured for Tess's trunk next and I helped her pass it to him.

"You sound sure of that," I said as I caught my breath after lifting the heavy trunk.

"I am," George responded, grunting slightly as he finished putting the trunks away and jumped down from the seat. He gestured for Tess and I to sit down, which we did, before he took his own seat across from us and between Fred and Angelina. "If the way my brothers shot up like weeds over the years is any indication, I'll be towering over all of you before you know it."

"How many brothers do you have?" I asked curiously.

"Five, including Fred," George answered casually as if everyone had so many siblings.

"Five?" Tess asked in surprise. I knew she would find that even more surprising than I did. I had one sibling already, but having five more sounded like a lot to me. Sure, there were positive aspects, I was willing to bet, but having a big family was something I had never been used to. And Tess definitely wasn't used to it. It had been just her and Uncle Jesse since she was two years old.

It was Fred who nodded and spoke this time. "And we also have a little sister."

"So there's seven of you total?" I asked, my eyes wide.

Fred nodded. "Yeah, it's great, actually. Bill already left school, and Ron and Ginny haven't started, so it's just us, Charlie and Percy here right now. Charlie's a sixth year, Percy's a third year, and George and I are first years. Ron's nine and Ginny's eight. But what about the rest of you? Any siblings?"

"None," Angelina said. "It's just me."

"Same," Lee added.

Tess nodded. "Me, too."

"I have a brother," I said. "He's nine, just like your brother." I gestured to the twins. "His name is Julian." I smiled as my brother's face popped into my mind. I missed him already and I'd been gone less than half an hour. I was also glad the twins had a brother that was the same age. Maybe he and Julian could be friends. That would be perfect. We could make sure my brother had a friend before he even started school. Surely that would diminish some of his nerves once it got closer to the time he would start school.

"Nice," Fred said. "Finally someone else with a sibling, even if it is just one."

"I've always wished I could've had a brother or a sister," Angelina sighed. "I can only imagine what it must have been like to grow up with six siblings." She glanced at the twins. "Your house must get so chaotic."

Fred laughed. "That's an understatement."

Another half an hour passed before a witch pushing a food trolley came to the compartment. At Fred's suggestion, everyone bought a small variety of candy and then we all pooled it together to share. It was going to be a long ride and at least now we'd have a mini-feast to pass the time before we'd arrive at school and have a real feast. I couldn't wait for that. I had heard it was fantastic.

I was amazed at how much my nerves and worries seemed to fade away during the course of that ride to Hogwarts. Fred, George, Lee and Angelina were so easy to talk to, and the twins were so upbeat it was contagious. And they were completely hilarious to boot. They couldn't seem to go five minutes without attempting to make someone laugh. They reminded me of Dad in that sense and it was actually kind of comforting. I appreciated it even if they were only doing it because it was who they were.

We spent the ride talking about what houses we hoped to be in and what the Sorting would be like. The twins said that their older brothers, Bill and Charlie, had told them we had to fight a troll, but I thought that sounded highly unlikely. If it were true, however, I might as well stay on the train and never get off because there was no way I could conquer a troll on my own.

Before I knew it, we had changed into our robes and the train was beginning to slow down. We were instructed to leave our trunks on the train for them to be brought to our dorms later. After that, we flooded off of the train onto another platform. The train hissed and puffed out steam behind us.

I grabbed Tess's hand so we wouldn't be separated in the crowd and kept my eyes on Fred and George's flaming red hair as they squeezed through the crowd. How they knew where they were going, I wasn't sure, but I pulled Tess after them anyway. After all, the twins did have three older brothers. Chances were they had been told where to go once we got off the train.

But suddenly, I saw where we were headed. There was a man standing just head holding a lantern. He was so tall that I was amazed that I hadn't seen him before. He was also shouting for first years to meet up in front of him.

"Who is that?" I asked one of the twins—Fred I think—as I leaned forward to whisper in his ear.

"Hagrid," Fred answered. "He's the gamekeeper."

"Who told you that?"

"Bill," he answered, throwing a smirk and a wink over his shoulder. "It pays to have older siblings sometimes. They can tell you all of the secrets."

I giggled as Fred turned around again to face forward as we approached Hagrid. Once all the first years had assembled in front of him, he instructed us to follow him towards the lake, where a fleet of small boats were waiting. There were four to a boat, and Tess and I found ourselves sharing one with the twins. Angelina and Lee were joined in their boat by two other girls I had vaguely remembered seeing in one of the train compartments when we had first boarded. Once everyone was settled, including Hagrid, who took up one entire boat on his own, the boats started moving by themselves, something that didn't shock me, but was exciting nonetheless. And then, after only a few moments, the boats rounded the corner and I got my first view of Hogwarts.


	5. Chapter 5

Hogwarts was beautiful, inside and out, I quickly realized. Of course, I hadn't seen much of the inside yet, but I could already tell.

When we had first seen the school from the boats, my mouth had dropped open. It was beautiful and everything I had imagined it would be, with its numerous tall towers and lights glowing from the windows. The lights reflected in the lake, making even the water look like it was glowing. I couldn't believe this would be the place where I'd be going to school for the next seven years.

Once the boats had reached the shore, Hagrid ushered us out and up a path to the front doors, where he had pounded on them with an abnormally large fist.

"He can't be a regular person, can he?" I whispered to Fred as we waited in the silence that followed Hagrid's knock. "I mean, he has to have at least some giant in him. He's probably twice my dad's height…." I trailed off and shook my head.

Fred nodded. "I think you're right. How much giant he has in him, I'm not sure, but it has to at least be a little, like you said. I don't think I've ever seen a man that tall."

Just then, the oak doors swung open revealing a tall, thin woman wearing emerald green robes and a pointed black hat. She had her hair pulled into a tight bun and she looked very stern.

"I have the firs' years, Professor McGonagall," Hagrid said with a smile.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I can take them from here," the Professor McGonagall woman said, staring around at all of us first years standing before her.

Hagrid gave us all a reassuring smile before turning and walking away. I tore my gaze from his retreating back to look at Professor McGonagall, who was still looking at us almost expressionless. I couldn't figure out if she looked mean or just stern.

"Follow me," she said, turning and disappearing through the front doors. We followed her and got our first glimpse of the inside of Hogwarts: the entrance hall.

It was a tall, spacious room with huge marble staircase straight ahead, a big set of doors to our right, and about five or six other smaller doors scattered around other places of the room.

"If you'll wait right here for a few moments, I'll make sure we're ready for you," Professor McGonagall said. She flashed us a quick half smile—it looked more like a mouth twitch—and disappeared through the big set of doors on the right.

"So, what do you think the sorting is like?" I asked the twins as the rest of the first years began whispering to each other.

"We told you," George said, "we have to fight a troll."

"I think you two believe that just as much as we do," Tess said, rolling her eyes slightly, "which is not at all."

"Ah, well, there has to be other people who will believe us," Fred said, looking around. "What about that one over there?" He pointed to a small looking boy who I'm pretty sure was visibly shaking was fear.

"You'll do no such thing!" Angelina exclaimed, horrified. "He's terrified as it is. You'll only scare him more."

"Exactly," Fred said with a grin.

"Don't you think that's a little mean?" I asked.

Fred shook his head dismissively. "Nah, it'll be fine. In a few minutes, he'll figure out I made it up and everything will be okay. It's everyone else's fault for keeping the sorting such a surprise anyway. Honestly, it's like everyone's parents and older siblings were trained to not breathe a word about the Sorting and let us see for ourselves."

Before Fred could manage to make his way over to the terrified looking boy, Professor McGonagall came back into the entrance hall. She gave us a little speech about each of the four houses and how we'd most likely end up in the one that was like our family—all information most of us already knew—and then she instructed us to get into a line before she led us into the great hall.

I gasped slightly as I entered the room. It was huge. There were four tables, two on each side of me, and a table at the front where all the teachers sat in front of a row of windows. Candles hovered above every table, seemingly suspended in mid-air. But the best part was by far the ceiling. Dad had told me about it, but it was even better in person. It was charmed to reflect the sky outside. Right now, it was inky black and filled with bright, twinkling stars.

I was so busy being in awe of the room that I didn't fully register how full the room was—all the older kids and all the teachers were obviously already there—until we were almost at the front of the room. I considered that a good thing because once I realized all eyes were on us, I felt my cheeks turn a bright red and I lowered my eyes to the ground as I suddenly felt shy and nervous.

Once we had come to a stop, I looked up to see Professor McGonagall standing beside a single wooden stool containing a tattered, beat up old hat. She began unrolling a list of parchment in her hands as we finally had the sorting process explained to us. As it turned out, we only had to try on the hat and it would tell us which house we'd be in. So much easier than a troll. And such a relief. But unfortunately, it took place in front of the whole school. And once I was on that stool, I'd be singled out and everyone would be staring at me for sure. At least nobody could do that while I was standing in the middle of all the other first years.

Professor McGonagall began reading names off the list in alphabetical order of last name, so I still had a ways to go until my name was called. Even so, I felt myself holding my breath as the first person was called to the stool. It was a girl with long, curly brown hair. I saw her hands shaking as she lowered herself onto the stool. Professor McGonagall placed the hat on her head and it seemed like everyone in the room had stopped breathing for sure at this point. After about thirty seconds had passed, a rip near the brim of the hat opened wide and the hat shouted out, "Ravenclaw!"

The table on my far right erupted into wild cheers and claps as the girl hopped off the stool, grinning widely, and made her way to an empty spot on one of the benches, where everyone around her congratulated her and patted her on the shoulders and back.

After that, I began to relax some. It did seem very easy and generally didn't take very long. Sometimes the hat took longer to decide for some students, but the longest seemed to be about a minute and a half. I hoped that wouldn't end up being me. Even such a short time would feel like an eternity when I was waiting for such an important decision to be made.

"I hope you're in Gryffindor with me," Fred said, glancing at me as a boy with sandy hair was sorted into Hufflepuff. Fred had already told me on the train that he fully expected him and George to end up in Gryffindor. Their entire family had been in Gryffindor and he really had no reason to believe he wouldn't be as well. I was trickier. As I had told everyone on the train, my mother was a Ravenclaw and my dad a Gryffindor. My mother's parents were both Ravenclaw's and my dad's parents were a Gryffindor and a Hufflepuff. So I really had no idea where I could end up. It could be anywhere, but looking at the majority, Ravenclaw seemed to be a good bet. But I still couldn't know for sure.

"I hope so too," I told Fred. And I honestly did want to be in the same house as him and George. I hadn't really had much of a preference until now. But I had already made a group of three friends besides Tess before I had even gotten to school and I liked the twins a lot. I'd have loved to be in Gryffindor with them and able to spend as much time with them as I wanted. There was something about them that made me _want_ to be around them all the time. Lee and Angelina had predicted they'd be in Gryffindor, too, which was another reason I'd want to be in that house, but Tess would probably end up in Hufflepuff, which made me want to be put there instead. But another part of me knew I could've been put into either of the two, or even Ravenclaw, and I'd be happy.

Soon, Professor McGonagall was calling Tess's name. Lucky girl. She was going before me and could get the whole thing over with.

"Go," I whispered, nudging Tess and smiling as she let out a squeak and made her way forward. It was one of those rare cases when she was actually nervous. But believe it or not, she actually wasn't fully showing just how nervous she was. I swear, she was so gifted in that department.

I watched as my best friend sat down on the stool and had the hat placed over her bouncy curls. Actually, the hat slid down to practically cover her eyes. If I wasn't so nervous, I would have giggled.

Tess wasn't sitting there for all that long before the hat's brim opened up. I braced myself, waiting to hear the verdict.

"Hufflepuff!"

I let out the breath I had been holding. I had expected Tess to be in Hufflepuff. Both of her parents had been after all. And the house was totally fitting for her, from what I had heard at least.

I watched as the Hufflepuff table cheered and Tess ran off to join them, beaming from head to toe and any traces of nerves gone. I smiled. I was truly happy for her and knew she would do well in Hufflepuff. And even if I ended up in another house, I knew the two of us would still manage to see each other. We had promised each other we would, no matter what happened.

Before I knew it, Professor McGonagall was on the letter 'F' and then she was calling my name. "Lilah Fitzgerald," she said, her eyes scanning the crowd in front of her.

I took a deep breath and didn't let it out until a few seconds later when Fred nudged me forward and whispered, "Good luck," into my ear.

I made my way forward, feeling as if my legs were made of jelly. The stool all of a sudden seemed so far away, but yet the time it took me to walk up to it passed quickly. I glanced at Professor McGonagall, who gave me another of her quick smiles before I turned to face the rest of the hall and plopped myself onto the stool. I gripped the sides of the rough wooden seat as I felt the tattered hat being placed on my head. There were a few seconds of silence until a voice spoke in my ear. I gasped quietly. The hat was _talking_ to me.

"Hmm, a difficult decision," it said. "You've had family in quite a few of the Hogwarts houses."

_I know_, I couldn't stop myself from thinking. I didn't know if the hat expected an answer, but I definitely wasn't going to open my mouth. I'd look like an idiot.

"But where to put you?" the hat asked. "Hmm, I think there's one house that's just slightly better suited for you than the others…Gryffindor!"

I sighed with utter relief and barely noticed Professor McGonagall pulling the hat off of my head. I barely noticed her smiling for real this time. I barely even noticed the cheers coming from the Gryffindor table. All I could think of was that I had officially been sorted into my very own Hogwarts house and it hadn't been hard or even all that frightening. The wait had been way more difficult than the actual sorting.

I reached the Gryffindor table, where the older kids sitting there immediately started congratulating me. I smiled and blushed as I took a seat and turned to pay attention to the rest of the sorting. At least I could watch the rest of it and enjoy it. I felt bad for the twins. They'd have to stand there waiting for almost the whole ceremony.

Soon, Professor McGonagall had reached the J's and Angelina and Lee were sorted within a few people of each other. They were both put into Gryffindor and I grinned and clapped wildly each time. At least it looked like I'd have two friends in my house already, even if by some chance the twins were sorted somewhere else.

By the time Professor McGonagall had reached the W's, I was more anxious than ever. Besides, I was getting hungry. I wanted to start the feast and more importantly, I wanted to know where Fred and George were going to be sorted. I wondered if it were possible for them to be put into different houses. It probably was, but even after only knowing them for a few hours, I could tell two things. One, they were confident that it wouldn't happen, and two, that if it did, they wouldn't be too happy about it.

"Fred Weasley," Professor McGonagall called finally. I saw Fred gulp, but then shoot a grin at his twin before making his way confidently up to the stool. The hat was placed on his head and everyone sat in silence as we waited for the deliberation. I saw Fred smirk after a few seconds and I wondered what the hat was saying to him. I didn't really have time to think about it much, though, because the hat opened its brim and shouted out the final decision.

"Gryffindor!"

I clapped the hardest I had since Lee and Angelina had been sorted as Fred jumped off the stool, practically flinging the hat back at Professor McGonagall as he went, and ran towards me. Even though I barely knew him, I found myself throwing my arms around him in a congratulatory hug.

"Congratulations!" I exclaimed. "You made Gryffindor, just like you wanted to."

"I knew I would," Fred said nonchalantly, but he was beaming nonetheless.

Angelina hugged Fred too and Lee clapped him on the back as we all sat back down again. George's name was called then, and he made his way up to the stool, looking slightly queasier than Fred had, but not by much.

"Nervous?" I asked Fred, jerking my chin towards George.

"Nah, he'll be fine." Fred said, shaking his head and shrugging.

"What if the hat says, oh, I don't know, Ravenclaw?"

Fred snorted. "George? In Ravenclaw? I mean, he's smart and all, but even Percy wasn't sorted into Ravenclaw." He jerked his thumb towards a boy sitting across the table from us and a few seats down. He had red hair and freckles, just like the twins. The only differences were that his hair was curly, he wore horn-rimmed glasses and had brown eyes instead of blue.

"Gryffindor!" the hat suddenly cried and our table erupted into cheers again. Fred was probably the loudest. He stood up and gave his twin a giant hug when George reached him.

"Congratulations, George," I said, standing up and giving a hug too.

"Thanks, Lilah," he said, taking a seat on Fred's other side. We waited for the last few first years to be sorted before turning and looking at our plates, anxiously anticipating dinner. My stomach growled noisily. I was sure the whole hall had heard it.

Just then, the boy with the horn-rimmed glasses got up and made our way over to us. Fred had called him Percy, and he looked a lot like the twins, so it was a safe bet that this was one of Fred and George's brothers.

"I just wanted to congratulate you two," he said. "Mum and Dad will be pleased as well." He grinned and pushed his glasses further up his nose.

"Thanks, Perce," Fred said with a smile. He pointed to Angelina and Lee, who were on George's other side. "That's Angelina and Lee." He turned to me. "And this is Lilah. George and I have already made friends."

Percy actually let out a quiet chuckle and shook his head. "I'm not surprised that you have, actually." He nodded at Angelina, Lee, and finally at me. "Nice to meet you three. And welcome to Hogwarts—and to Gryffindor. We're happy to have you. Hopefully you'll prove us correct in feeling that way."

"Wow, Perce," Fred said, raising an eyebrow. "Laying the pressure on thick already, I see. Off to a great start."

Percy sighed. "I just meant that—"

"Yeah, yeah, we knew what you meant," Fred said with a laugh.

"It's nice to meet you," I said to Percy with a small smile, to make him feel better. He clearly wasn't new to Fred and George's teasing, but it was also clear that he didn't enjoy it, no matter how harmless and innocent it was. "And I'd like to think I'll prove you correct."

Fred and George groaned. "What a kiss up!" Fred cried. I knew he was teasing but I glared at him anyway as he continued speaking. "You don't want to kiss up to Percy, Lilah. It's not like he's a Prefect or anything."

"Yet," Percy interrupted.

Fred waved a hand dismissively. "Anyway, even though it's Percy's wildest dream, the fact of the matter is that he's not old enough to be a Prefect, so he hasn't been made one as of today, so you don't need to kiss up to him. If you're going to kiss up, do it to someone important, like McGonagall or Dumbledore."

Percy let out a huff and crossed his arms. "Just because you two aren't wholesome and respectful and considerate doesn't mean everyone else isn't."

The twins gasped. "Percy!" George exclaimed in shock. "How could you say that?"

"Please don't tarnish your new friends," Percy said. "I'd hate to see them in trouble on your account." With that, he turned and went back to his seat.

"He's not like you two at all," I said in amusement, glancing at Fred.

The twins both snorted. "No, he's not," Fred said.

We didn't get to talk anymore because a man seated in the center of the staff table had just stood up to speak and the hall had grown silent. The man had a long white beard, half-moon spectacles and twinkling blue eyes that I could see from where I was sitting. I knew who he was instantly. Albus Dumbledore, the Hogwarts headmaster. I had grown up seeing him on chocolate frog cards. He seemed to be on almost every card I opened.

"I'd just like to make a few start of term announcements before we begin," he said with a smile at all of us as he looked around the room. "To all of our new students, welcome. To all of our returning students, welcome back. I'm sure we're in for a wonderful and exciting year. I'd like to remind everyone that the Forbidden Forest is off limits to students, as usual. I'd also like to remind everyone that Mr. Filch, our caretaker"—he gestured to an old man standing in the corner of the hall, holding a cat—"has reminded _me_ that there is a list of forbidden items that are not allowed to be used. Currently, the list contains about four hundred items and can be found hanging outside of Mr. Filch's office for your reference."

"We'll need to get our hands on that," Fred whispered to George. "Or at least a copy."

I wanted to ask them why they were so interested—I somehow doubted they wanted to memorize the list so they could better follow the rules—but I didn't have the time. Dumbledore had wrapped up his speech and was sitting down. As soon as he did, food and drinks magically appeared in the middle of the table. Instinctively, I peered underneath the table. I knew it had been magic that had made the food appear, but I was so impressed that I wasn't sure how to react.

"How do you suppose that happens?" I asked the twins.

Fred shrugged as he took a bite out of a chicken leg. He had already put food on his plate and was digging in. "I know the food is made in the kitchens by house elves, but I don't know how they get the food out here. Bill wouldn't tell me that."

"Do you know where the kitchens are?" I asked, beginning to put food on my own plate. "We could try to find out for ourselves."

Fred and George both turned to look at me in awe. "You'd do that?" Fred asked. "You'd come with us and find out if we went? We'd probably have to go after hours…and technically students are supposed to be in the kitchens….It's not the worst rule we could break, not even by a long shot, but…."

"I'll go," I said. "Calm yourself down, Fred." I was finally starting to get the hang of telling them apart. I was so afraid of mixing them up that I had spent nearly the whole train ride in looking for differences between the two of them. So far I had noticed that Fred's eyes were a lighter shade of blue. More of a sky color, while George's were a deeper shade. Besides that, George's nose had a slight bump in the bridge, while Fred's nose was straighter.

Fred and George both grinned happily. "Seems like we don't even need to worry about tarnishing you. You're already tarnished."

"I get curious," I shrugged, stabbing some of the food on my plate with my fork. "And I'm not as perfect as your brother seems to think." I grinned. "I'm still pretty close, though, I'd say."

"Eh…." Fred teased, wrinkling his nose, "I don't know about that, Fitzgerald. You aren't that great."

"Excuse me?" I mock-gasped, putting my fork down and staring at him. "Take that back!"

"Never!" Fred cheered, laughing as he chucked a carrot at my head.

I rolled my eyes and sighed as I turned away to finish my dinner. Julian and I had never gotten all that rough with each other, even if it was just playful. We never really threw things at each other. Sometimes, but rarely. Usually it was just playful punches and head locks here and there. But even those had dwindled in the past year. I got the feeling that Fred and his family did stuff like that all the time. But it was all extremely playful and harmless and fun. I found myself actually envying his big family a little bit. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade the family I have now for the world, but I was definitely seeing some advantages of having so many siblings around. Constant advice and tips about everything, including going off to school, and someone to always laugh with and joke with were just two of the positives I'd seen just from meeting the twins earlier that day.

Maybe the fact that the twins' family was already so obviously different from mine was part of the reason why I felt so drawn to them. Maybe opposites did attract after all. At least to some extent. Or maybe it was just the twins themselves that pulled me in. Or maybe it was even both. But either way, all I knew is that I was drawn to the two redheaded twins I had just met not even twelve hours ago and I had a strange feeling that between them, Angelina and Lee, I had just made a very good group of friends at Hogwarts.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks so much to all of the people who have reviewed so far and too all of the people who have added this story to their favorites or alerts! It really means a lot.**

**I hope everyone had a wonderful new year! I can't believe it's already 2015!**

**Thanks again for reading and feel free to let me know what you think of the chapter!**


	6. Chapter 6

_Dear Julian,_

_ I'm all settled in at school and right now I'm sitting in my very own dorm. I just got back from the welcome feast. Guess what? I got put into Gryffindor! The sorting was actually very easy, but I can't tell you what it is. Apparently, it's some kind of tradition to keep it secret. Other first years' siblings have done the same for them. That's what I've heard, at least._

_ Anyway, Tess was sorted into Hufflepuff, which is great. She was really happy about it and I'm happy for her. I do wish we could have been in the same house, but we'll still see each other I bet. I haven't talked to her since we got here earlier, before we were sorted, but hopefully tomorrow I will get to talk to her._

_ I also made four new friends on the train. Two of them are twins named Fred and George. The other two are a boy named Lee and a girl named Angelina. They're all great and all in Gryffindor with me, which is such a relief. It'll be great to have someone to hang out with and go to classes with. I would hate to have to do it all by myself. Oh, and I also found out that Fred and George have a younger brother who's your age. Maybe you two can be friends, even if you aren't in the same house. Hopefully you will be, though, because that does work out sort of perfectly._

_ I hope the rest of your day went well and that you didn't have too much fun at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Honestly, I hope you weren't assigned reading again like we were the last time we went over. It's like they thought we weren't being educated enough at home with Miss Sullivan._

_ Anyway, I miss you so much. You have no idea. I wish you were here, actually. Tell Mum I said hello and tell Dad the same when you see him next weekend, although I'll probably send him a letter of my own as well. I would tell you again to hang in there, but I don't want to suffocate you like you've been accusing me of doing lately. Honestly, it's all out of love. Trust me._

_ I'll see you soon. I miss you. And, by the way, have fun by yourself with Miss Sullivan on Monday. That should be fun. Anyway, write back as soon as you can._

_ Love, Lilah_

I folded the letter up and wrote Julian's name on the front before attaching it to Casper's leg. Apparently, once he was done delivering it, he'd go stay in the owlery, where all the school and student owls lived.

Once Casper was out of sight, I let out a sigh and crawled under my covers. My other roommates—Angelina and two girls named Katie Bell and Alicia Spinnet—were already getting into their beds as well.

"Okay," Alicia suddenly said, reaching over the side of her bed and into her trunk. She pulled out a stash of candy and tossed Katie, Angelina and I a chocolate frog each. "It's about time we got to know a little bit about each other."

"We _just_ met. There's no rush for us to do that right now," Angelina said, gazing down at her chocolate frog, "and I couldn't possibly eat this." She held it up and waved it back and forth slightly. "I'm too stuffed.

"Well, then save it for another time," Alicia shrugged. "I just thought we'd have some snacks while we talk. And I would hate it if we just immediately went to bed without talking a little bit. Don't people typically have conversations with each other when they first meet?"

"I suppose so," Angelina said, glancing between me and Katie. We shrugged. I didn't mind staying up for a little while longer, especially since I was curious to get to know my new roommates. But I was pretty tired as well so I had no idea how long I would last.

"Okay, well we've already introduced ourselves to each other," Alicia said thoughtfully as she munched on her own chocolate frog. She suddenly looked at me, who was sitting in the bed directly across the room from her. "Birthdays. Go."

I blinked for a second, taken a bit by surprise, before I answered. "October thirty-first."

"Hey, mine's October twenty-fifth," Angelina said, her eyes lighting up in excitement as she smiled at me.

I smiled back. It was exciting to be making friends in the first place after years of practically no contact with any other kids besides Tess and Julian, but even more exciting to find that you almost shared a birthday with one of them.

"What's it like to have a birthday on Halloween?" Katie asked. She had given in to unwrapping her own chocolate frog and was nibbling on the end. She paused after she asked the question. "You probably get asked that a lot. Sorry."

I shook my head and picked at a loose thread on my comforter. "Yeah, usually people just comment on it. But it's not a big deal. I mean, it's _fun_. For as long as I can remember I went trick-or-treating with my brother and parents—although it was just my dad after a while. Mum was busy and not into it—and my Dad's best friend Jesse would come too with his daughter, Tess. She's my best friend. She's a first year, too, but she was sorted into Hufflepuff." I had gotten so caught up in talking about one of my favorite traditions that I hadn't realized how fast I had started to talk or that none of my roommates probably knew what trick-or-treating was. I was also surprised that I still could get excited over it. I hadn't been looking forward to my birthday since the events of last year, but I supposed that there had already been too many good memories made that they kind of took over the bad ones.

"Sorry, what's trick-or-treating?" Alicia asked, wrinkling her nose and tossing her empty chocolate frog wrapper into the trash can near her bed.

I let out a tiny laugh. "Sorry, I just got carried away. See, both my parents are magical, and so is my dad's friend—I call him Uncle Jesse even though he's not my uncle—but Uncle Jesse's a Muggleborn. Both of his parents are Muggles and he taught my dad a lot of Muggle traditions. Trick-or-treating is one of them. Muggles will dress up in costumes on Halloween and go door-to-door asking for candy." Merlin, it sounded so weird when I explained it like that.

"That…is weird," Alicia said, confirming my suspicions. "Why can't your family just get your own candy?"

"There's probably a story about how it all started, but I don't know it," I admitted. "I never asked Uncle Jesse, oddly enough. I probably should have."

The other girls were quiet for a moment before Alicia suddenly turned to Katie. "Birthday?"

Angelina, Katie and I snorted with laughter.

"What?" Alicia asked.

"It seems like you were just waiting the appropriate amount of time to be polite after Lilah finished speaking before moving on."

"I wasn't trying to be rude!" Alicia exclaimed, laughing now as well. "I'm just trying to keep the conversation going."

"You may need to work on it a bit," Angelina giggled.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much," I shrugged, grinning at my new friend. "You just have a lot of energy."

Alicia smiled. "I've heard that before, actually."

We fell into silence again before Katie spoke. "August thirty-first. That's my birthday. I actually just made the September first cutoff date for this year. A couple of days later and I would've started here next year."

"We're glad you didn't, then," Angelina said with a grin.

Alicia and I agreed before Alicia spoke up again. "So your birthday was yesterday!"

"That's right," I said, blinking in realization. "Happy birthday!"

Katie blushed as Angelina and Alicia wished her a happy birthday as well. "Thanks," she whispered.

"Oh, can we sing to her?" Alicia asked eagerly, clapping her hands together.

"No," Katie insisted firmly, her eyes wide.

"Yes, oh, please, Katie?" Alicia persisted.

"I can't sing anyway," I said, shaking my head and laughing.

"Neither can I," Angelina agreed.

"That's okay!" Alicia assured us. "I can't either."

A few seconds later, I found myself joining in a very terrible and out of tune version of 'Happy Birthday' without knowing how I had been convinced to do so. Nonetheless, tonight was the first time in, well, forever, that I had spent time with a group of friends, laughing and having fun together. My only complaint was that Tess wasn't here, too, but something told me that she was probably doing the same thing in her own dorm, and something else told me that she was probably the Alicia of the first year Hufflepuff dorm.

"Well, I'm beat," Alicia said with a sigh once we had finished singing. She slid under her covers and pulled them up to her chin.

"Already?" Angelina asked in surprise. "You were the one all for getting to know each other and all we found out about each other were our birthdays!"

"I know, but I ended up using more energy than I anticipated," Alicia said with a smile. "We can continue tomorrow."

I giggled. "Can't wait."

"Was that sarcasm?" Alicia gasped, raising her head to look at me.

"Of course not!" I gasped dramatically, putting a hand to my chest. Then, my smile faded slightly and I gave her a serious look. "No, but honestly, this is the most fun I've had in a long time."

"Yeah?" Alicia asked, beaming excitedly.

I nodded. "Yeah."

"Good, I'm glad," she answered, putting her head down again. Angelina, Katie and I did the same and turned off the lights beside our beds. About ten seconds of silence passed before I heard Alicia's voice in the darkness. "June fourteenth."

"Hm?" Angelina's groggy voice asked.

"My birthday. It's June fourteenth. I never got the chance to tell you."

I couldn't help it. I started to laugh and a few seconds I heard the others join in.

"Shut up," Angelina said, even though she was laughing too. "Some of us are trying to sleep here."

"Sorry, Your Majesty," I giggled. "We'll try to let you get your beauty sleep now."

"Heaven knows you need it," Alicia laugh.

"I hate you both," Angelina muttered. "I only like Katie right now."

"Good," I said. "I'm so happy for you."

Angelina let out a snort of laughter and we managed to fall silent again. It had been a while since I had laughed so hard and been so happy. With that in mind, I managed to fall asleep with a smile on my face.

The next day was my very first day of classes at Hogwarts. I ate breakfast with Angelina, Katie, Alicia, Lee and the twins and Professor McGonagall passed out our schedules. Believe it or not, all of us had the same classes. Actually, that was pretty common for first years in the same house. We usually had to start getting all the classes we were required to take out of the way before eventually moving on into choosing our own electives. It was actually a huge relief to have my friends in my classes as well. It would take a lot of the anxiety off of the first day of classes.

"Ready?" George asked me as we stood up to head to Charms.

"As I'll ever be," I sighed.

"Just think about how all the Muggleborns must feel, though," Fred chimed in. "They had no idea about any of this. At least we've grown up with it. We know what to expect."

"It must be so hard for them," I said, shaking my head as I thought of how Uncle Jesse must have felt.

"But probably so awesome," Fred added. "I mean, if I suddenly found out about all of this," he gestured around him with his arms, "I'd be ecstatic."

"Me too," I agreed. I paused at the foot of the marble staircase and looked around at my friends. "Do any of you actually know how to get to the Charms classroom?" I turned to Fred and George. "You two seemed to know all the secrets."

Fred snorted. "Yeah, but we don't know everything. Our brothers weren't about to give us a detailed description of the castle. Plus, they can't tell us every secret. We have to figure some out on our own. It's more fun that way."

"Oh, of course," I answered. "How silly of me to not realize."

Fred raised his eyebrows and glanced at George. "This one's got quite the fiery attitude, Georgie," he said.

George nodded. "I've noticed."

"I like it," Fred concluded. "What do you think, though? Do you think we should keep her around?" He put a finger to his chin as he pretended to think.

"I don't know," George sighed. "Her sarcasm _could_ potentially be annoying."

"True," Fred said.

"You two are impossible," Angelina cut in, pushing past them to go up the stairs. "And if you don't move it, you're going to make us late for our very first class. How would you like that hanging over your heads?"

Fred and George both shrugged and snorted.

"They wouldn't care," I said, jogging up the stairs to catch up with Angelina. "Of course they wouldn't care. They'd laugh."

"Lilah is clearly very good at assessing character," Fred said loudly from behind me. "She's already making predictions on how we'd react. And she's completely accurate. Amazing."

"Shut up," I muttered, throwing a smirk over my shoulder all the same.

We ended up making it to Charms class right on time and chose tables in pairs at the back of the room. Angelina and I sat together and the twins sat behind us. After a moment, Professor Flitwick walked in and began class by welcoming us all and giving us an overview of what we'd be learning this year. It all sounded incredibly interesting to me, but Fred and George clearly thought otherwise. Five minutes in, they began flicking paper at the back of my and Angelina's heads. Either they were bored or they had already mastered the levitating spell Professor Flitwick was promising we'd learn soon. However, something told me that wasn't the case. Fred and George certainly weren't the type to learn any spells in advance. I wasn't either, but picturing the twins doing that was actually laughable. Anyway, Angelina and I ignored them until Angelina finally turned and sent them such a glare that both twins stared at her wide eyed before sinking lower into their seats a bit. I, on the other hand, stifled a laugh into my hand. I also could've sworn the corners of Angelina's mouth turned up. I couldn't be sure, but I was willing to bet they had.

* * *

"So this is it," Fred explained as we all stared up at the giant painting of a variety of fruit on the wall in front of us. "It has to be. It's exactly as Bill described."

"Okay, and what did he tell you to do to get us in?" I asked. "It's no help if he only described the painting to you."

Fred looked at me wide eyed before turning to look at George. "She's so _cheeky_!" he stage whispered.

"You're telling me," George said, meeting my eyes and shaking his head playfully.

"Just work your magic and get the painting to open," I sighed, despite the smile appearing on my own face. We were standing in front of the kitchens, having decided to pay a visit after dinner that night. I was actually really excited to be here. I was incredibly eager to find out as much about my new school as possible and have fun while doing so. I was already looking forward to writing to Julian and Dad about tonight's adventure. But I could never tell my mother. She'd most likely be horrified.

"If you insist," Fred said now, bowing dramatically as he pretended to tip an imaginary hat. Then, he stood on his tiptoes and extended his hand towards the painting. He lightly tickled the pear and it actually let out a childish giggle, which got me to laugh. Fred smiled at me before stepping back. As he did so, the painting swung open, leaving the doorway to the kitchens wide open just for us.

"Amazing, isn't it?" I asked, looking around me. "This school? All its secrets?"

Fred and George nodded in agreement before Fred gestured for me to enter the kitchens. I did and looked around in awe as Fred and George followed me inside.

"Woah," they said together as our eyes fell upon the four tables set up inside. They were identical to the ones upstairs that we had eaten at exactly four times now.

"I'd say these are exactly underneath the ones in the great hall," I said, stepping closer and gazing upwards. "You think they send the food through the ceiling?"

"I think that's the only logical way," George said, stepping up beside me. "If these tables are underneath the ones in the great hall, like you said, then how else would you explain how the food just seems to magically appear? There must be some kind of magic that let's the food just...go up."

I took in a deep breath and let it out. "Amazing," I said. "Julian would love this."

I saw Fred open his mouth as if to ask me something, but just then, we were distracted by a group of house elves coming out of a door behind us. They immediately began bowing and asking how they could help us.

"Are you hungry?" the one standing closest to us asked. "Anything you'd like, you can have. Rosie will get it for you in no time." She gestured to herself proudly.

I smiled. "Is that your name? Rosie?" I asked as I crouched down in front of her.

"Yes, Miss, it is," Rosie said shyly.

"It's a pretty name," I told her as she blushed and pulled her large ears over her huge grey eyes. I giggled and pulled her hands away so that her ears flapped upwards again. "My name is Lilah and these are my friends, Fred and George."

"Did you say you can get us _anything_ we'd like?" Fred asked, staring down at Rosie in disbelief.

"Fred," I scolded, glaring up at him.

"I'm just making sure!" he said defensively, holding up his hands.

"Yes, Rosie and her friends can get Miss Lilah and her friends anything they'd like." She gestured behind her to the other house elves, who were also smiling at us happily—almost eagerly, actually, as if they wanted nothing more than to help us.

"Excellent," Fred said, clapping his hands together. "What about some leftover apple pie from dinner earlier? That was delicious."

"Oh, yes, of course," Rosie said happily. She nodded and her giant ears flapped as she did so. "What about you?" she asked George.

"The same, please," he said.

"And for you, Miss Lilah?" Rosie asked, turning her large, round eyes on me.

"Er," I glanced at the twins who nodded, encouraging me to get something. "Alright, make that one more slice of apple pie."

"Coming right up," Rosie said squeakily as she and the other house elves disappeared back through the door they came in.

"She's cute, isn't she?" I asked with a fond smile as I stared at the door Rosie had disappeared through.

"Yeah, I suppose," Fred shrugged, staring at the room and taking it all in.

"They certainly seemed excited to help us," George observed, walking across the room to a small nook in the corner with a few smaller, circular tables, all with chairs around them. "Think we can sit here?"

"I don't see why not," I shrugged, walking over to join him. The three of us sat down at a table, Fred sitting on his chair backwards and resting an arm across the back and his chin on his arm.

"I can't believe we made it down here," he said. "I've been dreaming of coming here ever since Bill told us about it. And we solved the mystery of how the food gets on the tables at every meal."

"Yeah, thanks for coming, Lilah," George said.

"Are you kidding?" I asked. "I wouldn't miss this for the world. It's amazing."

"Which is why we like you," Fred said with a grin as he lightly punched my arm. I smiled.

Rosie brought over our food just then, along with three steaming mugs of hot chocolate. "That looks delicious," I sighed.

"Rosie is glad Miss Lilah thinks so. If there is anything else you need, be sure to let Rosie know."

"We will," Fred said, nodding his head vigorously. I kicked him under the table and he winced.

"Thank you, Rosie," I said with a smile at the house elf.

She grinned and bowed again as she backed away from the table. I watched her go with a slight smile on my face. I had never met a real house elf before. No one I knew had ever had them, either. Not that I knew many witches or wizards. I think Mum ahd considered getting one, but with her fear of our neighbors becoming suspicious, she hadn't. I'm actually glad she didn't. Even though house elves are usually really happy to do their jobs, some part of me wouldn't feel right about sitting around while someone else did chores that I had no problem doing myself. Usually.

"So," Fred said, once Rosie was gone.

"So what?" I asked glancing up at him as I poked my fork into the slice of pie in front of me.

"What's your story?" Fred asked, tilting his head to the side as he stared at me.

"You know it for the most part," I answered, wrinkling my nose in confusion. I didn't know what he was getting at. I had already told him my general background on the train. "I have a mother, a father and a nine year old brother, Julian. My birthday's October 31st, yes, on Halloween. I—"

"No, that's not really a story," George said, swallowing a mouthful of hot chocolate and shaking his head. "Those are facts. We want to know your story. More details."

I flinched. Details. I hadn't told anyone here at school yet that my parents weren't together anymore and that I had taken it pretty hard. I hadn't wanted to throw that into basic getting-to-know-you conversation, even though I probably could have and it would have been fine, maybe even normal. But it was hard to bring myself to do it. Apparently it was still a bit of a touchy subject.

"I saw that," Fred said, and I knew he was referring to my flinch. "You have something good. Share," he demanded.

"No, it's just that…." I trailed off and picked at my food, suddenly not feeling in the mood for it. "My parents aren't together anymore. They divorced a year ago. It's kind of difficult to go into details without mentioning that, which is also difficult to do. Naturally, divorces are hard on everyone, but I may have taken it extra hard."

The smiles instantly faded from Fred and George's faces. "Oh," they said together.

"I'm sorry, Liles," Fred said, putting a hand over mine. He paused. "Is it okay if I call you that?"

I gave him a tiny smile as I nodded. "My dad and brother call me that."

"Not your Mum?" George asked.

I shook my head. "Rarely. She's more…uptight and, well, formal, I guess, than my Dad."

Fred and George were quiet for a moment. "Do you…want to talk about the divorce?" Fred asked.

I hesitated. I really liked that he was giving me the option of talking or not talking. I had given them the fact that my parents were divorced and they were letting me choose whether or not I wanted to give them the details. I had expected them to immediately ask what had happened if I was honest.

I spun my hot chocolate mug in my hands as I debated my answer. I had only known the twins for a day and while I did like them very much and already felt like I could call them my friends, how sure was I that I could completely trust them? How did I know that they would understand if I told them the whole story from beginning to end?

"I think I'd rather not," I finally said, letting a puff of air out of my mouth as I looked up at them. "It's not that I don't like you, but—"

"Of course that's completely it," Fred said jokingly, reaching out and nudging my arm playfully. "You hate us."

"I don't!" I giggled, smiling as I blushed and stared down into my hot chocolate. "I just…the only person who knows all the details are my brother, obviously, and Tess. I don't know if I'm ready to share them with anyone else, especially people I just met."

"You're close with your brother, aren't you?" Fred asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Of course I am. You clearly are with at least one of yours." I gestured to George.

"Yeah, we're all pretty close in our family," Fred said. "But I think George and I are the closest. Anyway, I was just asking because, well, you're three years older and a girl."

"That doesn't mean we can't be close," I said. "We actually spend a lot of time together. We were all each other had for the most part, especially in the past year."

"Since the divorce?" George asked with a sad smile.

I nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."

"Didn't you have anyone else in your neighborhood you could be friends with?" Fred asked curiously.

"Tess lived two streets over," I said with a shrug.

"That's not what I meant," Fred said with a roll of his eyes.

I shook my head. "Not really. We lived in a Muggle neighborhood." I paused. "Did you have any witches or wizards living near you?"

The twins looked at each other and shrugged. "A few," Fred answered. "But we're not exactly close with them. Or even friends, really. More like acquaintances. But maybe it's because we have so many siblings, we always had someone around. We were never lonely."

_Lucky you_, I thought with a tiny sigh.

"A family called the Lovegoods live a few hills over," George elaborated, "but I don't think we've ever even met them. Fred and I haven't, at least, and I don't think the rest of my siblings have. Mum and Dad maybe, but…." He trailed off and shrugged again.

"And the Diggorys live a few hills over in the other direction," Fred added. "We've met them a few times. Our Dad works with Mr. Diggory at the Ministry. Not in the same department, though."

"What department does your dad work in?" I asked, finishing off my hot chocolate.

"Misuse of Muggle Artifacts," the twins answered together. "Dad loves Muggles," George added after a silence. They both looked at me as if challenging me to laugh. I didn't. A beat later, Fred spoke.

"He collects plugs."

I still didn't laugh. At this point, I knew they were testing me. "I don't know what plugs are, but if your dad likes to collect them, then I don't have a problem with it," I finally said.

The twins grinned. "We—our whole family—get a lot of backlash from other people about it, actually," Fred said. "Everyone thinks it's ridiculous and thinks we're despicable and a disappointment to the wizarding world. Blood traitors and all that."

"That's silly," I answered with a shrug. "There are plenty of other things witches and wizards have done that are loads worse than liking Muggles and collecting plugs. _They're _the disappointments for thinking _you're _disappointments."

The twins grinned even wider and they both blushed slightly. "So, what do your parents do?" George asked. "If you don't mind me asking."

"My mother works at a book publishing company," I answered. "For magical books, not Muggle ones, in case you were wondering."

"We weren't," Fred answered. "We figured, actually, considering she's magical after all."

I snorted with laughter and spun my empty mug in my hands.

"And your dad? What about him?" Fred continued.

I hesitated. I was proud of my dad, naturally, but I had been raised hearing my mother's complaints about his job for almost as long as I could remember. She had clearly been very unhappy with his career choice. At least in the ways it affected their life together. But I had never been embarrassed by my dad. I thought he was amazing. Even after the divorce, I never blamed him. Not really. I never thought that his huge tendency to be _funny_, and to be himself was a bad thing. Sure, maybe it had crossed my mind a few times that one of my parents had been a little different and more like the other so the marriage could have worked out, but they were fleeting thoughts. At least when connected with who was responsible for the divorce. I mean, I certainly wished my mother didn't have to work so much, but a part of me understood her reasons and understood it was just how she was.

"My dad's a stand-up comedian," I answered finally, pride evident in my voice as I gave Fred and George a look similar to the one they had previously given me, challenging them to laugh. They didn't.

"What's that?" they asked instead.

I smiled. I had forgotten that they wouldn't know. "It's a Muggle job," I explained. "Basically, he writes a whole act, talking about things going on in the world and making jokes about them. Then, he gets hired by places to go and perform in front of an audience. We don't have comedians in the magical world, as you know, although I don't know why. We should. My dad's really amazing at what he does, too. He's really funny. He can do all these voices and imitations, and he can always get me and Julian laughing, no matter what." I smiled fondly. "When we were kids, he used to put on puppet shows and they were the absolute best things ever. And when he would read us bedtime stories…he had a different voice for every character. It was brilliant."

"He sounds great," Fred said earnestly as George nodded.

I smiled and we were all quiet again. "There's a lot I want to find out about you," Fred finally said, folding his hands in front of him and speaking in an overly formal voice. "Like, for instance, how your dad got the job he has, and a bunch of other stuff, but, believe it or not, the first full day of classes has gotten me extremely tired. So, if you don't mind, we'll have to cut this conversation short."

I giggled. "I don't mind. I'm tired as well."

We got ready to leave and said our goodbyes to Rosie, who seemed to appear as if on cue when we stood up to go. Then, we made our way back to Gryffindor tower, where we said goodnight to each other before going up the stairs to our own dormitories. When I got to mine, Katie and Alicia were asleep, but Angelina was still awake, reading a book.

"Where were _you_ for the past few hours, Miss Social Butterfly?" she asked, giving me a smirk.

"Fred, George and I found our way to the kitchens," I explained. "We met some of the house elves and ate."

"Of course you did," Angelina sighed. "The three adventurers. I can see it already. You three going places you aren't technically supposed to go, doing things you aren't supposed to do, getting in loads of trouble and lots of detentions."

"I can also see that," I told her with a cheeky smile as I headed for the bathroom to change into my pajamas. Once I had, I crawled into my bed and turned off the lamp on my nightstand just as Angelina turned out hers. She might have said goodnight to me, but I wasn't sure, because I was asleep almost as soon as my head hit the pillow.

* * *

**A/N: So I realize this chapter got a bit long, but I do like how it turned out. I also realize that Katie should technically be a year younger than the twins, Angelina and Lilah, but I decided to bump her up to their year since she is part of the group and I wanted her to be part of Lilah's bonding experience with her dorm-mates.**

**Thanks for reading and feel free to let me know what you think!**


	7. Chapter 7

If I was completely honest with myself, I was having the time of my life at Hogwarts. Everything finally felt as if it was going right. I was getting good grades (my worst class was Potions, but I was aiming to be able to bring that grade up soon), I had my very own group of friends and I was learning how to actually do real magic instead of the strange little things I had always just randomly made happen before. It was wonderful. The only complaint I had was that I wished I could still see my dad and Julian all the time. I missed my mother, too, of course, but as everyone is well aware at this point, we don't have much of a relationship. I loved her and knew how much she cared and I appreciated all she did, but I wished she could've been around more for me, that's all. It would be nice to have a grown up, wiser woman to go to sometimes.

Anyway, the problem of desperately missing my family was dealt with somewhat by letters. As I said, Casper was the best gift my mother had ever bought me. I loved having my very own owl to deliver messages for me. I usually ended up writing my dad and Julian about once a day and my mother once a week. Sometimes once every two weeks, depending on her responses. She was busy, as usual, and sometimes other tasks slipped away from her. That's what she said in her letters, at least, although a bitter part of me feels as if she left out the words _less important_ between the words _other _and _tasks_. But then I hated myself for thinking things like that. As I've said, I appreciate my mother and all of the hard work she does.

Time at Hogwarts seemed to fly by incredibly fast. Maybe it was because I was busier than usual, but before I knew it, it was my birthday. And Halloween, of course. I woke up that morning with mixed feelings. I had been happier in the past two months than I had been in a while, but I couldn't help but be reminded of what had happened a year ago on this very day. This year, my birthday was also on a Saturday, which meant that I didn't have classes. A plus and a minus all in one. On the plus side, I didn't have classes; a good thing in itself. But on the other hand, the absence of classes meant that I didn't have anything to distract me. At least, _I _didn't have anything planned. I suspected that the twins might have planned something with Katie, Alicia and Angelina, but I couldn't be sure.

Alicia, of course, true to her character, led Katie and Angelina in a chorus of Happy Birthday the second I walked out of the bathroom in the morning. I blushed and threw a pillow at Alicia, but I was still smiling nonetheless. It was a great start to my day, though, I had to admit.

When I got down to the common room, I was nearly tackled by the twins, who practically screamed birthday wishes in my ear. It caused a bit of a commotion and earned some looks from the few other students in the room. Needless to say, I blushed for the second time in ten minutes.

"Thanks, you two," I said once they had pulled away from me.

"Feel any older?" Fred asked, taking a step backwards and giving me a once over. "You don't _look _any older."

"Thanks…I think," I said with a giggle. "And no, I don't feel any older. I still feel the same as I did when I was eleven, which felt the same as ten." I smiled a bit wider as I remembered having the same conversation with Uncle Jesse a year ago.

"So you're saying you feel ten right now?" George asked, punching my arm lightly.

I gave him a playful punch in the arm in return. "If you want to be technical about it, then I yes, I suppose so. But I don't really want to actually be ten."

"Ah, so anxious to grow up," Fred said, pretending to wipe a tear from his eye. "She's in such a hurry to grow up she's going to rush through the best years of her life."

"Shut up," I laughed, giving him a gentle shove.

I ate breakfast with the twins, Lee Katie, Alicia and Angelina. Even Tess came over from the Hufflepuff table to sit with us. I told her she didn't have to, but she insisted. I had introduced her to my friends at the first opportunity I had gotten and she had done the same for me with her friends. We were all pretty comfortable with each other at this point, which I was thankful for. I had been worried about Tess and I growing apart after being put in separate houses, or that there would be some jealous tension from one or both of us once we realized we were making new friends. But I soon realized those thoughts were silly. We had never been like that. We both knew how much we mattered to the other and that we could never be replaced.

After breakfast, we all walked down to the lake. I hadn't asked to go there, we had just aimlessly headed that way, but I half wondered if my friends had decided upon it together. They all knew that the lake was one of my favorite places at Hogwarts. It was peaceful and I could think there, if I ever felt the need to just be in the peace and quiet without having to go to the library. Even I got sick of being surrounded by books sometimes and I was usually one to enjoy them.

"Okay, I don't think I can wait any longer," Tess finally said, bouncing up and down slightly. We had only been sitting at the lake for about fifteen minutes and she was already having trouble sitting still.

"Wait any longer for what?" I asked, looking over at her.

"To give you your present, of course!" she exclaimed.

"My present?" I asked in surprise. I was confused to say the least. I wasn't expecting anything from any of my friends. "How did you manage to get me a present?"

"Well," Tess said slowly, "my dad sent it over. He also said that he wouldn't do it unless I said it was from him as well, which technically, it is, so…." She trailed off and reached into her bag, pulling out a small, neatly wrapped box. I suspected that even though Uncle Jesse had dealt with getting the gift and sending it over, Tess had wrapped it. Uncle Jesse had never quite perfected the skill of gift wrapping, while Tess had practically been born knowing how to do it. Besides, she was naturally very neat and organized. At the first sight of any wrinkle in the wrapping paper, she probably would have ripped it off and started again.

"Thanks, Tess," I said taking the gift from her and turning it over a few times in my hand as I smiled widely.

"Aren't you going to open it?" she asked after a few seconds.

"No, she's just going to stare at it all day," Fred said sarcastically.

"Yeah, actually, I think I will just stare at it," I answered swiftly, trying to keep any hints of sarcasm out of my voice. "This wrapping job is incredible."

"Shut up, both of you," Tess muttered, aiming a gentle kick at my foot. "Just open it. I'm fairly certain you'll appreciate what's inside more than how well I wrapped it."

I finally gave in and tore off the wrapping paper first, then the lid of the small box inside it. Once the lid was off, I almost dropped the box onto the grass. "Tess," I said, shaking my head. "I can't."

Fred took the box from me and looked inside. "It's a pair of earrings," he said with a snort. "Don't girls love earrings? What's so special about these?"

I sent him a glare as I snatched the box back. "For your information, Fred Weasley, these belonged to Tess' mother."

"Okay," Fred answered slowly, clearly still trying to figure out what the significance was.

"She died when I was two," Tess finally explained. She didn't look angry, just a bit wistful and sad as she smiled slightly. "Lilah loves those earrings. We kept all of my mother's stuff for a very long time. And even after we started cleaning stuff out, we kept a lot of her jewelry. Dad said it would be mine someday." She smiled wider and nodded towards the earrings. "Except those. Lilah found them when we were about nine. I was showing her some of the stuff that belonged to my mother and she fell in love with them. I told her back then she could have them, but she insisted she couldn't. But I felt that she should have them. My mother had lots of earrings." She smirked. "I think I can manage to part with one pair."

I let out a quiet laugh and stared out across the lake. It was times like these where I felt terrible for complaining about my own mother's faults. Tess didn't have one at all and I did, however scarce she usually made herself. Sometimes it could feel like I didn't have a mother, but I did. She wouldn't let me go near her things with a ten foot pole, but I had her. Tess only got two short years with her own mother.

I looked down at the earrings, still resting in the box in my hands. They were silver, dangly circles with deep red stones in the center. They were probably the most beautiful earrings I had ever seen.

"It's okay with your dad?" I asked Tess, looking up at her and biting my lip.

She nodded. "If it wasn't he wouldn't have sent them!" she said cheerily. "He wants you to have something to remember my mother by too." She paused. "I know neither one of us can actually remember her that well, but Dad always says that she would have loved you and Julian like her own children. If she had known how much you loved those earrings, she would have insisted you have them without giving it a second thought."

I giggled. "Sounds like you."

She grinned. "Dad says I am a lot like her."

"That's a good thing, because you're pretty great. Thanks, Tess, really." I leaned over and gave her a hug before gently closing the earring box and slipping it into my bag.

"Well, now I feel extra bad," Fred said. "I didn't get you a gift and even if I did, it wouldn't have been as good as that. I don't think it can be topped, actually."

"Oh, quiet," I said. "You don't have to get me anything. I mean, we've only known each other two months."

"So?" Fred shrugged. "I'd say we've all grown pretty close in the past two months. We've formed our own little group."

"Your friendship is a present in itself, actually," I replied. "I'm really glad to have you all."

"Stop it, you're making us blush," the twins said, hiding their faces behind their hands as I giggled.

"Have you heard from Julian yet today?" Tess asked suddenly, changing the subject.

"No," I shook my head, "not yet. But he'll write. Dad will, too. And probably Mum. If she doesn't get too busy and forget today's my birthday."

"Does that happen often?" Fred asked in surprise.

I had to laugh at his expression. The prospect of a mother forgetting her child's birthday was so absurd to him. It hadn't happened to me yet either—not exactly anyway—but Mum had missed out on quite a bit in my life. It was impossible for the twins to fully wrap their head around that. I could already tell what their family was like. Big, for one thing. They didn't have a lot of money. But they all loved each other and spent a lot of time together.

"No," I told him. "She's never exactly forgotten my birthday, but….I mean, she tries, but for years she came home late. When I was younger she'd come trick-or-treating and then she stopped and just worked all the time. We'd just have enough time to quickly eat dinner before we all went out—except Mum because she'd bring work home to do."

"This trick-or-treating business was important to you, wasn't it?" George asked. I had explained the concept to him and Fred a few days ago. They had thought it was odd, just like Angelina, Katie and Alicia had. Interesting, but odd.

I nodded and glanced at Tess. "For a while, it was a time when we could all be together. We were all together and all happy."

"Well, I would say we put on costumes and trick-or-treat here," Fred began slowly, "but it's kind of late to put any kind of costume together…and even though Mum and Dad sent us a package with some candy in it last week, there isn't really enough…."

"Oh, Fred, no, I don't expect you to give up your candy. It's yours."

"Lilah," George said thoughtfully, seeming to get another idea from what Fred had said. "This Halloween thing…is it when—well, I mean, do Muggle children dress up as ghosts by putting sheets over their heads and cutting out eye holes?"

"Yeah, how did you know that?" I asked in surprise.

"Dad told me about it once. I don't know how he found out, but he thought it was funny."

"My dad does, too," I said. "He used to laugh every time he saw someone dressed like that because it was so inaccurate." I gazed back up at the castle. "Obviously, ghosts are far from shapeless blobs with eyeholes."

"Well, then I have an idea," George said. He leaned over and whispered something to Fred and they both grinned before George stood up and gestured for us to do the same. "Come on."

Forty-five minutes later, Fred, George, Lee, Tess, Angelina, Katie, Alicia and I were standing in front of the large fruit painting that led to the kitchens. The twins had first led us to the laundry room, which they knew about thanks to their brother Charlie, and raided the clean sheets, taking some that belonged to the Slytherins. We had cut out eyeholes, put the sheets over our heads and then emptied out our schoolbags to use to carry our loot. Then, the twins had led us down to the kitchens, where we now stood.

"Makeshift trick-or-treating," George said proudly. "One stop only, and to the residency of people—or creatures, rather—who won't judge us for carrying out a crazy Muggle tradition."

I giggled. I had to say I was rather impressed by the twins' generous act to carry on my birthday tradition in some way. Mostly, though, I was very grateful. We'd only known each other for a few months, but they'd already picked up how important this had been to me as a kid. They knew they couldn't replace my family, or get back all the years my mother had skipped out, but little did they know, my Hogwarts friends were slowly becoming a sort of family to me.

"Thank you," I said, looking at George, then Fred, through the eyeholes of my sheet. "Even though I will admit we do look ridiculous, I appreciate you thinking of putting this together." I turned to look at the rest of my friends. "And thank you all for coming along. If anyone besides the house-elves see us…I'm sorry for any embarrassment."

I saw Angelina shrug. "No worries. The only way I convinced myself to go along with this was because I knew that if any other students or any teachers saw us, they won't recognize us with these sheets over our heads. As long as we outrun them, we can't be identified."

"Bingo," George said. "That's exactly what Fred and I were thinking. Besides, we're not breaking any rules, really, although I'm sure Snape could find at least one rule we're breaking. All that'll happen if we see anyone is that they'll think we've gone as batty as Lilah."

"Stop it," I insisted. "Why aren't you insulting Tess? She's grown up with this tradition, too."

"Because you're more fun to insult," George shrugged. He paused "Anyway, we could have totally come up with less ridiculous costumes with more time, but these were the easiest and quickest we could get on such short notice."

"It's great," I said. "I've actually never dressed up as a ghost before. I always knew the Muggle representation was a bit inaccurate so I never really wanted to."

"Well, now you have, and it's hilarious," Fred declared, reaching up to tickle the pear in the portrait.

"Excuse me?" I asked as the pear giggled and the portrait swung open.

"I wasn't saying _you _look hilarious," Fred said, stepping into the room. "Not specifically anyway. I just meant that we all look hilarious."

"I figured," I said with a smile, following him into the kitchens.

Almost immediately, a group of house elves came out of the back room, Rosie at the lead, and stopped short when they saw us. Instantly, I felt bad. We had probably terrified the poor things.

"It's me, Rosie," I said quickly, lifting up my sheet so she could see my face. "Fred and George are here, too. And we brought our other friends. Tess, Katie, Angelina, Lee, and Alicia."

"Oh," Rosie said, giggling with relief. "Hello, Miss Lilah." She bowed slightly. "And hello, Mister Fred and Mister George. And hello to all of your other friends." She bowed again. "Rosie wonders why you are all wearing sheets over your head."

"It's Halloween," Tess explained, "and in the Muggle world, children dress up and go trick-or-treating. Meaning that they go around to houses asking for candy."

"I know it sounds weird, but it's really fun," I added. "It was a tradition for me and Tess growing up and since it's my birthday, Fred and George continued it for me."

Rosie, who had been looking at us almost blankly, despite our explanation for our outfits, suddenly brightened significantly. "Oh, Miss Lilah, is it really your birthday?" She clapped her hands excitedly as all of the other house elves smiled excitedly at each other at the news as well.

I nodded and smiled. "It is. I turn twelve today."

"Oh, I wish Rosie had known sooner," Rosie said, "or else Rosie and the other house elves would have baked Miss Lilah a cake."

I smiled wider. For some reason, I found it kind of endearing that the house elves spoke in the third person. "Don't worry about a cake, Rosie," I said dismissively, waving my hand. "Really, I'm sure there will be plenty of delicious food at the feast tonight, thanks to you all. I've heard the Halloween feast is quite impressive."

"What we were really wondering," Fred chimed in, suddenly and quickly, "is if you'd be able to spare some extra candy…or anything extra, really. You know, to complete our trick-or-treating experience."

"Fred, really?" I asked with a sigh, turning to send him a look. Honestly, did he always have to be so blunt? I knew he never intended to be rude, but sometimes that was exactly how he came across.

"I'm just getting to the point," he shrugged. "I'm hungry."

"Of course you are," I responded, turning back to Rosie. "It's only if you can spare anything. If you can't, it's not a big deal. No matter what Fred's implying by his bluntness, we really won't care."

"Speak for yourself," George muttered. I subtly aimed a kick at his shin and he let out a quiet yelp. What a baby. There was no way that could've truly hurt.

"Miss Lilah has no need to worry!" Rosie exclaimed. "There is lots of food for you to take! Miss Lilah and her friends can take whatever they'd like!"

"Just bring us a variety," Fred shrugged. "Surprise us."

Immediately, as if on cue, the house elves gathered behind Rosie scurried off, presumably to retrieve us some food.

"Thanks, Rosie, really," I said kindly.

"Rosie is happy to do something for Miss Lilah on her birthday. Rosie likes Miss Lilah, she does. Miss Lilah is very friendly to us."

"A lot friendlier than these idiots behind me, I expect," I answered with a laugh, jabbing my thumb over my shoulder at Fred and George, who immediately protested.

"Rosie likes Miss Lilah's friends, too!" Rosie said, looking horrified that I would even consider the fact that she didn't. Clearly, my teasing had gone right over her head.

"I was teasing, Rosie," I said, patting her head. "Fred and George, well, they're pretty great, but don't tell them I said so. It'll go to their already big heads."

Rosie smiled briefly and didn't answer. Maybe she didn't know how. She clearly wasn't used to being treated kindly or even joked around with. My heart went out to her, but I felt glad that I could bring at least a little happiness to her by just showing up.

"Just wait here," she instructed us. "Rosie and the others will be back in just a few minutes!" With that, she turned and ran back through the door the other house elves had gone through just a moment or two ago.

I turned back to my friends. "Honestly, thank you for doing this. It means a lot." I gave them a small smile. "And this beats my last birthday by a landslide."

Angelina leaned over and gave me a hug and soon everyone else joined in until we were standing in a huge blob in the middle of the Hogwarts kitchens. A few seconds later, we heard a small voice behind us.

"Ahem, Rosie has returned with what you've asked for."

I broke out of the hug and turned around to see Rosie and a group of seven other house elves, holding bags of not only extra candy, but extra food as well. A variety, just as Fred had asked for.

"Wow, Rosie, you've all outdone yourself," I said. "Honestly, you didn't have to bring so much."

"Again, speak for yourself," George said, taking his bag of food with a huge smile. "Merlin, I'll be eating this for months."

"No you won't," Angelina snorted. "If the way I've seen you eat at meals is any clue you'll have that gone before dinner tonight."

"And still eat plenty when dinner does arrive," Katie added with an eye roll.

"It runs in the family," Fred said, already digging through his own bag, apparently taking inventory. "If you think we're bad, wait until Ron gets here." He looked at Rosie and gave her a tiny smile. "You'll be overworked in here for sure."

Rosie let out a giggle. "Rosie is sure she can handle it," she said.

Fred smiled wider. "Thanks, Rosie, really. You're pretty great."

Rosie let out another high pitched giggle and pulled her ears over her eyes. "Rosie thanks you for saying so, Mr. Fred," she whispered.

"It's just Fred," Fred told her, gently patting her head. "None of this formal business."

"Okay…Fred," Rosie said, peering up at him from beneath one of her ears, a tiny smile on her face.

"Looks like someone has a crush on you," I teased, nudging Fred in the side as Rosie and the other house elves left the room and the rest of us headed over to the tables in the far corner where the twins and I had sat on our first visit here.

"She's a house elf," Fred said, rolling his eyes as he pulled off his sheet completely and let it drag on the floor behind him.

"So, is that a no?" I asked, smiling at him and fighting back a laugh as the rest of us pulled the sheets off our heads as well.

"Shut up, Lilah," Fred responded, gently whacking me with the bag of food Rosie had given him.

"Oi, if I were you, I'd watch out with that or whatever she gave you will be damaged. And I'm not sharing mine if it is," I told him, sticking my nose in the air.

Fred replied by sticking his tongue out me as we all managed to find seats. Once we were sitting, we immediately began examining the contents of our bags and taking inventory.

Lee let out a low whistle. "These house elves sure are generous, aren't they?" he asked. "They don't hold back."

"I love it," Fred said excitedly, reaching into his bag and pulling out a chocolate frog. He ripped it open and discarded the wrapper on the floor as he stuffed the frog in his mouth and examined the card.

"Dumbledore _again_," he exclaimed, his mouth full of chocolate. He tossed the card on the ground beside the wrapper. "I swear, he's got to be the most common card. I get him _all _the time."

"You didn't have to throw him onto the floor, though," I said, getting up to retrieve the trash Fred had discarded. "Have a little more respect than that, Freddie."

Fred shook his head and simply laughed as I threw away the trash and sat back down. "Are you always going to clean up after me? Because I could get used to that if you are."

I scoffed. "Please, you're delusional if you think that."

Fred shrugged. "It was worth a try." With that, he opened his candy bag up again and dug around until he found another chocolate frog. "Anyone want to bet on the odds of getting Dumbledore again?" He waved the chocolate frog in the air. "Anyone? Anyone at all?"

"Five Sickles says it's not," George said immediately.

"Five says it is," Lee argued.

Fred nodded. "Anyone else?"

"No, I'm not going to gamble," Angelina said with a scoff. "But I will get some entertainment out of laughing at whoever loses."

I giggled. "Same here."

"Agreed," Alicia, Katie and Tess said together.

"Alright, here goes, then," Fred said dramatically as he slowly began peeling open the wrapper. At the first opportunity, he brought it up to his eyes and peered inside as he pulled it open a little more. After a second, he looked up at the rest of us and smiled.

"Can you see what card it is?" Lee asked eagerly.

"Who is it?" George asked, just as eagerly.

"It's Newt Scamander," Fred answered. "George wins."

Lee groaned as George leapt up and cheered. When he sat down, he held out his palm to Lee. "Come on, pay up."

"I don't have my money with me," Lee said. "It's up in my trunk."

"Lies," George teased. "You're trying to get out of paying."

"Something tells me you wouldn't let him," I snorted.

"Nope," George answered. "I'm going to keep reminding him until I have my money."

"Of course you are," Lee sighed.

I gave him a pat on the back. "It's okay, Lee," I told him. "Next time, you'll know better than to take bets."

"But they're fun," Fred argued. "Sure, there's a huge chance you'll lose, but there's also a huge chance you'll win. The risk is the fun part."

"Of course, for you it is," I said, rolling my eyes and standing up. "I'm going to go back to the common room," I announced. "And then I'm going to try to get some homework done before the feast."

"Homework on your birthday?" Fred asked as he and the others caught up to me.

I nodded. "I have to keep my grades up. Mum's expecting it." I turned to Tess and gave her a hug seeing as her common room was right down the hall. It was times like these when I did wish we were all in the same house. I hated saying goodbye to Tess while the rest of us all went back to Gryffindor tower. "Thanks for my earrings," I whispered. "I love them and I'm going to cherish them forever."

"I don't doubt that," she said and I could practically hear the smile in her voice. "I'm sure they'll look stunning on you too. I can't wait to see how they look."

I smiled and pulled away before promising to see her later and heading back towards the Gryffindor common room, the others at my heels.

"So, are you having a good birthday so far?" Katie asked as she, Angelina and Alicia fell into step beside me while the boys began comparing their food inventory behind us.

I grinned. "I am, actually. Thank you again, for going along with this. Uncle Jesse did suggest that I could start the tradition of trick-or-treating at Hogwarts, but I laughed, thinking that sounded absurd. But in a way, I kind of managed to do it. I taught six new people about it and they don't think I'm crazy. I'm rather impressed by my success if I do say so myself."

The girls laughed. "Well, we do think it is a little crazy," Angelina said. She held up the sheet in her hand. "And these costumes are definitely odd. But it was still pretty fun in all honesty. And, if you want to know the truth, I'm actually considering doing this again next year. Different costumes, though. I can't take the ghost ones seriously."

"I think they're sort of cute and endearing," Alicia said, holding her sheet up and staring fondly at the haphazard eyeholes she had cut out herself.

"You would," Katie snorted as I laughed.

"_You_ can re-use the costume next year, then," Angelina said. "I'm not."

"You'll have to get creative and think of an awesome new costume then," I told her. "I expect to be blown away."

"You're on," Angelina replied. She glanced behind us. "I don't even have to ask if they're in." She jabbed her thumb at the twins. "As long as they get free food, they're happy. And they have no shame, so they'll walk around in whatever ridiculous costume they can manage to whip up."

"Well, we're sure to get a laugh out of their attempt," I pointed out, looking back at my friends with a smile. "And that's pretty exciting in itself."

"Very true," Angelina agreed with a laugh.

I let out a happy sigh as we continued the walk back to the common room. Maybe this birthday hadn't been exactly like the others I had grown to love at home, and maybe my friends didn't quite get the excitement of trick-or-treating as much as I did, but I had to say that this was probably one of the best birthdays I'd ever had and I couldn't wait to tell my dad and brother all about it.

* * *

**A/N: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far and thank you to everyone who has added this story to their favorites or alerts! It means a lot. I hope everyone enjoys this chapter!**

**And Riversandponds: I forgot to answer your question in the last chapter, but no I didn't purposely write Miss Sullivan with Anne Sullivan in mind, but I did make the connection after I finished the chapter and thought it was a cool coincidence.**


	8. Chapter 8

"This is mental!" I exclaimed, dropping my Potions textbook onto the table in the common room with a loud thud. A few people looked over at me, but I ignored them.

It was the beginning of December and Fred, George and I were lined up on the common room couch in front of the fire. Angelina and Lee were both in arm chairs while Katie and Alicia sprawled on the floor.

"What's mental?" Katie asked absentmindedly as she continued to write out her Charms essay.

"You are," Angelina deadpanned, flipping through her Transfiguration book as she dangled her legs over the side of the armchair.

Katie looked up briefly only to stick her tongue out at Angelina before going back to her homework. "What's going on, Liles?" she asked again.

"Potions is what's going on," I muttered, resting my elbow on my knee and my chin on my hand as I let out a huff. "Fractions. They're back and they're trying harder than ever to kill me."

"Fitzy, you need to calm down," Fred said with a laugh. I shot him a glare at how nonchalant he seemed to be about my suffering. If he wanted to be so relaxed about his own work, that was fine, but I had to keep my grades up. Mum was going to ask for updates once I got home for the Christmas holidays. Knowing her, she'd actually ask to look at all my graded work to check up on me. I was stressed to say the least. I couldn't even manage a smile at Fred's use of his relatively new nickname for me.

He'd been calling me _Fitz_ or _Fitzy_ for about a month and a half now, in addition to Liles and sometimes just Lie. I didn't mind any of the nicknames, actually. Dad and Julian called me Liles, so I was used to it, but no one else called me Fitz or Fitzy except Fred and occasionally George.

"I can't calm down, Fred. Mum wants to make sure I'm getting good marks in all of my classes."

"Which you are," Fred answered calmly. Instead of doing his homework, he was shuffling through his collection of chocolate frog cards. Honestly, how was he not panicking by now? I knew for a fact that he still had homework to finish and he wasn't even doing it!

"All except Potions," I said. "I'm barely passing and my mother is going to murder me unless I bring up my marks in about three weeks. Besides, I don't know how you can be so calm about this. You're not much better than me in this class. It's your worst one as well."

"But I think I am better than you," Fred answered, examining a card with a dried chocolate smudge on it.

"But not by much as I've just said," I shrugged.

"You know, Lie" George piped up, "I could tutor you if you'd like. I'm actually decent at Potions. Fred's the one who's good at Transfiguration and Charms and I'm the opposite."

"I've noticed, actually," I said, "but even the professional tutor my Mum hired couldn't teach me fractions. Thanks for offering though."

"Hold on," Fred laughed, sitting up straight and setting down his cards. "Your mother hired a _professional tutor_?"

"Yeah," I said, looking over at him. "Julian and I had one starting when we were about seven or eight and the deal was that we continue with her until we left for Hogwarts. She basically just taught us all the general stuff we'd have to learn before coming here. Writing, and basic math. Dad was the one who taught us to read. Unfortunately, I never quite mastered fractions and we're obviously supposed to know them already for potions. And Snape isn't going to do a review session anytime soon, that's for sure." I rolled my eyes and looked back at Fred, who was staring at me open-mouthed. "What?" I asked, looking from him to my other friends, who all looked just as surprised as he did. "_What_?" I asked again, raising my chin from my hands.

"You had your own tutor," George said, "that your mother hired."

"Yeah," I said, blushing. "I'm taking it you didn't. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have acted so surprised. I mean, I didn't think everyone had one, but…." I trailed off and shrugged. "Who taught you guys all that stuff? Your parents?"

"Yeah, in our house it was mostly just my mother," Fred answered. "She taught all of our siblings."

Now it was my turn to blink in surprise. "Your mother taught all of you? All seven of you?"

Fred nodded. "All seven of us."

"Well, some of you must have been really young…I just mean, well, for instance, your older brother…Bill right? When he was, say, nine—"

"Charlie was seven, Percy was three, George and I were a year old, and Mum would be getting pregnant with Ron that year."

"How did she ever manage?" I asked. "Finding things for Charlie and Percy to do, taking care of one year old twins, teaching Bill all that he needed to know…and doing all the other things around the house?" I shook my head at him. "I need to meet your mother because she sounds like a saint."

Fred actually laughed. "She'd love you for saying that and actually appreciating it. Not that we don't appreciate her at home, but apparently she doesn't always seem to think we do." He paused. "We've never had enough money for a tutor if that's what you're wondering though. I mean, Dad's not all that high-up in the ministry, but he does love where he is. With seven kids, though…it gets tough."

"I don't care why you didn't have a tutor," I told him. "I like Miss Sullivan and all, but I'd much rather have had one of my parents teach me." I shrugged. "Mum didn't have time, though. And I don't think she wanted Dad to do it. She wanted it done to her own standard."

"I can't believe your family could even afford a private tutor," Lee snorted. "Do you have a maid, too? Or a house elf or something?"

"Lee, that's a rude question!" Angelina exclaimed.

"Yeah, you can't just ask people those things," Katie chimed in.

"I didn't mean to sound rude or bitter or anything," Lee said sheepishly, glancing at me. "Sorry if it came across that way."

I shook my head. "No, it's okay, I know you weren't trying to be mean. And no, we don't have a maid or a house elf. My dad used to do most of the cleaning when he and my mother were together and Julian and I would help. But then after they got divorced, Julian and I did it ourselves. Now, I don't know what Mum's doing. She actually may have hired someone considering I'm not home during the school year and Julian's been going to my grandparents' house." I shrugged. "I never really minded doing it. It was something to do while we waited for Miss Sullivan to come over."

"It doesn't sound like you ever did much," Fred said, glancing at me.

"Yeah, well we were restricted," I said, almost curtly, "and it was just me and Julian. I don't have a lot of siblings like you do."

Fred nodded and let the subject drop, which I was grateful for. Sometimes talking about my family became too much. I felt like it was hard to explain how we had operated all those years. It was hard to explain my mother and her rules and it was hard to talk about the divorce. My friends' families were all so different from mine. It was easy for them to talk about their families. Why couldn't it have been the same for me? I wasn't embarrassed or anything, don't get me wrong, but things were just different for me growing up and I sometimes felt that my friends didn't quite understand even though they tried to and even though they _were_ accepting.

Amazingly, I had already told my friends a lot about my life. Like I said, my life was different from theirs and they didn't always understand, but they made an attempt and they still liked me for me. Which was why I felt okay releasing that information little by little. But I didn't want to do it all at once for sure. That might just turn out to be a little too much for them to handle.

I had also learned a lot about the lives of my friends in the past three and a half months. For instance, George had broken his nose when he was eight, which explained why there was a bump in it. Apparently, he had fallen off of his broom trying to fly in a loop. According to him, it was kind of awesome, even though he cried (a fact Fred had been all too eager to add). To me, he just sounded lucky that he didn't break anything else besides his nose.

In addition, I learned that Angelina already had a goal of becoming Quidditch captain. She wasn't even on the team yet and she was already aiming for captain. And after that, she was going to play professionally. And if that didn't work out, she was going to become a professor. Of which subject, she wasn't sure yet; she was flexible, apparently. But even so, she had everything all planned out, backup plans included. Angelina's organization skills—about everything—were another thing I had learned about her.

While I did feel very close to all of my new friends already, I felt the closest of all to the twins and Angelina. It had only been a few months, but I already considered them to be three of my best friends. The twins had also formed a close bond with Lee and Katie and Alicia had grown close as well. But, as I've said, we were all fairly close to each other too and had formed our own tight-knit group. I was actually almost dreading the Christmas holidays just because I wouldn't be seeing them. We were all going home for the two weeks we got off, so it wouldn't have made a difference if I had opted to stay at Hogwarts anyway. Not that I would, though. I was excited to see my family and officially tell them everything I could about Hogwarts, my new friends and just how happy I was.

* * *

"So, Liles, who are you going to spend Christmas with?" Angelina asked me halfway through the ride home. We had bought another large stash of candy from the trolley witch and were splitting it amongst ourselves.

"My mother," I said, munching on a cauldron cake. "She has a Christmas party every year and I'm expected to help prepare for it as well as attend and tell all of her co-workers just how amazing I'm doing and make my mother proud," I said, letting out a breath. "I'm just glad Christmas fell on a weekend that I'd be with my mother anyway. If it was my dad's weekend with me and Julian, I'd bet anything that my mother would make us stay with her instead. She'd need our help and I also don't think we're allowed to skip the party."

"Sounds like a boring party already," Fred snorted, digging into a box of Bertie Bott's every flavored beans.

"Oh, you have no idea," I told him. "Julian and I have been attending for as long as I can remember. We were always expected to be picture perfect. One wrong move and we'd have to face my mother's wrath. She's terrifying when she's angry."

"Sounds like our mum," Fred said, gesturing to himself and George. "It's not pretty."

"No, but my mother…not only will she yell, but it's how she says things too…and her wording…and how she'll look at you for days after. As if you've disgraced her just by stealing one chocolate chip cookie before dinner." I paused. "I know this from experience."

Everyone was silent after I finished speaking and I instantly blushed and sunk down lower in my seat. This was why I had never been all that keen on giving anyone any information but the basics. Except things seemed to keep spilling out.

"Was that…too much?" I asked nervously.

"No, it was totally accurate," Tess snorted. She looked around at the others. "Her mother scares _me_ and I'm not even her kid."

"Well, I know you know how she is," I said. "But I don't know if it was too much for anyone else."

"No," Angelina said at once, "it wasn't. It's just…wow. She sounds tough."

"She is," I replied. "I do love her though, I don't want anyone to think I don't. But she's just—we don't have much of a relationship."

Nobody said anything after that. I expect they didn't know how to respond. And oddly, that was okay with me. It didn't make me feel as awkward as I expected. I did worry that I was painting a bad picture of her. That's why I wanted to emphasize that she wasn't all bad. Because she wasn't. Tough, yes. Driven, definitely. Warm and fuzzy, not so much. But maybe that was okay. She _had_ given me and Julian a lot over the years. She provided for us, gave us a place to live, and gave us food, even if it was mostly just the pieces of a meal that Julian and I had to actually put together.

"Is she picking you up from the station?" Katie asked.

"Probably," I nodded.

"Can't wait to meet her, then," Fred said energetically. I assumed he was being a little sarcastic, but I actually couldn't tell for sure.

All too soon, we were pulling into King's Cross and the train was coming to a stop. I sighed as I reached up and pulled my trunk off of the overhead rack and followed my friends off of the train. Alicia, Angelina, Katie and Lee saw their parents almost right away and actually introduced the rest of us to them. We ended up talking for a bit each time before saying goodbye and heading our separate ways.

"Oh, look, there's Mum," Fred said, pointing. "Looks like Percy's already caught up with her. I don't know where Charlie is, though. Probably still with his friends, taking their sweet time."

I gazed towards where Fred was pointing to see a short woman with red hair standing beside Percy and hugging him tightly. There were also a little boy and a little girl next to her, both with red hair, that I assumed to be Ginny and Ron. "What, does everyone in your family have red hair?" I snorted.

Fred nodded. "Yeah, didn't we tell you that?"

I laughed, thinking he was making a joke again, but stopped when I saw the serious look he was giving me. "Hold on, your entire family really does have red hair?"

He nodded and let out a laugh of his own. "Merlin, George, I can't believe we forgot to mention that."

"Well, now you know," George said, grinning at me and Tess.

At that point we had gotten close enough to Mrs. Weasley for her to spot the twins and when she did, she let out a happy squeal and clasped her hands together. The moment they were close enough for her to reach them, she pulled them into a tight hug. I blinked at the scene. I had never gotten that kind of reaction from my mother. Ever. She wasn't the type for squealing, or even hugging really. Maybe it was because I had never thought about it much in the first place, but for some reason, it now struck me as sad and I felt a lump form in my throat, but I managed to swallow it as Mrs. Weasley turned to me and Tess.

"Oh, Percy mentioned in his first letter home that you two had made new friends!" she exclaimed, smiling broadly at me and Tess.

"This is Lilah and Tess," Fred said, gesturing to first me, then Tess. "We made other friends too, but they left with their parents already."

"Lilah and Tess! What beautiful names!" Mrs. Weasley said. And with that, she stepped forward and hugged us both. I was once again taken by surprise. As far as I could remember, I had never been hugged by a woman that I had just met. At least, not this genuinely. "It's lovely to meet you both," she continued as she released us. "I'm Molly Weasley, Fred and George's mother. And this is Ron and Ginny." She gestured to the two children beside her, proving my earlier assumptions correct.

"It's lovely to meet you," I said to Mrs. Weasley before turning to look at Ron and Ginny. Ron was munching on a chocolate frog as he stared at us silently. Ginny, however, was smiling at us. "I've heard a lot about you two from your brothers," I said.

"Yeah, Ron, guess what?" George said. "Lilah has a brother named Julian who's your age. I haven't met him yet, but if he's anything like Lilah, then he's great. Maybe you can sit with him on the train when you finally go to Hogwarts."

Ron shrugged. "Yeah, maybe," he said, finishing his chocolate frog by sticking the rest of it into his mouth.

"I like your bracelet," Ginny told me, pointing to the one my dad had given me. "And yours too," she added, noticing the one Tess had on. "They're the same, but with different stones!" she exclaimed.

"Thanks," Tess said, holding up her wrist. "They're our birthstones."

"Lilah Michelle Fitzgerald," said a familiar voice from behind me. I immediately gasped and spun around to see my dad leaning against a pillar a few feet away, smiling at me. Uncle Jesse was standing beside him, grinning just as widely.

"Dad!" I exclaimed, running towards him and flinging myself into his arms. He caught me and spun me around once before setting me down and holding me at arm's length.

"Merlin's beard," he said, "you've gotten taller in four months, haven't you?"

"Possibly," I answered with a shrug, as I turned to hug Uncle Jesse. "But the important question is what are you doing here? It's not my weekend to stay with you."

"I had to come and see you get off the train. Besides, I was hoping to convince your mother to let me take you and Julian out for a few hours. I know her annual party is tomorrow and I also know you'll be expected to help out every chance you get, but," he shrugged, "I also think you need a bit of a break. So, hopefully," he crossed his fingers, "she'll let you come."

"Doubt it," I sighed, "but it's worth a shot." Suddenly, I perked up. "Come on, I want you to meet my new friends!"

"You made friends!" Dad pretended to wipe tears from his eyes dramatically.

I giggled and grabbed his hand. "Come on."

I led him back to the Weasleys, who were standing where I had left them, greeting Charlie, who had just met up with them as well.

"This is my dad," I told them proudly, when they noticed me standing there again. Tess and Uncle Jesse had also reappeared at our sides and I introduced Uncle Jesse as well.

"It's lovely to meet you both," Mrs. Weasley said, shaking my dad's hand first, then Uncle Jesse's. "I'm Molly Weasley. From what I hear, your daughters have become quite friendly with Fred and George."

"Oh, so these are the same Fred and George you've been writing about in nearly every letter you've sent me!" Dad exclaimed, shaking hands with the twins.

"Dad," I groaned, rolling my eyes and fighting back a smile. It was true that Fred and George usually came up in a lot of my letters, but Dad didn't have to broadcast that fact to almost their whole family.

"These are my sons Charlie, Percy and Ron," Mrs. Weasley continued, "and my daughter, Ginny."

"Great to meet you all," Dad said with his huge trademark grin as he continued to shake everyone's hands.

"Lilah told us that you, er…." George narrowed his eyes in thought as he looked up at the ceiling. "She told us that you're a, uh…a stand-up chameleon!"

Clearly, Dad thought that was hysterical and he obviously couldn't contain himself from letting out a loud laugh. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh, but it's actually a stand-up _comedian._"

"Oh, yeah…sorry," George said as his ears turned pink.

"Oh, no need to be sorry," Dad said, brushing off the apology with a wave of his hand. "It was a nice attempt. In fact, if being a stand-up chameleon paid the bills, I most definitely would have become one."

"Somehow I don't doubt that," said a clipped voice from behind us. I turned to see my mother standing there, Julian at her side. She stood there, eyebrows raised, giving Dad a look that said she wished he would shut his mouth and stop _acting like a child_. Clearly, she could still suffer from second hand embarrassment if she wasn't married to him anymore.

I met my brother's eyes right then and grinned as he catapulted himself at me and hugged me so hard, I thought I'd fall right on my back. "Lilah!" he exclaimed. "I missed you!"

"I missed you, too, Jules!" I exclaimed, hugging him back.

"Guess what?" he asked eagerly. "Dad's been reading some of The Tales of Beedle the Bard to me every weekend I go to his house, just like he used to do for both of us…except I don't remember because I was too little."

"That's exciting!" I said with a grin. It was exciting, too and I was glad that Dad was reading to Julian again. He hadn't really gotten the chance to read to us much once he had taught us to read on our own. "Does he still do all the different voices?"

"Of course," Dad scoffed.

"It's never any fun without the voices," Fred said, looking at Julian and smiling. Julian smiled back shyly and I gave him a gentle pat on the back.

I saw Mum roll her eyes just then, which made me mad. I knew for a fact that she loved all of Dad's different voices. When I was little—younger than Julian, even—I can remember Dad making her laugh hysterically as he switched between voices and impersonations. Now, apparently, everything he did was too silly and too childish for her.

"Problem, Joanna?" Dad asked. Clearly, he had noticed Mum's eye roll as well.

"No, of course not," she said, pursing her lips. I fought the urge to sigh. Of course there was. Mum just didn't want to fight in the middle of a train station or in front of the Weasleys, which was a good choice. Now, though, she seemed to have fully registered that the Weasleys were standing there because we had been talking to them and she was looking them up and down.

My stomach clenched and I found myself fighting a scowl as I saw the look of distaste that appeared on her face as she took in the Weasley's clothes, which weren't dirty or anything, but definitely not as put together, as pristine, or as new as my mother's clothes. I saw her take in Ron shoving another chocolate frog into his mouth and purse her lips even more, then frown as she noticed the dirt he had smudged on his cheek. But she seemed to quickly become aware of her expression and it slipped off her face at once, only to be replaced by an overly fake smile.

"I'm Joanna Matthews, Lilah and Julian's mother," she said, her voice way too chipper. She had gone back to her maiden name almost immediately after the divorce, something that seemed to bother me more than it did dad. He had simply shrugged and said that they weren't married anymore, so it didn't matter.

Mrs. Weasley leaned forward and took mum's outstretched hand. I couldn't tell if she actually bought my mother's exaggerated smile and overly chipper, too-friendly voice or if she was just being polite in return, but she smiled widely at my mother.

"Molly Weasley," she said. She turned and started introducing her children and I saw my mother surreptitiously wipe her hand on her skirt. I could have died right there and then.

I looked around to see if any of the Weasleys had noticed what my mother had done, but they didn't appear to, which was a relief. If they had seen, I would've had to run away and never show my face around here again. I'd have to transfer to Beauxbatons or something, which was a shame, considering how much I liked Hogwarts.

"And, last but not least, these are Fred and George," Mrs. Weasley finished, gesturing to the twins. "I'm sure Lilah's told you all about them."

I didn't blame Mrs. Weasley for believing that, especially after Dad had confessed that he knew about them from my letters, but the truth was that I had only mentioned the twins to Mum once or twice in my letters to her. While I had gone into more detail about my friends with Dad, I had only mentioned names to my mother. I'd bet all my money she wouldn't even remember.

"I think Lilah mentioned something," she said with her silly fake smile that proved she didn't actually remember. She just didn't want to look like an idiot. She nodded at Fred and George. "Nice to meet you two."

They smiled at her—genuinely, mind you—before both sticking their hands out for her to shake.

Mum pursed her lips even more as she peered down at their hands. "Yes, well," she said, shaking first Fred's hand, then George's by only the tips of their fingers. "We'd best be going now. I have a lot to do what with the party tomorrow…."

It was then that I noticed Julian now standing slightly behind me, peering out at the Weasleys in interest as if he wanted to say hello, but was too shy. He could be that way sometimes. A little shy until people really got to know him. I knew this because of all the Christmas parties Mum had. It was obvious Julian didn't like socializing with those people and it was obvious that it was harder for him. He never said much unless he was prompted, which usually made Mum later and tell him he needed to engage in more conversation. It was ridiculous.

"Wait," I said now, pulling him so he was standing at my side. I draped an arm around his shoulders and grinned at him. "This is Julian," I said. "He's my little brother and he's nine." I looked at Ron and nudged Julian towards him slightly. "We've told you two about each other already. You're the same age."

Ron and Julian just looked at each other for a moment before Ron asked, through a mouthful of chocolate frog, "Do you collect chocolate frog cards?"

Julian nodded excitedly. "I do, but sometimes it's hard because I have about a million Dumbledore cards and I can never find a Ravenclaw card. She's the last one I need until I have all four of the house founders!"

"Oh, I have a couple of her," Ron said, swallowing his candy. "I can give you one if you want."

"Sure!" Julian exclaimed, any evidence of shyness suddenly gone. "And I can give you a Dumbledore card if you need it."

"Trust me, he doesn't," Fred scoffed. "Everyone has plenty of Dumbledore cards."

"Yeah, and every time Ron here gets one, the whole world knows," George continued.

"Dumbledore _again_!" they both said, imitating Ron almost perfectly as they pretended to toss down a pile of cards.

"Hey, it's not like you two do the same thing or anything," I told them with a smile. "Honestly, I wonder how much poor Dumbledore has ended up on the floor because of you three."

The twins laughed before turning back to Julian. "So, you're the amazing Julian we've heard so much about," Fred said.

Julian nodded exuberantly. "That's me!"

"Fred and George Weasley," the twins said together. "Your sister's newest best friends."

"I thought Tess was her best friend," Julian said, wrinkling his nose as Tess giggled.

"She still is," I told him, "but nobody said you can't have more than one best friend."

"Oh," Julian said, his expression changing to show that he was thinking that over.

"Well, now that we've all met," Mum said hurriedly, clapping her hands together. "I really need to get Lilah and Julian home. We've got a lot to do in order to get ready for the party tomorrow."

"Hold on," Dad spoke up. "I was wondering if I could maybe take them for a few hours today since I won't be able to spend Christmas with them..."

Mum opened her mouth as if to immediately say _no, absolutely not_, before closing it again and glancing at the Weasleys. She put her fake smile back on and looked back at Dad. "I'd love to say yes, Chris, you know that, but I really do need all the help I can get. There are so many guests coming over tomorrow and I've been swamped. Plus, despite it being Christmas, I still have a lot of actual work to do. Just because you get it off doesn't mean we all do."

Dad looked away and I could see that he had stuck his tongue into his cheek and was literally chewing on it a bit as if he were trying not to retaliate. "Fine," he said. "I figured you'd say that, but I thought maybe I'd ask."

Mum simply nodded before smiling at the Weasleys again. "Lovely to have met you," she said. And without really waiting for a reply, she turned to me. "Say good bye to your friends and your father and let's get going," she said. "You too, Julian." I sighed. She was so anxious to leave and part of me thought it wasn't completely because of her Christmas party preparations.

I said goodbye to the Weasleys—Mrs. Weasley gave me another hug to my surprise—before turning to Tess and Uncle Jesse and saying goodbye to them as well. And finally, all that was left was saying goodbye to Dad.

"I'll see you next weekend, okay kiddo?" he asked, pulling me into a huge hug.

"Why can't I see you on Christmas?" I asked. I knew why, but I wanted to ask him anyway in hopes that he would give me a different answer.

"Because you need to stay with your mother," he said. "This weekend is your weekend with her and it's worked out so that you spend every other weekend with me. This isn't my weekend. That's how it is."

"But I don't even get to see my own dad on Christmas," I muttered. "Are you coming to the Christmas party? I don't see why you couldn't be invited. I mean, you're my and Julian's dad. You should be able to come."

Dad half-smiled. "I don't know, Liles. I don't think I'm invited this year. I certainly wasn't last year."

"_I'm _inviting you," I said. I didn't understand why he couldn't just come. It's not like Mum would cause a scene. Not in frontof her work friends at least. But at the same time, she'd be mad that he did show up and get people talking about why he was there if they were divorced. As if they couldn't still be friends or at least civil to each other.

"Let's just plan for spending next weekend together, okay?" Dad asked sympathetically.

I chewed on my lip and looked away. "Fine," I said.

"Lilah," my mother said, even more forcefully than the last time. "Come on. We're leaving right now."

I gave my dad one last hug before turning and jogging over to Julian and my mother, who turned and began walking away before I even reached her.

"Can't you slow down?" I asked breathlessly as I jogged a little faster to keep up.

"No," she answered, her tone clipped. "I have a lot to do and so do you and Julian for that matter. The party is in exactly…" she glanced at her watch, "thirty one and a half hours. We have no time to waste."

I sighed as I glanced at Julian, who rolled his eyes. I smiled. Despite everything that had happened, my mother was still worrying incessantly about this party and I knew that Julian and I would be expected to not only help out, but attend the party and behave perfectly. Make her look good and all that. And also show we were doing just as great, if not better, without my dad in the picture. It was scary how well I knew my mother and how much I understood, even if she didn't think I did. But no matter how much I was kind of dreading the party, I knew that Julian and I had each other and that would be the one thing that would make it manageable.


	9. Chapter 9

"So, how've you been?" I asked Julian. I had given up the fight of trying to keep up with my mother and hung back at the same pace as my brother as we headed out of the station. I threw my arm around his shoulders and pulled him to me. "I swear you've gotten taller. Soon you'll be taller than me!"

Julian smiled. "You noticed! I actually did grow an inch since the summer!"

"A whole inch, wow that's great!"

"Was that sarcasm?" Julian asked, narrowing his eyes at me.

"Of course not," I told him. "Getting taller is always fun, no matter how much or how little you grew."

We reached the car that Mum had gotten to bring us to the station back in September just then, complete with its own driver. Like I mentioned, Mum doesn't drive and came up with a quick and easy excuse as to why she doesn't in case anyone should ask. Anyone who isn't magical, that is. Anyway, because of all of her promotions, she apparently has enough money to do this now. I mean, I guess it is only a few times a year, because she has her own transportation to get everywhere else, but in order to get to a Muggle train station, well, we need an inconspicuous way to arrive.

The three of us slid into the back seat as the driver put my school things into the trunk of the car. He had hurriedly jumped out and taken them from me and I had been ushered into the car before I could even protest. I honestly could have managed myself. I wasn't trying to be overly independent or grouchy or anything like that. It was just that sometimes I felt the measures my mother took to seem so normal and put together were a little bit over the top and not all that necessary.

"So, Lilah," Mum said, turning to me. "How was your first term at school?"

"Great," I told her with a shrug. I wanted nothing more to start babbling about all the fun I had had over the past few months, but I knew my mother would shut me up right away and tell me to stop babbling or not talk so fast. She'd interrupt me in the middle of whatever I was saying and make me not even want to talk at all anymore.

"What are your grades like so far?" she asked.

"Wonderful, actually," I said, letting out a puff of air. "Potions could still use a little work, though…."

"Why is that?" Mum asked, looking over at me.

"Fractions," I grumbled, not meeting her eye. I never wanted to talk to her about fractions again. It felt like I was somehow bringing up the events of last year all over again, even though she clearly had moved on from it a lot better than I had.

Mum sighed. "Lilah," she said, "how is it that you can still be struggling with fractions?"

I shrugged. "I just am."

"Can't you go to your professor and ask him to help you? If Miss Sullivan couldn't succeed in doing it, maybe Professor…." She looked at me with raised eyebrows.

"Snape," I said.

"Maybe Professor Snape could explain it to you so you will. You can't go your whole life without understanding fractions."

I snorted. "Professor Snape would laugh in my face. He expects us to know fractions already so it would be a laughing matter to him if I asked him for help."

"Well, Lilah, you_ should_ know fractions by now," Mum shrugged.

"I'm not stupid just because I don't totally understand them," I said. "Besides, I know the easy stuff. I know a half and a half make a whole and I understand those pie charts Miss Sullivan used to draw, but ask me to multiply and add them and…forget it."

"You're right, you aren't stupid," Mum continued. "Which is why this baffles me."

"I'm not stupid, but I'm not perfect either, Mum," I said, crossing my arms. "Can't we just drop the subject now?"

"Fine, but I expect you to do whatever you have to do to bring that grade up by the end of the year."

"Whatever you say," I muttered under my breath.

"You really shouldn't mumble," my mother said, glancing at her watch for the twelve millionth time in the past five minutes. Any second I was going to just rip it off of her wrist and fling it out the window. She was already driving me insane. "So those two boys," she began after a moment of silence. "They're new friends of yours?" When I looked over at her, she was looking out the window, not at me. I could still see her expression, though. Kind of a mix of exhaustion, irritation and annoyance.

"Yeah," I said. "But then there's also Lee, Katie, Alicia and Angelina. They went with their parents before you showed up."

"What do their parents do?" Mum asked. She tried to make it sound casual, but I knew she was just being nosy and trying to figure out if, to put it bluntly, they were more like us or the Weasleys.

"Lee's dad is a journalist and his mother's a photographer. Katie's parents are both Healers, and so is Angelina's mother. Her dad works at the Ministry. And Alicia's parents own a restaurant in Hogsmeade."

"And what about these Weasleys?" Mum asked. "What do their parents do?"

"Their dad works at the Ministry and—"

"What department?"

I hesitated. "The Misuse of Muggle Artifacts department."

Mum snorted, but before I could start defending the twins' dad, she spoke again. "And what does the mother do?"

"She stays home with her kids."

"How many were there? I wasn't really counting back at the station."

"Seven. Six are still at Hogwarts, but the oldest already left. He's in Egypt, actually. Cool, isn't it?" I turned to her with my eyes bright before I realized just who I was talking to.

"Seven children," Mum repeated, shaking her head. "And with only one parent employed in the department of the Ministry that he is, it's no surprise that they were dressed the way they were. Honestly, if they couldn't afford seven kids, they should have given that decision a second thought."

I took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds, trying to calm myself down. "They aren't dirty or anything."

"Did you see that dirt on the side of that one boy's face?" Mum scoffed. "It makes me wonder if they even have water to bathe in."

I actually scoffed. "Of course they do. And Ron is a nine year old boy who probably likes to play outside. Just because he's dirty once doesn't mean he's always dirty all the time or that they aren't clean. I heard they have a makeshift Quiddtich pitch behind their house. Maybe that's what he was doing before they came to the station."

Mum snorted again. "How silly. People might see them! Their father of all people should know."

"It's surrounded by trees and they live almost in the middle of nowhere. But even so, the houses over the hills nearby are inhabited by wizards, so it doesn't matter."

"Even still," Mum said. "Clearly they are very careless. And besides, Julian is nine and you don't see him with dirt all over his nose."

"Because it's not like we can play outside much. We can't play Quidditch because someone will see and we can't play with the other kids because we never made friends with them! I get the feeling that they're too snooty anyway, though."

"I just think," Mum continued, "that you should be careful who you let into your circle of friends. I know you're young now, but one day you'll understand. I'm not quite sure that the Weasleys are the kind of people you'd want to get close to."

"Why, because I might get fleas?" I asked bitterly.

"Lilah," Mum snapped, finally turning to face me. "You will not speak to me that way again! I don't know what's gotten into you in the past few years. I did not raise you to sneak out of the house and disobey my orders, and I did not raise you to be the person who talks back to me."

"Or hangs around people like the Weasleys?" I asked in a whisper.

She shrugged. "I'm just trying to give you advice, Lilah. Give it some thought, that's all I'm asking."

I rolled my eyes and turned back to looking out my own window as I watched the scenery fly by.

When we got home, I stepped out of the car and looked up at my house. Then, I looked around me at the other houses on the neighborhood. They all had hints of Christmas decorations up. Strings of lights were visible neatly wrapped around bushes and wreaths hanging on the front doors. And on my house…nothing. It was empty. Odd, considering my mother tried so hard to always fit in and make it look like everything was normal.

We always had Christmas decorations. Every year, we'd put up our own wreath on the door and lights on the bushes, just like our neighbors. Dad and Uncle Jesse would take me, Julian and Tess out to get real trees and we'd bring them back to our houses and decorate them. Last year, even though Dad wasn't living with us, he offered to come help with the decorations for Mum's party. Oddly, she let him. I think it was mostly because she really needed the help. This year, though, the house was empty.

I was jolted out of my thoughts by the driver carrying my trunk and owl cage up to the house. I blinked a few times and looked at Julian who had appeared beside me. "Where are the decorations?" I asked.

"Not here," he said bitterly.

"Why not?" I asked in surprise. "The party's tomorrow."

Julian shrugged. "I couldn't do it alone and Mum's been way too busy."

"I guess we'll be working on those today, then," I said with a sigh. "Although, I don't know where we're going to get a tree."

Julian bit his lip nervously, but I didn't think anything of it at the moment. The two of us headed up to the house and let ourselves inside only to see Mum getting ready to leave again.

"Where are you going?" I asked her as she bustled passed me.

"I have to go into the office for a bit," she said, checking to make sure she had everything. "I left a list on the counter of things I need you to start doing. Try to get them done by the time I get home. Love you both and I'll see you later." With that, she was gone.

I turned to Julian, my mouth hanging open. "Is she serious?" I whispered.

He nodded. "She usually has me cleaning the house and doing chores by myself on the weekends I'm here," he said. "I told you that in a letter, I think."

I nodded. "And I told you that was ridiculous."

"She sort of came to her senses, though," he said. "About a month ago, she started helping out. Sort of anyway. We split it up. She cleans the first floor, I clean the second. Of course, she does her share by magic and usually gets it done pretty quickly. And then she rushes of to work. Usually I'm still cleaning, though because I can't use magic. But I guess even the short amount of time it takes her to clean is too much time in her world because lately she's been talking about getting either our own maid or a house elf."

My eyes grew wide. "A house elf?" I asked shrilly. Julian nodded. I couldn't believe this. I didn't want a maid or a house elf. Like I said, I knew house elves were more than happy to do their jobs, but I didn't want one of my own. Not when I was home and was more than capable of helping Julian with the cleaning. It was a lot, and definitely way too much for one person alone, so having a house elf do it all himself (or herself) was pretty unfair. Like Julian said, Mum could use magic and cleaning would take her no time at all. She just overreacted a lot and everything was always about _work._

"Yeah, a house elf," Julian said. "And…she got a fake tree," he whispered. "But she hasn't had time to put it up yet. I'll bet you anything it's on the list of chores in the kitchen."

"A fake tree? But we always get a real one," I said, sitting down on the bottom step of the stairs.

"I know," Julian said, taking a seat next to me. "That's what made me the saddest. When she told me about it, I got mad, too. I kind of yelled. I said that Dad always got us a real tree and why couldn't he bring us one this year?"

"And she told you to stop being ridiculous, right?"

Julian shrugged. "Yeah, basically."

I frowned and ran my hands through my hair as I let out a sigh. "Well, I suppose we'd better get to work, then. I expect there's a long list waiting for us."

The list certainly was long, just like I had expected. It instructed us to do some light cleaning before starting to put up the decorations. We started on the cleaning first and got to work at once. I tied my hair up before grabbing the vacuum and plugging it in. While I did that, Julian got started on the dusting before we each got started on a bathroom. I did the downstairs one and he did the upstairs. We split the one that adjoined Mum's bedroom and after that, we were finally finished and we could start decorating.

We started with the wreath that hung on the front door before moving on to the outdoor lights. Next was the garland that wrapped around the staircase and the candles in the windows. We put a garland over the fireplace mantle and hung up our stockings. Finally, all that was left was the Christmas tree.

"I guess we should go lug it down from the attic," I said, glancing upwards as I collapsed into a chair, "but I think I need a break first." I closed my eyes and leaned my head back. My hair was falling loose from its ponytail and I was tired and slightly sweaty.

"I don't know how we're going to do that without killing ourselves," Julian said, sitting on the couch. "Bring the tree down here, I mean. It's way heavier and taller than we are."

My shoulders slumped. "I wish Dad was here to help us. He'd make this a lot more fun and cheerful."

Just then, the doorbell rang, sounding loud in the quiet house. My eyes snapped open and I looked at Julian for a split second before we both jumped up and bolted to the front door. I pulled it open to reveal a giant pine tree.

"Merry Christmas!" boomed a jolly voice from behind the branches. "I've made my list and checked it twice and it tells me that Julian and Lilah Fitzgerald are in need of a Christmas tree!"

Julian and I smiled at each other. "Wow, Jules," I said. "We must have been really nice this year in order to get such a special visit.

"Of course you were!" boomed the voice again. "That's what my list tells me!"

I giggled and leaned against the doorframe. "Hi Dad," I said.

Dad stuck his head around the side of the tree, something that took a lot of difficulty considering the size of the tree. It was giant. And absolutely beautiful. Way better than our fake tree.

"How'd you know it was me?" Dad asked with a grin. "My impression of good old Saint Nick is pretty good if I do say so myself."

"Because _good old Saint Nick,_" I began, about to respond with a joke, but then looking at Julian and catching myself, "doesn't leave the North Pole in the daytime," I finished slowly.

"Come on, Liles," Julian answered with a role of his eyes. "I already know the truth about all that."

"When did you find out?" I asked in surprise.

Julian hesitated and I actually saw his face fall. "A month or two ago. Mum told me. I asked her if she thought I'd be brought my own broomstick for Christmas and she must have been stressed at the time because she just…told me."

I stared at him for a second, open mouthed before turning to Dad. "She's ruining his childhood," I said before turning and marching inside.

"Liles…Lilah, come on," Dad said, trying to make his way around the tree, but not succeeding and instead getting a face full of pine needles.

I turned halfway to the kitchen and looked back at him. "What?"

"Help me get this tree inside and we'll talk."

I stayed where I was for a second before returning to the front door. The three of us miraculously managed to fit the giant tree into the house and also somehow managed to get it all the way into the designated Christmas tree spot in the living room: right in front of the giant picture window. Dad and I held it up after that while Julian retrieved the stand with water in it from the bag dad had slung over his shoulder. He put it on the ground and we maneuvered the tree into the stand. Once we were done, we stood back, all panting, and admired our handiwork.

"You did a good job this year, Dad," I said, dusting off my hands. "I swear this one's better than last year. And a little taller too."

"Yeah, it looks good," Dad agreed. "I wouldn't go any taller, though or else when we put the angel on top, it'll hit the ceiling."

I nodded in agreement before silently turning towards the box that contained the lights for the tree. "We're going to need a stepstool to start wrapping these lights around the top." The tree must have been about nine or ten feet tall, too tall for even Dad to comfortably reach the top.

"I'll get it," Julian volunteered.

Once he was gone, I busied myself with untangling the lights while Dad just stared at me. I could tell he was staring, but I ignored him anyway.

"Lilah," he finally said.

"She's ruining Julian's childhood, like I said," I told him angrily. "I mean, she has him shipped off to Grandma and Grandpa's almost every day, where he sits bored out of his mind. Then on Saturdays, he'll stay here and help clean the house. And now she told him, by _snapping_ at him, mind you, that the most magical aspect of Christmas for a kid isn't real! She's changed...even more so since you two split up."

"She's coping," Dad said. "It may not seem like it, but she is."

"I was getting suspicious about the whole thing anyway," Julian said, returning with the stepladder. He plunked it down next to the tree and turned to me. "For one thing, last year, I started realizing that the handwriting on the tags looked a lot like Mum's."

"You're not upset about this?" I asked.

Julian shrugged. "Not really. Like I said, I was getting suspicious. Besides, you'd have had to break the news to me sometime soon anyway. It'd be embarrassing to let it go on for too long."

Dad laughed and I looked at him for a second before laughing myself. "Fine," I said. "You win."

The three of us began decorating the tree just then as Dad explained his last minute plan to bring one over. Apparently, he figured Mum wouldn't be home. Besides that, Julian had told him about the fake tree, and Dad had thought it was as silly as I did. Maybe it was a bit trivial, but I loved having a real tree. I loved the smell of it and just the simple fact that it was a real Christmas tree that we had picked ourselves. Besides, it was slightly different every year, but always beautiful.

"But you've brought us a real tree the past two years," I said. "You don't even get to really enjoy it, so what do you get from this?" I hung an ornament on a branch and glanced at him.

"I get to see you two happy," Dad shrugged. "I know how much you two love having the real tree. Real trees are more magical. Besides, now that I'm not living here anymore, bringing a tree over is an excuse to see you a little more than normal." He smiled at us as he pulled out another ornament and hung it near the top of the tree.

I smiled as I toyed with the ornament in my hand. "I'm glad you came," I whispered.

Dad smiled back. "Me too," he answered.

"What's this?" Julian asked, pulling something out of a box of decorations. I turned to look at what it was and smiled. It was an old, fake sprig of mistletoe. I couldn't even remember the last time we'd hung it up anywhere. It must have been when I was younger than Julian. I could vaguely remember Dad purposely pulling Mum under it and kissing her while she laughed.

"Oh, Merlin, we haven't put that up in ages," Dad laughed, taking it from Julian. "It's mistletoe."

"Gross!" Julian exclaimed, taking a few rapid steps back. "People have kissed under that!"

"Yeah, you're right, it's covered in so many germs and cooties," Dad said, flinging it at me.

I caught it against my stomach as I made a face at him. He responded by making one right back at me. I looked over at Julian and grinned deviously before grabbing the mistletoe and holding it above my head as I chased him around the room. I even catapulted myself over the back of the couch in an attempt to catch him. Finally, I did and wrapped an arm around him as I planted a sloppy, loud kiss on his cheek. "Gotcha!" I said breathlessly before kissing his cheek again and letting him go.

"Gross, Liles!" he said, wiping his cheek with the back of his hand.

I grinned and set the mistletoe down on the coffee table. "Say what you want, but that was fun. Your little kid side was showing. A rare appearance."

"So was yours," Julian replied quietly, smiling at me. "Another rare appearance."

I smiled and reached out to squeeze his hand before turning back to Dad, who was gazing down at an ornament in his hand with a small smile. He held it up when he noticed Julian and I looking at him. "Your mother and I got this for you, Liles, for your first Christmas."

I took the ornament from him. It was a baby's first Christmas ornament in the shape of a red and gold rattle with a number one and my name engraved on it. "This has always been one of my favorites," I said, shaking it slightly. The thing actually made noise like a real rattle would.

"Mine too," Dad said. "The one we gave Julian is another favorite." He winked at Julian, who smiled.

It took us another hour or two to finally finish decorating the tree. Once we were done, we put the decorations back in the attic and I vacuumed again to get rid of all the pine needles that had dropped from the tree on the path to the living room. Once that was all done, Dad told us he had to leave. I wished he didn't. I still wasn't used to the fact that he had to leave again every time he came to visit.

I rushed forward and gave him a hug. "Merry Christmas, Dad," I said.

"Merry Christmas, Lilah," he said. "Before I go, though..." He pulled away and reached into his coat pocket pulling out two flat, square gift wrapped packages. "I wanted to give you two these. Open them on Christmas day, not now. Put them under the tree for now. They'll be the first two presents there."

Julian and I smiled as we took the presents. "Thanks, Dad," Julian said. "Although, I'm guessing it's not a broomstick."

Dad laughed. "No, you got me there. But don't worry, you'll have your own broom before you know it. And I expect you to try out for the Quidditch team on that broom."

"I doubt I'll make it right away," Julian said. "I've lost valuable practice time as it is."

"You'll be at Hogwarts for seven years. Six of them are years where you can try out for Quidditch," I said. "Plenty of chances for you to be able to play for at least a year."

Julian shrugged. "I guess so," he said.

"Besides, my friend Angelina wants to be captain eventually. If she makes it, I'll be sure to put in a good word for you."

Julian smiled. "Thanks for that, Liles."

"Speaking of friends," Dad said, "I really like Fred and George. I'm sure I'd like your other friends, too, but I didn't get the chance to meet them. Unfortunately, they opted to go home instead of getting the chance to be graced with my presence." He grinned and put a hand on his chest dramatically.

I laughed. "You'll meet them eventually. But I'm glad you like the twins. Mum doesn't."

Dad groaned. "Of course not."

"Did you see her wipe her hand on her skirt after she shook Mrs. Weasley's hand?" I asked. "I just about hopped onto the next train out of there!"

Dad chuckled. "I would've had to join you, I'm afraid." He paused. "I normally wouldn't like speaking badly about your mother in front of you, considering she _is_ your mother no matter how _my_ feelings towards her have changed, but even I will admit she could've been a little nicer."

"I'm sure they know she hates them and Fred and George say they still like me, but what if the others think I'm just like her?"

"They couldn't," he said. "Not if they believe anything that the twins most likely told everyone about you. They've spent four months getting to know you for you, Liles. Meeting your mother for five minutes won't change that."

I nodded as I thought that over. I hoped Dad was right and that Mrs. Weasley wasn't telling the twins right that minute how she didn't think it would be best for them to hang around such rude people.

Dad gently pulled me to him and kissed the top of my head before he waved and gave us a smile. A moment later, he had Apparated away with a pop.

"You look disgusting," Julian said a moment later, his voice filling the silence that had followed Dad's departure.

I looked down at myself. I had pine needles and tree sap on my shirt and probably in my hair as well, which was also incredibly messy. I was sweaty from lugging boxes around and I felt like I had rolled around in a pile of dust. I smiled and looked down at my little brother, who looked just as bad as I felt.

"So do you," I told him with a shrug. "You look quite hideous, actually."

He smiled and threw his arm up in the air. "I call first shower!" he yelled quickly before immediately taking off towards the stairs. I heard him slam the door to the bathroom in the upstairs hallway and a second later, the lock clicked. I rolled my eyes. He knew that the upstairs bathroom was the only option for us. The downstairs bathroom didn't have a shower and the one in Mum's room was hers. We weren't really allowed to go in it. It wasn't anything she specifically told us not to do, but it was kind of an unspoken rule. But I actually didn't mind having to wait to get into the bathroom. I was just glad to see Julian start acting like a little boy again instead of trying to be so grown up like he had been doing even more so than normal since the divorce. I liked having my little brother back and hopefully he was back for good.

* * *

**A/N: So I'm not exactly sure how long I'll be spending on each school year. I'm kind of just seeing how things go. I don't want to drag it out but I don't want to rush it either. I'm guessing there will only be a few more chapters for this school year left, though. I hope everyone likes the chapter and thank you to anyone who left a review!**


	10. Chapter 10

"Lilah, you aren't ready yet?" My mother's tone was surprised, anxious and a little annoyed as she stopped in my bedroom doorway to see me sprawled on my bedroom floor, still dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt as I flipped through one of my school textbooks.

I hesitated and stared down at the page in front of me, reading the word _tentacula_ over and over as I thought of what I wanted to say to my mother. Finally, I looked up at her. "No, not yet, because I was hoping you'd be able to help me…you know, maybe you can help me with my hair and paint my nails…or something." I shrugged. I doubted she'd say yes, but it was worth a shot.

Her expression softened for a moment. "I'm sorry, I've already painted my nails." She showed me one of her hands and wiggled her fingers, the ends of which contained five perfectly manicured nails. There wasn't a single smudge anywhere and no polish had gotten on her skin around the nail.

"Yeah, but maybe you can do mine. I always get more nail polish on my hand than on my nail."

"You just need practice is all," Mum said. She paused. "And I'd love to help with your hair, but…." She trailed off and glanced down the hallway. "The caterers might need something and then I'd have to leave. I have to keep an eye on what's going on downstairs. The party is in an hour and...you understand, don't you? You're completely capable of doing a fine job of getting yourself ready," she said. "Unfortunately, there's just too much that I need to tend to downstairs before people start arriving."

"You hired people to take care of most of it," I muttered, going back to my textbook.

"Lilah, please," Mum said. I could picture her hand going to her hip as she gave me a look. "Just make sure you and your brother are both ready and waiting downstairs before guests start arriving."

"Fine," I muttered as she walked away down the hallway, her heels clicking with every step. I pushed myself to my feet and headed for my closet, where I pulled out the new dress Mum had bought me. It was red and knee length and flowy and just…beautiful. I loved it and didn't mind wearing it. I just minded the event I was wearing it to.

I put the dress on and brushed my hair, leaving it straight and putting in a silver headband. Then, I attempted to paint my nails a nice silvery color. My left hand came out okay considering I used my right hand to do it, but when I used my left hand to do my right hand, I got nail polish in spots of my skin around my nail. I sighed and held my hand out in front of me. It wasn't _that_ bad and not that noticeable, especially from far away. I guess it would have to do for now.

When my nails had dried, I left my room and walked across the hallway to Julian's room. "You ready?" I asked, knocking twice.

"Yeah, come in," Julian said from the other side of the door.

I walked inside to see Julian sitting in his desk chair, staring at his reflection in the mirror across the room. He had on nice clothes too, including a tie.

"You look very handsome," I told him, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

"I don't think I like wearing ties very much," he said. "I can't really breathe."

"Well, how tight did you tighten it?" I asked with a laugh as I stood up and walked over to him. I pulled his collar back up and started loosening his tie as he protested and fidgeted around. "Stay still," I laughed. "I can't fix it with you moving around. Besides, you better get used to these. You'll be wearing one every day once you start school."

Julian stuck his tongue out at me, but he stopped fidgeting enough for me to finish fixing the tie and pull his collar back down. "Done?" he asked.

"Done," I said. I checked the clock hanging on the wall. "We'd better get downstairs."

Julian glanced at the clock too before nodding. "At least one good thing comes out of this party," he said as we left the room and headed down the stairs.

"What's that?" I asked curiously, unable to think of much good that came from the party. It was boring as most adult parties would be for children.

"There's good food," Julian said with a smile as he patted his stomach. "And I'm hungry."

I laughed. "You actually make a good point."

Just as we reached the last step, the doorbell rang. We looked at each other as Mum bustled past us, fixing her hair. She glanced at us as she reached for the doorknob. "Stand up straight," she reminded us in a whisper. Immediately Julian and I arranged our posture. "And," Mum continued, "don't forget to be polite and _smile_."

I plastered a smile on my face but let it slip once Mum had turned to pull the door open. I glanced at Julian, who looked back at me and sighed. I smiled for real that time and grabbed his hand. "Here we go," I whispered.

He gave my hand a squeeze. "Here we go," he repeated.

* * *

I turned away from another of my mother's friends and made a face as I sighed. Most of these people were nice enough, but I had probably answered the same questions about fifty times. Everyone here was a witch or a wizard, so they all asked me how Hogwarts was going, how my grades were, what my favorite class was…the usual. But this was usually after most of them commented on how positively grown up I was and asking how old I was now.

And then after I had politely answered those questions, a huge smile on my face the whole time, there was an awkward silence before most people I talked to smiled down at me, took a nervous sip of their drink—usually champagne because my mother's parties were always too fancy for butterbeer or firewhiskey—and then made some comment about how wonderful my mother was and/or how wonderful a job she had done putting the party together. I wanted nothing more to let out a snort and list the chores Julian and I had done before pointing out that we also had caterers. Mum actually didn't do all that much except supervise and tell everyone what she wanted done and how to go about doing it. But instead, of course, I smiled and agreed, which led to another awkward silence and usually one of us excusing ourselves.

After I finished talking to Mr. and Mrs. Something-or-other, I managed to sneak back into the kitchen, dodge a few caterers, and slink into the pantry where I closed the door and leaned my head against it as I sighed.

"Rough out there, isn't it?" a voice asked from behind me. I gasped and turned around to see the dim outline of my brother in the dark. He was sitting on the floor, eating from a bag of pretzels.

"Jules, you scared me," I said, sitting down next to him and dusting crumbs off of his shirt. "What are you doing in here?"

"The same thing you're doing in here, I expect," he said with a laugh, sticking two pretzels into his mouth and only making more crumbs.

"Everyone asking you the same questions?" I asked.

"Over and over and over," he said. "And once I answer them, I never know what to say."

"Neither do I so don't worry about it," I told him nonchalantly. I sighed. "But we _should_ get back out there soon, unfortunately, before Mum notices we're gone."

Julian picked up a glass from the ground on his other side and took a drink of what actually looked like milk. "Snuck a glass," he said proudly, lowering it from his face to reveal a milk moustache. Mum usually made us drink water at her parties seeing as we were too young for anything else and milk wasn't "appropriate" for us to drink at parties. It made us seem like little kids, I guess.

"You have a milk moustache," I pointed out. Julian frowned before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Better," I said, standing up. "Now, come on, let's go before Mum figures out we're gone."

Just as Julian was standing up, I saw something moving on the ground. Apparently, he did, too, because he immediately crouched down again. "Bernard!" he gasped.

"You brought your pet hamster down here?" I asked, my eyes going wide. Dad had given Julian the hamster for his birthday in June. Mum had naturally opposed, but Julian promised he would take care of it and keep it in his room at all times and she'd never have to worry about it.

"I needed some kind of company when I was talking to all those people," Julian said, cradling Bernard in his hands.

"Mum will go crazy if she finds out you brought him out of your room—and to her party, no less. Please, Jules, bring him back upstairs before she notices."

"Why? I've kept him in my pocket this whole time and no one's noticed a thing. Besides, he never gets to see the rest of the house."

"He's not seeing it from your pocket either, so what's the difference?" I asked crossing my arms.

Julian was quiet for a moment. "Fine," he eventually muttered. "I'll bring him upstairs."

"You know if it were up to me, I'd let you keep him," I whispered.

"Yeah, yeah," Julian said, pushing open the pantry door and heading through the kitchen. I followed and made sure he was heading for the stairs before I slipped back into the living room. Not even ten seconds later, I heard a shriek and the breaking of glass before the whole house seemed to go silent. I squeezed my eyes shut. _Please don't let that be what I thought it was_, I thought.

"Lilah, there you are," a voice hissed. I opened my eyes to see Tess rushing to my side. "I just got here a few minutes ago and couldn't find you. What was that noise?"

"I have a guess, but I don't want to be right," I said. "Come on." I grabbed her arm and pulled her through the crowd of guests with the same intention as us: getting to the source of the commotion. When we reached the dining room, I saw Julian standing off to the side, holding Bernard, who I was sure I could see shaking from here. A few feet away, a woman was lying on the floor, her drink spilled all over her and the floor—both the wood and the rug placed under the table.

"What happened?" My mother bustled into the room and gasped when she saw the mess. "What's going on?"

"There was a mouse!" the woman on the floor screamed. I glanced up to see Julian attempting to slip Bernard back into his pocket, but my mother apparently saw as well. She pressed her lips into a line so thin that they became almost nonexistent.

"I apologize, Diane," she said, still staring at Julian, who looked back at her in terror. He was practically cowering against the wall. "But it wasn't a mouse. It was my son, Julian's hamster. He's not supposed to let him out of his cage."

There was another moment of silence before Diane actually laughed. "Well, that's a relief," she said, standing up and looking down at her dress, now with a soaking wet circle on the skirt.

Mum took in the stain on Diane's dress as well as the wet floor and carpet before turning to me. "Bring your brother upstairs and see to it that his pet gets put back in its cage at once, please. I'll deal with getting this mess cleaned up."

I looked at her, trying to silently communicate that I wanted her to take it easy on Julian, but she didn't seem to understand. And if she did, she didn't show it. I was afraid she'd yell at him or even worse, say something that made him feel even more upset and guilty than he already did. I didn't want that. I'd had her do that to me plenty of times and it wasn't fun to feel that way.

"Lilah, I meant now," she said sternly.

I nodded and crossed the room to my brother before ushering him out of the room and up the stairs. Once we reached his bedroom, I shut the door and closed my eyes for a second before turning back to Julian, who was silently slipping Bernard back into his cage. Once he had locked the door, he turned towards me, a sad and almost frightened look on his face. "He jumped out of my pocket," he finally whispered.

"Jules, don't worry about it," I said. "It was an accident. You didn't mean it."

"I'm going to be in so much trouble," he muttered.

"No, it'll be okay. She'll be mad for a bit, but it'll blow over."

"Mum being _mad for a bit_ is enough," Julian argued.

I opened my mouth to answer, but before I got the chance, the door flew open to reveal my mother standing there, her lips still set in a thin line and her arms crossed.

"_What_ on Earth do you think you were doing?" she asked angrily. "Bringing that rodent downstairs with a party going on!"

Julian flushed a deep red color and looked at the ground. "I just thought he'd like to get out for a bit. And I could have company…."

"Look at me when you speak, Julian," Mum said. "And you know the rules. Your pet stays here in your room and in his cage. Always. Besides, why would you need company at a party full of people that you know full well you should be socializing with?"

"I did socialize," he said, "but…."

"He's kind of shy sometimes," I spoke up. "He doesn't like talking to all those people. We don't even know half of them! And there are some of them that are so stuffy!"

"Lilah, enough!" Mum snapped. She turned to Julian. "You need to get over this _shy_ business."

I snorted and crossed my arms. "Yeah, just like that. He'll just snap his fingers and—"

"Lilah!" Mum rounded on me, her eyes wide and her jaw set. Any moment, she'd actually start breathing fire. My instincts told me to look away and retreat into the corner, shaking with fear. But I didn't. Maybe it had to do with me sticking up for my brother, but my Mum's anger wasn't scaring me too badly today.

"Look," I told her, speaking calmly, which was actually still a bit difficult. "The mess can be cleaned up, there's no harm done…that woman _laughed_…."

"Of course she's going to laugh _now_," Mum said. "But when she's home, all she'll talk about is the _rodent_ running around at the Christmas party she just went to. She'll talk about how it scared her half to death and she wound up on the floor with champagne all over her! And then she'll talk about how it wasn't a mouse, but the silly pet of the host's child!"

"Of course this ties back to you and how you'll look," I scoffed. "Julian feels terribly! He was afraid of your reaction! That's not how it should be! Can't you just think of him—us—for one moment and—"

"Lilah Michelle Fitzgerald, that is quite enough." Instead of yelling this time, Mum spoke quietly, her voice low and menacing as she glared down at me. "You two know the rules and you know how you're supposed to conduct yourselves. But yet it seems that you two can never do what I ask. Not one hundred percent at least. Julian needs a rat—"

"Hamster," I corrected.

"Whatever," Mum said, waving her hand. "He needs his pet to have courage to talk to people. It's ridiculous, really."

"He's nine!" I said.

"And you," Mum plowed on. "You really aren't setting a good example for your brother at all. He's not going to grow and change for the better. He's only going to get worse. Especially if you continue to let him believe it's okay to misbehave!" She paused. "I thought that once your father was gone, you'd grow up some, but you still aren't up to my standards. You've worsened in some ways, actually. Talking back left and right, letting your grade in Potions slip down to what it is…I honestly don't know what's gotten into you."

I stared at her, open mouthed. I had always thought Julian and I had been forced to act older than we were because of her standards, but did she notice that? Of course not. In her eyes, she simply zeroed in on the things we still did wrong and blew them way out of proportion.

"I think you should go to your room now," Mum whispered. "The party is almost over and I think you've made enough of an appearance. It'll be best for you to lie low now so I can fix the mess that was made." She held open the door and gestured for me to leave first. I did, with a glance back at Julian, who was looking at the ground again, completely miserable. My eyes filled with tears as I hurried back to my room and locked the door. I flung myself down at my desk chair and spun around once as I just let myself have a moment to be angry.

Then, I made the decision that I needed to talk to someone about what had just happened. Or maybe more than one someone. People who would understand and make me laugh. I couldn't talk to Tess because she was still downstairs. I wasn't even allowed to go say goodbye to her. Sighing, I pulled out some paper and beginning a letter to the twins, ranting about what had just happened. Then, I wrote one to dad, saying pretty much the same thing, but with more detail than the one I wrote to the twins. Then, I tied them both to Casper's leg and opened the window.

I rested my elbows on the sill as I watched the owl fly farther and farther away. It was cold outside and even starting to snow a little bit, but I didn't mind. I watched the white flakes flutter around, silently and peacefully. It was odd. It looked so peaceful outside. Peaceful, calm and normal. Definitely not what it was like inside my house.

It was funny, I thought, as I closed my window and changed into my pajamas, that my mother tried so hard to blend in with the people in this neighborhood, but she didn't do as good a job as she thought. She had all the technical stuff down, and to someone simply passing by, we were as normal as could be. But one look behind the closed doors, one could see that we weren't all that normal. Julian and I got yelled at for being too shy or not understanding fractions. We cleaned and put up decorations on our own and tried our very best to behave and do everything she wanted, but it was never good enough. It almost made me wonder if I'd ever be good enough—for my mother or for anyone else.

* * *

"So, how was your holiday besides the big hamster fiasco?" Fred asked. I had met up with my friends on the train and immediately felt a huge sense of relief to be back with them again. But once again, I felt a twinge of regret at leaving Julian behind.

My brother had knocked on my door a few minutes after I had sent off my letters to Dad and the twins. The second I opened it, he looked up at me with watery eyes and whispered, "You didn't believe what Mum said to you, did you? I love you and I think you're pretty great." In turn, I let out a laugh, shaky from holding back my own tears, and hugged him.

"Of course not," I said. But the truth was that maybe I had let my mother's words get to me. Maybe a little, anyway.

My mother was still angry at both of us the day after the party—Christmas day. That made it ten times worse. We opened presents together, but it wasn't as exciting as it should have been. It was another way I felt robbed of a childhood. I couldn't remember the last time Julian and I had stampeded down the stairs and torn into our gifts. Probably at least three years ago, but I wasn't even sure about that. Mum would always tell us to slow down whenever we did that, so it could have been longer.

"It was fine," I said now, in response to Fred's question. I shrugged one shoulder as I stared down at my hands. "I saw my dad last weekend. And he came over the weekend before that to help us put up decorations, actually. I just wish I got to see him on Christmas day. He gave me and Julian both picture frames, though. They had family pictures in them already. Family pictures with all of us in them. It was a nice idea." There was a pause before I put a smile on my face and looked up at the others. "How was your holiday?"

"It was pretty good," Fred shrugged.

"Come on, I'm sure it was great. You don't have to downplay it because you're afraid of hurting my feelings."

Fred and George looked at each other. "Okay, it was great," George said. "Mum cooked so much food, as she always does and we all got new Weasley sweaters." He gestured to the navy blue sweater with a white G on it. Fred had the same sweater with an F on it.

"Weasley sweaters?" I asked curiously.

"Yeah, Mum knits all of us sweaters every single year," Fred said.

"All of you?" I asked in surprise. That was certainly a lot of knitting, even with the aid of magic.

"Every single one of us, even Dad," Fred said. "She even knits one for herself, but I think that's just because Dad told her she should so she wouldn't be left out." He shrugged and smiled.

"Nine sweaters," I said, shaking my head. "Isn't that a lot of work, even by magic?"

"Yeah, it takes her ages," George said with a shrug. "But she loves doing it. She insists, actually, and none of us complain because they're great sweaters. Really warm, too."

"I bet," I said, staring down at my hands. My mother would've thought the sweaters were hideous, but I loved them and a strange part of me wished I had one. Mum always just bought me clothes—I don't think she even knew how to knit, even by magic—and they were never clothes like the Weasleys always wore. They were nice, don't get me wrong, and I did love most of them, but the Weasley sweaters…maybe it had something to do with them being handmade, but there was something special about them that I kind of envied.

"You okay?" Fred asked, nudging my ankle with his foot.

I nodded. "Just thinking."

"Okay," Fred said slowly before brightening as he remembered something. "Hey, I wanted to ask you if you did the History of Magic homework over the holiday."

"Of course I did." I answered.

"That's right," he replied. "I should've known." He gave me a half smile. "Keeping your grades up."

I nodded. "Why are you asking?"

"Can we copy it?" Fred asked sweetly, gesturing to himself and George.

I looked from one pleading face to the other as my mouth spread into a smile and I laughed. "I'll let you copy my notes, not my homework," I finally said.

Fred and George both shrugged. "We'll take that," they said together.

I laughed. "I don't understand why you two can't just take your own notes."

"In History of Magic?" George scoffed. "We're too busy sleeping."

"Yeah, I mean we're passing every subject," Fred added. "Just barely History of Magic and Potions for me and History of Magic and Transfiguration for George, but we are passing."

"Will your parents be mad?" I asked curiously. I knew my mother wouldn't let me barely pass anything. I was already barely passing Potions as it was and my mother was on my case to bring the grade up by the end of the year.

The twins shrugged. "Not mad necessarily, but a little disappointed I guess. Mum more so than Dad."

I nodded. I wasn't really in the mood to talk about grades. It always seemed they were all my mother wanted to talk about. It got tiring after a while.

Once the train reached the station, we made our way up to the castle and towards the common room. I said goodbye to Tess before she headed in the direction of her own common room.

"You look miserable," Fred commented as we approached the Fat Lady's portrait. "I don't like it."

I looked up at him as a giggle escaped my lips. "Sorry," I shrugged.

"Are you still upset about how your mother reacted to the hamster thing?" George asked.

I shrugged again. "Yeah, it's that and I just felt extra bad leaving Julian again. He wasn't himself for the rest of the holiday either and he's not seeing Dad until next week. I'm hoping Dad can cheer him up, but it's a whole week that he'll be spending with my grandparents, doing nothing."

Fred stopped where he was and bit his lip in thought. "Want to help us practice Quidditch?" he asked.

"Don't you do that all the time at home?" I asked.

"Yeah, but we don't have a real pitch. And the only ball we have is an old Quaffle. No Bludgers and no Snitch. And no hoops to throw the Quaffle through. Just trees."

"How is this supposed to cheer me up?" I asked.

"I didn't say it would," Fred said with a smile. "I'm asking you for my and George's personal gain. We need to practice so that we'll make the team for sure next year." He paused. "And I'm also suggesting it in the hopes that getting you out on a broom actually will make you feel better. It works for me and George."

I smiled. "Thanks, Fred." I paused as I deliberated the offer. "And sure, I'll come."

The twins grinned. "Brilliant," they said, before Fred grabbed my arm and we ran the rest of the way to the dorms. We grabbed coats, hats, scarves and gloves and the twins grabbed their brooms before we ran back downstairs and out the doors to the Quidditch pitch.

"I'll get a broom for you to use, Lie," George volunteered as he jogged over to the shed outside of the door to the changing rooms. He pulled at the handle, but the door didn't budge. "It's locked," he muttered. He hesitated a moment before aiming his wand at the lock. "Alohomora!" He tried the door again and it still didn't budge. "Seriously?" he asked. "They charmed it against Alohomora. How protective are they of their brooms."

"It makes sense," I told him. "I mean, they're school property so if someone snuck one out, like we're doing now, and broke one, it's an issue. Or if someone got hurt, or even tampered with one before a match…."

"Well, why did you agree to this?" Fred asked. "If there's a possibility of getting in trouble—"

"Because I'm not going to break or tamper with the broom and I'm not going to get hurt," I said calmly. "No one will ever know I used it."

"And you call _us_ over-confident," Fred muttered.

I gave his arm a shove before walking over to the shed to stand beside George. I pulled a hairpin out of my pocket and began to pick the lock. A moment later it clicked and I pulled the door open and grabbed a broom before closing it again. When I turned around, Fred and George were gaping at me. "What?" I asked casually.

"What was that?" Fred asked, blinking at me a few times.

"An old Muggle trick," I said. "Tess' dad told me how to do it. He used to use it for the same exact reason I just did back when he was at school. All you do is stick the hairpin in the lock and wiggle it around until it opens. Easy, really. Slower than magic, but easy."

"Do you just carry hairpins around for that reason?" Fred asked.

"No, not always. I grabbed one specifically for tonight though. I thought we'd need it. And luckily I have plenty of these lying around." I shrugged. "You know...long hair and all."

"Think we can borrow some?" Fred asked. "One of those pins, I mean. Not some of your hair." He shook his head and looked away as he fought back a laugh.

I giggled. "Seriously?"

"Seriously." Fred responded as George nodded.

I shrugged and mounted my broom. "I don't see why not." I handed the one in my hand to Fred. "You might want to use this one to sneak into Madame Hooch's office and get the box with the balls in it. I'm sure she keeps them just as well protected as the brooms." I nodded towards the direction of the changing rooms. Madame Hooch's office wasn't far from them and both could be reached from the outside. "I'll wait here."

Fred took the hairpin from me and let out a laugh of impressed disbelief before grinning and jogging off with George. While I waited for them to return, I kicked off from the ground and flew around the Quidditch pitch a few times. I had been on a broom before, but not very often. Dad would sometimes take me and Julian to a clearing in the woods behind our house and let us take turns using his old broom. Neither of us had one of our own, though. Mum wouldn't allow it. We had to keep it a secret from her that we even flew a broom anywhere near our house. It had to do with her fear of being seen. Which did make sense, but the way I saw it, as long as we were hidden from sight, we were okay and no harm was done.

"Liles, get down here," Fred called from below me.

I flew down to the ground and landed beside the twins, who were carrying a trunk between them which I assumed contained the Quaffle, Snitch and Bludgers.

"We're going to need you to open the trunk and release the Bludgers," George said as he and Fred lowered the trunk to the ground. "Fred and I have had loads of practice using a Quaffle already, as makeshift as it is, but since we'll be trying out to be Beaters, we need practice with the Bludgers."

I nodded. "Got it."

The twins mounted their brooms and flew around the pitch a few times, taking a few practice swings with the borrowed Beater bats as they went. I sat down on the grass and watched them for a bit until I saw them stop in midair. Fred nodded to me and I leaned forward to open the trunk. The moment I did, the Bludgers began fighting against their holds as if they sensed they were about to be let loose. I released them quickly and they shot out at once, flying by on either side of my head and making my hair flutter. I turned to see the twins ducking out of the way as the Bludgers made a beeline for them. Fred actually ended up doing a barrel roll and I laughed as I made myself comfortable on the grass again.

The twins actually did a good job for not having that much Beater practice. Sure, there were times where they missed the Bludgers completely, but they never got hit with one, which was a plus. They even let me have a turn, which was actually pretty fun.

Finally, I happened to glance at my watch and gasp. Dinner would be starting any minute. I called up to the twins, and they flew back down to the ground. The three of us managed to get the Bludgers back into the box fairly quickly. Then, I put away the broom I had borrowed and we headed back to Madame Hooch's office. We slipped the trunk back into the closet in the corner before heading back to the door. When we opened it again, however, we all froze in our tracks. Filch was standing there glaring at us.

"Oh no," I whispered. I could practically hear the simultaneous gulps coming from Fred and George. I wasn't sure how he knew we were here, or if it had just been a coincidence, but it didn't matter. We were all most certainly in trouble and I was most likely about to get my very first detention.


	11. Chapter 11

"This is bad. Very, very bad." I paced back and forth across Filch's office. Filch had brought the three of us straight there and then he said he had to leave for a moment in order to go find some form that he had run out of. I guess his thing was that he'd fill out a form documenting what the student (or students) he had caught had done wrong—a "crime" as he called it—as well as whatever punishment they received. Then he'd store the form in a file cabinet for future reference. He also had other file cabinets that were neatly labeled, telling us that they contained confiscated items.

"We're going to get a detention. So what?" Fred asked from across the room, where he was snooping through some of the file cabinets with confiscated items in them. George, on the other hand, was on the opposite side of the room, examining a copy of the list of forbidden items Dumbledore had told us about, which was hanging on the wall. After a moment, he ripped it off the wall and pocketed it.

"What?" he asked, when he saw the look I was giving him. "Fred and I have been waiting all year to get our hands on this and now is the perfect opportunity. Besides, there's another one hanging outside on the door and he probably has loads of other copies stored around here somewhere. He won't possibly miss just one."

I shook my head and continued my pacing. "Whatever," I sighed. "Anyway, I can't get a detention. It'll ruin my perfect record and then when my mother finds out—"

"Who says you have to tell her?" Fred asked, sliding open another file cabinet drawer. I leaned over and closed it and he sent me a look before pulling it open again and rifling through it.

"With my luck, she'll find out somehow and if I haven't told her on my own…." I turned back to Fred. "Will you stop _snooping_? If Filch comes back and sees you, you'll get into even more trouble."

Fred ignored me. Instead, he pulled out a packet of blank parchment from the bottom drawer that he was crouched in front of and frowned. "Why would Filch confiscate blank parchment from someone?" he asked.

"He probably just misplaced it or something," I said. "Just put it back and close the drawer."

"Maybe it's not just blank parchment," George said, walking over to stand behind Fred and look down at the parchment. "Filch must have taken this from someone for a reason. It must do something and it just ends up disguised as blank parchment so it'll look more innocent than it really is. My guess is that it does something and there's probably a secret charm or something that'll get it to work."

The two of them grinned deviously at each other before Fred pocketed the parchment and stood up, gently nudging the drawer closed with his foot.

I opened my mouth to protest, but before I could speak, Filch marched back into the room, Mrs. Norris at his feet and the forms he had been looking for in his hands. He spread them all out on his desk and wrote one of our names on each.

"Crime," he muttered to himself as he wrote something on the next line. "Sneaking into a professor's office…stealing broomsticks…stealing items only to be handled by Madame Hooch. Suggested punishment…one night of detention each. At the very minimum."

I sighed. There went my perfect record. Maybe it had been ridiculous to believe I could make it through seven years of school without a single detention. I'm sure it wasn't impossible, but it would be difficult to do, especially being friends with Fred and George. It wasn't that they were necessarily bad kids, but they just liked to bend certain minor rules. That was the difference.

We were sent to dinner after that—or what was left of dinner at that point—and the three of us made our way towards the great hall in silence. Despite how quiet we were, I think I was the only one bothered by our detention. Fred and George didn't get upset over things like this. They had nothing to worry about—no impending lecture from their mother. Besides, they had gotten two things they had wanted from Filch's office: the list of forbidden items and that mysterious blank parchment to investigate.

"Lilah, cheer up," Fred said as we sat down at the Gryffindor table beside Angelina, Katie, Alicia and Lee, who all turned to look at us.

I sent Fred a look. "Filch is bringing those forms to McGonagall. Tomorrow she'll tell us where we'll be serving our detention. Excuse me for not skipping with joy."

"You got a detention," Angelina stated, raising her eyebrows. "What'd you do?"

"Fred and George I can see getting a detention, but Lilah?" Lee added. He shook his head. "That's a front page story. Maybe I should write to my dad now and by tomorrow it'll be on the front page of the Prophet." He held his hands out in front of him and narrowed his eyes. "Lilah Fitzgerald earns very first detention."

"We didn't do anything wrong," I said. There was a pause. "Well, I guess _technically_ it was wrong. There's a rule against it and I can see why. And I knew what we were doing was against the rules at the time, but we weren't doing it to do the thing the rule is supposed to prevent by being in place."

"Enough babbling, Lie," Fred said, holding up a hand. "You're ruining a very nice story by babbling. Just let me tell it." He cleared his throat dramatically. "George, Lilah and I were out on the Quidditch pitch. Lilah was supervising our practice. We even let her have a turn trying to hit some Bludgers at one point, mainly because George and I are such kind and generous people trying to cheer up a friend."

"Fred, get to the point," Angelina sighed.

"Fine. So, anyway, in order to do this, we had to take a broom out of the broom shed for Lilah and we had to borrow the box of Quidditch balls from Madame Hooch's office. On our way out from replacing them, we ran into Filch. The end."

"You aren't supposed to take those," Angelina said. "Only Madame Hooch can touch them. Otherwise people on opposing teams would try to tamper with the balls."

"We're aware," I said, putting food on my plate with a little more force than necessary. "But we had no intention of tampering with them."

"Well, no one would be able to know that," Angelina shrugged.

"Come on, Ange, I'm the face of innocence," I told her with an overly large grin.

She laughed. "Not quite," she said. "More so than these two buffoons," she gestured to Fred and George, "but still, not quite. Besides, you said so yourself that you knew you were breaking rules. Taking the balls and a broomstick out is against the rules, no matter what you were planning on doing with them."

I nodded. "I know. I knew what I did was wrong and I did it anyway. I guess I deserve a detention, but I just don't like it."

I sighed and picked at my dinner as my thoughts drifted to my mother. I knew she would think a detention was a big deal, but it honestly wasn't. I knew that. And it was one detention not an expulsion. Besides, Filch hadn't mentioned anything about writing to our parents so maybe she wouldn't find out. Maybe I could escape another unbearable lecture about how she apparently doesn't know who I am anymore. But the sad thing is that I'm not sure she ever knew me in the first place.

* * *

"Hey, Lilah, come here."

I looked up to see Fred and George beckoning me over from a table in the corner of the common room. I was sitting on the couch working on my Charms homework and I sighed before setting my book down and walking over to them. "What is it?" I asked, sinking into a chair and rubbing my tired eyes, bleary from searching through textbooks and notes for the past few hours.

"Fred and I have been trying to figure out this blank parchment we found in Filch's office," George said. "But nothing's worked so far."

"Maybe it is just a blank piece of parchment, like I said," I shrugged. Honestly, I could understand Fred and George being curious about things. Merlin knows I could be the same way. But maybe sometimes there wasn't anything to be curious about.

"No, we don't think so," Fred said, studying the parchment and turning it over in his hands. He was frowning in thought and was clearly thinking so hard that I half expected steam to start billowing from his head.

"If only you put this much time and thought into your homework," I muttered.

Fred and George both shot me a look. "Go sit with Percy if you're going to talk to us like that," Fred said. He pointed across the room to where Percy was sitting with his nose buried in a book. "You're starting to sound like him, Liles."

I blew a puff of air out of the side of my mouth, causing a loose strand of hair to shoot up before falling back down again. "Okay, so let's just say that this parchment is some kind of magical, charmed item. Maybe whatever magic it takes to get it to work is advanced beyond the abilities of three first years."

Fred and George were quiet. They knew that I had made a point. A look of defeat crossed their faces for a brief second before they perked up again.

"Maybe Charlie can figure it out!" George said.

"Your brother's busy," I said. "Besides, even if he can actually _do _the magic, we still haven't figured out what it is yet. Also, what if he wants in on this? Are you willing to share it?"

"Again, you can go sit with Percy if you're going to be like that," George said. "Fred and I have a feeling that this piece of parchment is something great and we're going to figure it out."

"Okay," I said, leaning back in my chair. "What if it's dangerous, though?"

The twins shrugged. "I doubt it," Fred said.

"Let me guess, you have a _feeling_?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"Lilah, seriously, go sit with—"

"Percy, yeah, yeah," I sighed, waving my hand. I glanced back at Percy before chewing my lip in thought. "You don't suppose he'd help you?" I asked.

Fred snorted and jabbed at the parchment with his wand. "No way," he said. "He'd make us return this to Filch, or even just confiscate it himself."

I pulled my knees up to my chest and rested my chin on them as I watched the twins take turns prodding at the parchment with their wands. "I don't think that's going to do anything," I told them.

They both looked up at me and gave me another look. I figured they'd go tell me to sit with Percy again, so I decided to just leave this time. I stood up and turned to walk back to the couch, but after a second, hesitated and turned back. "My guess is that, if this blank parchment _does_ do something, it's going to take more than just a wand movement to get it to work. Or even more than a spell—at least a common one anyway. Maybe some kind of password or something. If just poking it worked, anyone would be able to figure it out. And if this parchment is as special as you feel…if it _is_ something that Filch would feel the need to confiscate, then it's not something that the owner would want to fall into the wrong hands. The owner wouldn't want anyone who should confiscate it to automatically know or even have an idea of how to work it. There has to be a unique way to get it to work." With that, I left the twins sitting there dumbfounded and made my way back to the couch where I sat down again and resumed my homework.

* * *

"This is disgusting!" Fred griped as he held his breath and started scrubbing at the toilet he was kneeling in front of.

McGonagall had ended up assigning us only one detention, despite Filch's claim that one was the minimum amount we should receive. It took place two nights after we had been caught and we had actually been assigned to clean the toilets in one of the girls' bathrooms on the third floor—without magic. At first, Fred and George had expressed their opposition to going into a girls' bathroom, but Professor McGonagall had given them a stern look and they had fallen quiet. There were ten toilets in the bathroom, which meant we'd each get three and one person would get four. Something told me that I would end up being that person.

"I think I'm going to vomit," George added from the stall beside me. His voice sounded muffled as if he were covering his mouth with his arm.

"Oh, please, they're not that bad," I said from my spot in the first stall. "I mean, they're probably worse than most considering they're public toilets, but they really aren't bad."

"Liles, do me a favor and stop talking," Fred said, still sounding like he was holding his breath.

"Do you clean toilets often, Lie?" George asked. He clearly meant it as a joke, but he actually nailed it on the head.

"Actually, yeah, all the time at my house. I think you knew that. Don't you two help clean at your house?"

"Yeah, but George and I always worm out of toilet duty," Fred said. "We can actually get Percy to do it most of the time."

"Lucky you," I said, wiping my sleeve across my face. I hated the tiny evidence of bitterness that showed in my tone. We were all cranky and hating our current situation, but it was no excuse for us to snap at each other.

"It's not like we sit around and do nothing," Fred said from the third stall, his tone coming out snappish as well. "We help our mother when we can. We do chores. You aren't the only one, you know. Honestly, if anyone's better off, it's you. Enough money for a private tutor. And no one makes fun of _you_ for being poor."

"Shut up, Fred!" I cried. Honestly, was it necessary to drag all that up? I knew he wasn't exactly jealous, but I also knew that he would be the type bothered by not having a lot of money if people were teasing him for it. Which he was now claiming. It was the first I had heard about it and it upset me, but he didn't need to take it all out on me. I hated that he was implying that I was some kind of spoiled princess.

"Enough, both of you," George said, putting an end to the brewing argument.

I finished cleaning the toilet I had been working on and stood up, wiping away the few tears that had come to my eyes at Fred's words. I made my way down to the fourth stall, but paused outside Fred's on my way there. He stood up and faced me, picking up his cleaning supplies as he did. "Who makes fun of you for being poor?" I asked quietly.

Fred hesitated as he scanned my face, no doubt noticing the few remaining tears on my face. "Just Slytherins," he said with a shrug. "Flint, Montague….But they're always rude anyway, so the insults don't matter."

"That doesn't mean they don't hurt," I said quietly, giving him a half-smile. "I'm sorry they do that. For what it's worth, the princess likes you no matter how much money you have." I curtseyed and smiled a little wider.

Fred laughed quietly. "You aren't—I didn't—I didn't mean it like that. You don't have it all that easy." He met my eyes sheepishly. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "Don't cry."

"I'm not," I said, laughing and wiping at my eyes again. "I'm fine."

Fred stepped forward and hugged me. I hugged him back and closed my eyes. It was so rare that I hugged anyone besides Dad and Julian, and now I didn't even see either one of them all that often. Anyway, having Fred hug me felt nice.

Seven toilets later, we lugged our cleaning supplies back to the closet down the hallway and headed back to the Gryffindor common room. We were dirty, grimy and tired. All I wanted was a shower and to go to bed.

"How was your detention?" Angelina asked with a smirk when I walked into my dorm. "It was exactly how it looks," I told her. "Gross."

"Maybe that'll teach you to tamper with the Quidditch equipment," Angelina said, grinning.

"We didn't tamper with it and you know it!" I laughed, picking up a pair of socks from the floor and throwing them at her. "And pick up your socks."

"Those aren't mine!" she exclaimed with a giggle.

"They're mine," Katie said absentmindedly from her own bed, where she was reading her History of Magic book. "Sorry."

"Why are they halfway across the room?" I asked.

"Because I am a slob," she deadpanned, lowering her book and staring at me with a flat expression. "A messy living space is a visual representation of how I feel trying to pass History of Magic."

I laughed and tried to slap the book out of her hand. Katie did somewhat have a point. She wasn't really all that messy, but right now, her trunk had stuff hanging out of it, her bed was rumpled and her socks had been halfway across the room. "What happened anyway? Did you get so frustrated with History of Magic you took it out on your things?"

"No," she said. "I've been sitting in my bed for hours so I wouldn't be distracted studying in the common room. That's why my blankets are all over the place. And then I got hungry, so I searched my trunk for the chocolate frogs my Mum sent me last week. My socks must have gotten tossed out in the process."

"Want to borrow my notes?" I asked. "Fred and George are already using them, but when they're done, feel free. I mean, why not, right?"

"I might as well," Katie sighed. "My notes are all spotty from constantly zoning out in that class."

"You know, Liles," Angelina began. "You really need to get into that bathroom. You're practically radiating grime. Maybe you're taking a leaf out of Katie's book and are going for a struggling to pass Potions motif." She giggled at her own joke as I rolled my eyes.

"Hysterical," I said. "Perhaps my dad will bring you along to some of his shows. The crowd would _love _you."

"Ha," Angelina said, making a face at me as I disappeared into the bathroom. I retaliated in the most mature way possible: by making a face back.


	12. Chapter 12

"Any luck on that parchment yet?" I made myself comfortable in a chair beside the twins at the table in the corner of the common room that was seemingly becoming their favorite.

"None," George sighed.

"And if you tell us one more time that perhaps it really is just a blank piece of parchment, then I will physically carry you over to Percy myself," Fred added. "And then when you hit it off, I'll even plan your wedding."

"Please, don't be disgusting," I said as George snorted with laughter. We all knew that while I didn't necessarily dislike Percy, I didn't really have all that much in common with him. While I didn't necessarily think it was a bad thing that he was always studying, like Fred and George seemed to think, I did feel that he perhaps could use a break now and then. Maybe then he'd be more relaxed and less likely to yell at people—usually the twins.

"I'm going to tell Percy you think he's disgusting," Fred taunted, poking me playfully with his quill.

"It's not that _he's_ disgusting it's that—"

"Being married to him is disgusting," Fred finished. "Got it. I'm still going to tell him."

I gave him a look. "Just because I have no interest in ever marrying Percy doesn't mean nobody else ever will."

The twins looked at each other and pretended to gag. I sighed and leaned back in my chair. Sometimes trying to make a point to them was so useless.

"Why are we even discussing this anyway?" George asked. "It's making my stomach churn."

I made a face at him before looking down and watching them poke at the parchment as my thoughts began to wander. We had only found the parchment three days ago and the twins were working nonstop to figure out what it was. As curious as I was to see if it would be anything special after all, I half hoped it wasn't. I really wasn't looking to get into any more trouble at the moment.

I had written to Julian after I had gotten my detention and I had mentioned what had happened without really thinking. Usually our letters were kept private and my mother had never purposely read our mail before-she wasn't _that_ overbearing. Not yet at least-but I guess Julian had fallen asleep with his light on the other night and when my mother went to turn it off, she spotted my letter lying on his desk and of course the one word she happened to spot in her quick glance was _detention_. The next morning, I received a very unhappy letter from her. She warned me again about the kinds of friends I was making and expressed her disapointement that I had done something so obviously silly and stupid that earned me a detention. Needless to say, I had ripped the letter to shreds right there at the table.

"You okay?" George asked me now, snapping me out of my trance.

"Yeah," I whispered, nodding my head quickly as I blinked a few times. "Just thinking."

"I'm sorry your mother had to find out about the detention," Fred said.

"I'm just grateful that she didn't send a Howler," I said. "But then again, she probably wouldn't want to broadcast to everyone how shameful I am. You know, in case they don't already know."

"Please, Lilah, you're far from shameful," George snorted.

I shrugged in response as I scanned the common room. Just then I noticed that Percy himself had packed up his books and was heading our way. Well, most likely towards the dormitory stairs, but our table was a few feet away from there. He was also looking at us and probably saw Fred and George prodding a blank parchment with their wands. That meant he was going to come question us. Brilliant.

"Percy's coming over here," I hissed. "You'd better hide that if you don't want him to ask questions."

Fred immediately shoved the parchment under his Potions book just as Percy arrived at our table. "What are you up to?" he asked suspiciously. "I saw you poking at something with your wand. Trying to blow up the common room, perhaps?"

The twins snorted. "Don't be dumb, Perce. Do you really think we'd do _that_?" Fred asked.

"No, we were trying to help Lilah understand Potions," George said. "She's terrible at it as it is, but Snape asks us to do formulas, and you know, math, a lot and then she completely breaks down. It's quite pathetic, really, so we've decided to help her out."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "I hate you," I muttered.

George shrugged and smiled angelically at his older brother, who stared right back, apparently not sure if he should buy George's explanation. "You're sure you're not doing anything you aren't supposed to?" he asked, clearly still suspicious.

George placed a hand over his heart and closed his eyes. "I solemnly swear," he said.

"Yeah, that you're up to no good," I hissed under my breath.

"What was that?" Percy asked, but I barely heard him. I was too preoccupied with staring at the corner of the parchment sticking out from under Fred's book. It looked like ink was slowly spreading over it completely on its own. No one had touched it and no ink had spilled. Merlin, the thing was magical after all.

"Er, nothing," I said, sliding my own book to cover the remainder of the parchment as I looked innocently up at Percy. "They really were helping me with Potions. It's true, I'm hopeless."

Percy frowned. "Oh," he said. "Well, I'm not sure what kind of help you'll get from Fred and George. It's true that George is pretty good at math, but if you need any additional help, don't be afraid to come to an older student. I'm sure maybe even I can find some time in my schedule to help you out."

"Thanks, Percy," I said, flashing him a quick smile. I wished he would leave so I could show Fred and George what had happened to the parchment because I knew they hadn't noticed it.

Percy nodded. "You know, maybe you'll be a good influence on the twins. You seem to be very interested in getting good marks. I've noticed how hard you work. Hopefully you can talk some sense into my brothers."

"We are sitting right here, you know," Fred sighed, giving Percy a look.

"I'm aware," Percy said. He adjusted his glasses. "Well, I'm heading up to bed. Perhaps you three should do the same soon. Not getting enough sleep will do nothing for your academic performance."

"Thanks for the concern, Perce," George said, mock-earnestly.

I didn't know if Percy picked up on George's sarcasm or not, but either way, he nodded and left us alone, to my relief. I watched him disappear up the dormitory stairs before letting out a breath I wasn't aware I was holding.

"What the bloody hell is wrong with you?" Fred asked, looking at me. "You look shell-shocked." He smirked. "And oddly, right after Percy talked to you, you went all weird and nervous. Hiding something, Fitzy? Were George and I right after all?" He wiggled his eyebrows as George made kissy faces.

"First of all, you've got quite the potty mouth, Fred Weasley," I said, narrowing my eyes at him. "Secondly, if I were you I'd shut your trap because the way I'm acting has nothing to do with Percy." I moved my book out of the way and slowly slid the parchment completely out from under Fred's book as I tapped it with a finger and looked over my shoulder to double check that nobody was coming our way or paying us any attention. It probably didn't make a difference though, because Fred and George's eyes immediately went wide and they let out identical yelps of surprise and glee. When I turned back around, I saw that there were still splotches of ink all over the parchment, but it didn't make anything coherent. The color had also started to fade since I had first noticed it, but the marks were still there.

Fred snatched the parchment from me and laid it down in front of him. He unfolded it completely to see that the whole thing was filled with ink markings, but none of them were coherent at all. It actually kind of looked like aimless scribbling. It was also fading more quickly now.

"No, no, no," Fred said, sounding slightly panicked. "Stop, stop, stop!" He jabbed his wand at the parchment a few more times, but it didn't do anything. After a moment, the lines were gone. Fred sighed and leaned back in his chair in defeat. "We almost had something!"

"Still think it's just a plain piece of parchment, Liles?" George asked with a smirk.

I gave him a look, but looked away in frustration when he simply continued to stare back at me, that stupid smirk still on his face.

"Fine, you two win," I said. "It's not a plain piece of parchment, clearly. But we still haven't gotten it to completely work."

"But we got _something _out of it," Fred argued. "Although, we don't even know how we did that."

I chewed on my lip in thought. "It started right after George said he solemnly swore he wasn't doing anything."

"What were your exact words, Georgie?" Fred asked.

"All I said was _I solemnly swear_," George shrugged. But then his eyes widened. The moment he had finished speaking, ink marks had started spreading over the map again. Not as many as before, but they had appeared, nonetheless.

Fred grabbed another piece of parchment and wrote the words _I solemnly swear_ on it at the top. "Okay, what happened after George said that?" he asked.

"Percy said something to Lilah," George said, frowning in thought.

"Yeah, he asked me what I said because I sarcastically said you were up to no good under my breath."

"Exact words," Fred demanded, staring down at the parchment as he wiggled his quill between his fingers.

"Say please," I said in a sing song voice, grinning at him.

Fred looked up and narrowed his eyes at me. "Lilah, this is a very serious matter. We don't have time for manners."

"Oh, really?" I told him, narrowing my own eyes and trying not to laugh. "Well, I won't cooperate without them."

"Don't be difficult."

I stared back at him, refusing to back down. Our argument may have been playful, but I still refused to let myself be intimidated. Besides, I did get a tiny bit of enjoyment out of making him sweat this out.

"Fine," Fred said, finally cracking. "Please tell us the exact words you said after George spoke."

"He said _I solemnly swear_ and I said _yeah, that you're up to no good_," I told him, my eyes trained on the parchment to see if it would do anything. Sure enough, ink started spreading over it. Just as much as the first time, but still not enough to make anything legible.

"There are some kind of words here," Fred said quietly, holding the parchment up to his face. "But I can't make them out. They aren't coming in clear enough. We must have gotten most of the words right, but not all of them. Maybe we have to take out the _yeah_. You know, and just say it all together. Like…I solemnly swear you're up to no good."

The ink started filling in even more just then, but it still wasn't enough to make anything out. The words Fred had seen hadn't gotten any clearer at all. All I could see now was that the lines that had once looked like scribbles now looked like a blueprint of some kind. But for what, I couldn't tell. The twins didn't seem to know either. They looked just as stumped as I felt.

"I don't understand what we're still saying wrong!" Fred cried.

"Well," I began slowly. "Maybe…." I took the parchment that Fred had used to write on from him and looked down at it. He had written _I solemnly swear_ and _yeah, that you're up to no good_. Lastly, he had crossed out the word _yeah_. I reached over and gently slid his quill from his hand. "We either have to replace _I _with _you_ or _you're _with _I am_," I said. "You know, to make it all consistent. My guess is that we change _you're_ to _I am. _I mean, why would the code that the person who intended to use this would have to say refer to someone else? Why would they have to solemnly swear someone else is up to no good?"

"Maybe it refers to this," George said, tapping the parchment with a finger.

"I still don't think so," I argued. "Mainly because the second time you said you solemnly swore….You know, after Fred asked you what you had said…the ink appeared very quickly. It wasn't as much as before when I had jumped in while Percy was here, probably because I didn't finish the sentence the second time. But it was quick after you spoke. Besides, it just makes more sense to me to say _I solemnly swear that I am up to no good._"

George's eyes immediately flicked down to the parchment, where ink was spreading over it again and everything was becoming more coherent. But there were still spots missing, especially where the words that Fred had noticed earlier were. And then everything started fading again before we could even say anything.

Fred let out a frustrated groan and slapped his wand down on the table in anger. I flinched before tilting my head and looking at the wand thoughtfully.

"Fred," I said quietly. "Let me see the parchment."

"Take it," he said bitterly. "We're getting nowhere. Maybe it is impossible."

I snorted and rolled my eyes. It clearly wasn't impossible. We were so close as it was. He was just being a baby. Besides, I had an idea. I took the parchment and pulled it closer as I slid out my own wand. Clearing my throat and smirking as I glanced up at the twins, I tapped my wand against the parchment. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

Immediately, ink rapidly spread over the parchment, quicker than ever. This time, the parchment filled in completely. It wasn't spotty with missing parts. All the words were there. We had done it. I smiled triumphantly.

"Lilah, you're brilliant," he whispered, his eyes still on the parchment.

"Read what it says," I prodded quietly, trying to hand it to him.

"No, you do it," Fred said, pushing it towards me. I fought the urge to laugh. After all this excitement and determination to figure this out, _now_ he was afraid of it.

"Fine." I picked up the parchment and folded it back the way it was so that I could hold it better. "It says….Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, purveyors of aids to magical mischief-makers are proud to present the Marauder's Map." I set it down and looked up at the twins. "Who are they? Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs?"

"How should I know?" Fred snorted, taking the map out of my hands, all of his confidence clearly having returned. He unfolded it again and I saw his mouth drop open. "It's a map of Hogwarts!" he exclaimed.

"Let me see!" George said excitedly, leaning over to see better. Even I pushed myself up onto my knees and leaned across the table so that I could peer over the top.

"Here's the Gryffindor common room!" Fred said, pointing. He lowered his voice to a shocked whisper. "And…here _we _are."

I sucked in a breath as I saw that he was right. Exactly where he was pointing, and exactly in the corner of the common room we were in, were three dots. Each dot was labeled. _Fred Weasley, George Weasley,_ _Lilah Fitzgerald_.

"That's scary," I whispered.

"It gets scarier," George said. "Look." He pointed to a spot that I first identified as Dumbledore's office before looking at what George had noticed. A dot labeled _Albus Dumbledore_ was in the office and it was _moving_.

The three of us watched the dot circle the room twice before stopping in the middle for a few seconds and then continuing.

"This map," I said slowly, meeting the twins' eyes, "shows us where everyone is at all times." I couldn't believe it. As I had said, it was scary. But so exciting at the same time. Whoever had come up with this idea and made it happen, whoever Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs were, well, they were geniuses.

"We'll never get caught by Filch or anyone else ever again!" Fred cheered.

"Amazing," I whispered breathlessly. I didn't know what else to say, to be honest. I was actually nearly speechless.

"It must really feel great to be wrong, though, Lilah, huh?" Fred teased.

"Shut up," I said, looking back down at the map. "Hang on," I said suddenly. "What's this?" I pointed to something that looked like a tunnel depicted on the map leading from one of the walls straight down past the front gates and into Hogsmeade. "It goes from the school, to…." I tilted my head to read the label better, "Honeydukes."

"This must be behind the one eyed witch statue on the third floor," Fred said, chewing on his lip in thought. "It looks like some kind of secret passageway that leads straight to Honeydukes….and look! There are a bunch of others!" He counted the tunnel-like markings that resembled the one I had seen, all leading out of the castle. "Seven," he declared. "There are seven secret passageways." He looked up and met George's eyes. George grinned, and then Fred looked at me. "Meet us back down here at one o'clock," he whispered. "Everyone will have gone to bed by then."

"Why?" I asked, even though I was pretty sure I knew the answer.

"What do you mean, _why_?" Fred laughed, standing up. "We're sneaking into Honeydukes tonight. And before you protest with some nonsense about getting caught, don't forget what this map does." He gently tapped me on the head with it before heading up the stairs to the boy's dorm, George right behind him.

I simply sat there for a moment, staring after them before letting out a sigh, rubbing my eyes and standing up myself. What had finding that map gotten us into?

* * *

"Merlin, it's cold," I breathed, rubbing my already gloved hands together for extra warmth. Fred, George and I were making our way through the passageway that led to Honeydukes. It had already felt like we had been walking for hours and my cheeks were stinging with the cold.

"We should be nearly there by now," Fred said confidently.

"How would you know?" I asked. "You've never even been to Hogsmeade before."

"I'm just estimating," Fred said. "I mean, we're essentially walking from the school to Hogsmeade. We're just going underground. And it can't take much longer to get there from school."

There was a moment of silence between the three of us before George spoke. "You're sure you want to do this, Lie? We probably should have asked. I mean, I don't want you go get another detention. In case we do get caught."

I shook my head. "We have the map," I said. "It'll help. Besides, I don't care about getting caught. I mean, I'm not thrilled about detentions, but I do think I deserve to live a little, don't I? Detentions aren't even as big a deal as my mother makes them out to be." I paused before changing the subject. "Do you think we're the first three people who have not only snuck into Honeydukes when it's closed, but snuck in when they haven't been old enough to visit Hogsmeade in the first place?"

"Chances seem high to me," George said. "I don't think it would be possible to do this without the map. It takes us underground and if we went the regular way, we'd be out in the open and there'd be more of a risk of running into teachers. Plus we'd have to climb the front gates."

"What about these Maruaders?" I asked, taking the map from Fred and looking down at it. We hadn't figured out how to wipe it blank yet, but we did all agree that there was another phrase or word to do it. That seemed pretty obvious at least. "I mean, they obviously made this map so they must have known about the passageways."

"Well," George said, "maybe they were the first to sneak in when Honeydukes was closed, but we don't know if they were underage."

"I'm willing to bet they were. They wouldn't need to use this passageway at all if they could simply walk into Hogsmeade."

"Maybe they used it to get there when it wasn't a Hogsmeade weekend," Fred reasoned. "Anyway, I think we're here."

Fred was right. The passage was sloping upwards and eventually, by the light of my wand, I saw Fred reaching up and pressing against the ceiling. A large square piece of it swung upwards and I saw Fred grin before pushing harder. It flipped backwards and landed with a loud crash. I winced despite the fact that the shop was closed and no one was there to hear the noise.

"Do you think there are any kind of, I don't know, alarm systems?" I asked.

"Doubt it," Fred said. "I bet the front door's just locked. Now come on." He hoisted himself through the hole and disappeared from view. I glanced at George, who gestured for me to go first.

I looked up through the hole in the ceiling of the passageway and took a deep breath before grabbing the edges of the hole and pulling myself through. I stood up and looked around the room as George followed me through the hole.

"We must be in the cellar," Fred said, appearing beside me. George joined us a second later and we stood there for a moment, just looking around.

"There are stairs over there," I finally said, pointing to the steps just outside the light of our wands.

The three of us made our way over to and up the stairs, careful to not knock anything over. When we reached the top, we discovered the door to the shop was locked, but thankfully Alohomora worked on it. If not, we'd have just used a hairpin again, but I was glad we didn't have to.

"It's so beautiful," Fred sighed once we pushed the door open.

Despite the darkness and all of the shadows looming around the room, I had to admit that he was right. The room was packed with shelves and shelves of every kind of candy imaginable. And I imagined that during the day, the various colors would be even more noticeable.

"I wish we could take something," I said, starting to wander around the room. "It seems unfair that we came here and now we just get to stare at everything."

"Who said we can't take anything?" Fred asked, breezing past me and grabbing a licorice wand and a chocolate frog off of the shelf beside me.

"Fred, that's stealing!" I said. "Put that stuff back!"

"It's not stealing if we leave money in the cash register," he replied, digging into his pockets and pulling out a handful of coins.

"How on earth did you get that?" I asked. "I mean, it wouldn't be necessary for your parents to send you to school with pocket money. We aren't old enough to come here yet. Well, not the right way, at least."

"We do get birthday and Christmas money, you know," Fred laughed. "Don't you?"

"Well, yeah," I said. I hadn't even thought of that, to be honest. I still wasn't sure that Fred's plan was a good one and it was making me a bit nervous. The last thing I wanted or needed was to be arrested.

"But even still, this money isn't mine. It's Percy's," Fred said, making a beeline to the cash register. I followed him, my mouth hanging open. Despite the fact that I had been friends with the twins for months, they never ceased to surprise me.

"Percy's," I repeated.

Fred nodded as he dumped his candy on the counter and began picking the cash register's lock with the hairpin I had given him the night we got our detention. "He owes us. He didn't buy us any candy on his first Hogsmeade trip. Bill and Charlie did. They both bought one piece of candy for each member of the family. Anyway, Percy didn't keep up with the tradition. At least not for me and George. He was mad at us at the time because we slipped a garden snake in his sock."

"You _what_?" I gasped, my eyes widening more than I thought possible.

"Garden snakes are harmless, Lie," George said, appearing at Fred's side and adding his own selections to the pile on the counter as he began digging in his pockets for coins. "Keep your eyes in your sockets, why don't you?"

"Are you getting anything?" Fred asked, looking up at me as the register drawer popped open.

I shook my head as I stared at the open drawer. "I don't have any money," I said.

"Pick something out," Fred told me, pulling a few more coins from his pocket. "It's on me. Well, technically it's on Percy."

"Fred, stealing money from your brother isn't right. You said yourself that you have Christmas and birthday money that you could have used for this."

"Like I said, he _owes_ us," Fred argued.

"Well he doesn't owe me," I said.

"Pay him back then if it makes you feel better," Fred said, throwing up his hands. "When we get back to the dorm, dig out some of your birthday money and George and I will sneak it into Percy's things."

I chewed on my lip. Fred's idea did kind of make sense. It could work and it still wouldn't technically be stealing from anyone. It was sneaky, but not quite stealing.

"Fine," I said, walking a few feet away and retrieving a bag of Fudge Flies from a barrel.

"That's it?" Fred asked, raising his eyebrows.

I stared back at him for a second before I felt the corners of my mouth turn up. Without breaking eye contact, I reached over to a nearby shelf and grabbed two chocolate frogs. Fred nodded his head and grinned.

"Here," I said, bringing my choices to the counter.

"Good job," Fred said as he slipped the rest of the money into the cash register and closed it. He patted me on the shoulder before grabbing his candy and breezing past me. I looked up and met George's eyes. He smiled as he grabbed his own candy and followed his brother. Sighing, and only half daring to believe what we had just done, I picked up my chocolate frogs and Fudge Flies and pocketed them before turning to leave the room.

* * *

The winter seemed to drag by. The Hogwarts grounds were very pretty covered in snow, don't get me wrong, but I was sick of it at this point. Fred, George, Angelina, Lee, Katie, Alicia, Tess and I had spent a few weekends building snowmen and having snowball fights. A few times some of Tess' friends from Hufflepuff joined in. But now I felt that I had reached my snowman building and snowball fight quota for the season.

I had let Tess in on the Marauder's Map and how Fred, George and I had snuck into Honeyduke's. She was my best friend and I knew she could keep a secret. She laughed, which I also knew she would do. She did have to have a good sense of humor and adventure. Her dad was really laid back after all. Not in the sense that Tess could get away with doing _whatever_ she wanted, but Uncle Jesse was certainly a lot more laid back than most parents. Kind of like my dad. They were best friends for a reason, I suppose.

My mother, on the other hand, would kill me if she knew what I was getting myself into. I had only grown closer to the twins since Christmas. I had grown closer to my other friends, too, but I doubt my mother would have as much of a problem with them.

If my mother knew that I had snuck out of the castle and taken something from Honeydukes without technically handing my money to a real live cashier, she would have collapsed. Which was why I wasn't about to tell her. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to tell my dad. It wasn't that I was afraid he'd tell my mother, but a part of me wondered if his opinion on me sneaking out to places I wasn't supposed to go had changed in the past year and a half. Believe it or not, I was still afraid to mention anything that might drag up memories of the night my parents decided to split up.

The way I saw it, though, was that despite the fact that I broke some rules, I did manage to do really well on all of my schoolwork. My Potions marks went up slightly, but not by much, and it still wasn't up to my mother's expectations. I'd probably have to hear it from her when I got home for the summer, but at this point, I didn't care anymore.

I had actually even taken Percy up on his advice and asked him for help. I hadn't told the twins yet. I figured they wouldn't take it well. Either that or they'd just laugh. But anyway, even Percy's tutoring wasn't helping me to suddenly understand everything. He was one of those people who was very smart, but had difficulty explaining things to other people. He was surprisingly patient, which I appreciated, but he clearly struggled with trying to explain math in a way I could understand it. He explained it like the book and Professor Snape explained it, which clearly wasn't helping me in the first place. But the difference with Percy was that he was patient and persistent. Even so, I was still feeling pretty hopeless.

"Merlin, I'm so stupid," I cried in frustration one night after dinner. I was sitting across from Percy in the library as he went over my Potions assignment. I could see the ones he had marked wrong and there were a lot. Professor Snape had given us more math problems using all these principles and formulas and equations and a lot of the problems asked me to figure out how to adjust measurements of ingredients in the event of adding too much or too little of another ingredient. Apparently, some potions could be fixed that way. If you moved quickly. And were good at math. But I also could never remember _which_ potions that would work on. Some were hopeless in the event of a poor measurement.

"You're not stupid," Percy argued. "I mean, you can do basic math and follow the basic instructions of the potions you make in class decently enough. You haven't blown up or melted your cauldron yet, have you?"

"No," I answered, shaking my head. I paused. "That's happened to people?"

Percy nodded. "Oh, yeah. Loads of times. Even for older students. Three people melted their cauldrons in my class back in September. Anyway, your issues seem to mostly come from the math problems Professor Snape gives for homework."

"But even with making the Potions…I'm better at that, but everything is so exact! And lately Snape's been saying he's going to test us to see if we can remember how to make one of the Potions we've learned about this year. Without our books!" I sighed and rubbed my eyes. "If I forget one single step or stir five times clockwise instead of six, I'll fail. And what happens if he asks us to make enough for a certain amount of people? Some of these problems deal with that. You know, how much potion would be enough for eight people…stuff like that. That involves math."

"You just need to relax," Percy said, adjusting his glasses. "He might ask you to make enough potion for a certain amount of people, but even if you mess up on that part, he'll mostly be grading you on the quality of your potion. And as for the exactness…remembering how many times to stir…that's all memorization."

"True," I said. "It's really anything that involves math that's bringing me down in this subject." Silence fell between us for a moment. "Why are you helping me anyway?"

Percy glanced at me. "I couldn't let my brothers continue to help you. You wouldn't get anywhere. Besides, George was right. You always get a look of panic on your face whenever you do your Potions homework and it is kind of pathetic."

"Great, thanks Perce," I said. I had thought George was exaggerating that day just to make his excuse that he was helping me more believable. But I guess there was some truth to it after all.

Percy laughed. "So how about I go over the problems you missed with you on your homework so it's suitable to turn in tomorrow and then we'll call it a night. I know you're probably aching to go get into more trouble with the twins."

"Hey, I've had one detention all year. They've had about five," I protested, holding up my hands in defense. Honestly, it was like those two couldn't go a week without setting off a Dungbomb, trying to sneak wrong ingredients into Marcus Flint's cauldron in Potions, or trying to turn Mrs. Norris' fur purple.

Percy, true to his word, went over my homework with me and I claimed to understand his reasoning behind the right answers, but I didn't understand it as much as I was letting on. Truthfully, I just wanted to be finished with my homework so I wouldn't have to worry about it until the next time we were assigned something similar.

Once we were done, I made my way back to my dorm and collapsed onto my bed. Clearly, trying to do math exhausted me and I had fallen asleep within minutes, without even changing into my pajamas.


	13. Chapter 13

The rest of the year flew by fairly quickly. The twins ended up finding out about Percy helping me with Potions. I had only been telling them that I was doing my homework in the library, leaving Percy out of the equation completely, but one day, they burst in to tell me about another Dungbomb they had set off outside Filch's office door and stopped dead in their tracks when they saw Percy sitting with me. They didn't take it well at first. Or rather, Fred didn't. He even said I had probably told Percy about them borrowing the money to sneak into Honeydukes. I had actually blinked at him in surprise a few times before bursting into laughter. He had glared at me before laughing himself. I was glad that he finally realized how ridiculous he sounded. But I had still assured him that I was only spending time with Percy in an almost desperate attempt to improve my Potions marks. I also explained that while I didn't hate Percy by any means, he and I weren't exactly friends. Just to make sure he was clear on that. Part of me suspected that some of Fred's anger came from an irrational worry that I would be ditching him and George for Percy.

In April, we celebrated the twins' birthday by sneaking down to the kitchens. Lee had managed to make up an excuse to meet us there and had then decorated the common room so that when we got back, it was covered with streamers and signs saying _Happy Birthday Fred and George_. The twins were really surprised and the looks on their faces were actually pretty priceless. It probably wasn't much considering what they had done for me on my birthday, but seeing how happy they were still made me feel good.

We also figured out how to get the Marauder's Map to wipe itself clean. It took a while, but at least this time we had somewhat of an idea of how to do it. Mostly, we just tried a bunch of different words and phrases and watched the map to see if it did anything. Trial and error, really. It was harder this time, though, because there were actually only two words to close the map. _Mischief managed_. And as it turned out, we said them completely accidentally. Well, Fred and George did. We used the map to sneak out one night and slip into Snape's office while he was patrolling the hallways. We left various hair care supplies on his desk, including shampoo, hairpins, and glittery, very girly hair clips and ribbons. And as luck, fate, destiny-whatever you want to call it-would have it, Fred and George high fived and uttered the exact words needed to close the map just as I was holding my illuminated wand near it trying to spot Snape. I must have accidentally tapped the map or something because the ink marks started disappearing. It freaked me out immensely that of all the possible words and phrases, Fred and George stumbled upon the correct ones without even trying. But I also wasn't going to complain, either.

Finally, before I knew it, June had arrived, bringing final exams with it. I was panicking about my Potions one, to say the least. I had started studying a few weeks ago and felt decently prepared for every exam besides Potions.

"Lilah, I'm actually really scared for your health right now," Fred said from beside me on the couch. Angelina was on my other side and the others were sprawled out on the floor in front of us, books and notes spread everywhere.

"You look like you're going to vomit," Angelina said, looking at me sympathetically.

"Exams start tomorrow, Ange, and Potions is our first one. I think I really might vomit."

"Fitzy, you're working yourself up," George said from the floor. "I'm willing to bet a lot of your nerves are just figments of your imagination."

"There's a lot of pressure for me to do well," I groaned. "I mean, I'd be happy with at least passing, but my mother…she won't be too happy. But I know it'll be a miracle if I get the score she expects from me."

"Forget her," Fred advised. "You've been doing your best all year, you've been studying for weeks. Even Percy's been helping you. You've done all you can."

I shook my head. "Not to my mother. I should've just sucked it up and gone to Professor Snape."

"You don't really think that," Katie said with a grimace. "That would have been useless. And you don't really want to spend extra time with him, do you?"

"No, definitely not," I said, wrinkling my nose. Professor Snape had never exactly been directly unpleasant to me. But he was very unpleasant in general and I think he suspected Fred, George and I were behind the hair supplies prank. He couldn't prove it, but he suspected it. Which made me believe that he probably would've outright turned me down if I asked him for help. I think he also suspected that Fred and George were the ones trying to blow up Marcus Flint's cauldron all the time. And even though I never had any part in that, I was willing to bet Snape thought I did-or at least was condoning the behavior-simply because I was friends with the twins.

"Just relax and do your best," Fred said calmly. "That's what I'm planning on doing. And in the end, it is what it is."

I took in a breath through my nose and slowly let it out as I tried to calm myself down. "You're right," I finally said. "It is what it is."

* * *

"You think your mother will let you write to us?" Fred asked as we pulled our trunks from the overhead racks. We had just arrived at Kings Cross station. School was over for the summer and I was excited but disappointed all at the same time.

On the one hand, I was happy school was over, but I was disappointed that I wouldn't be able to see my friends every single day. I'd see Tess plenty, probably, but the others would be less frequent.

Also, I had passed my Potions exam and the class as a whole. I hadn't done as badly as I had thought, but the marks still weren't as good as my other classes or as good as my mother wanted them to be so I'd have to face her when I got home. Luckily, though, this weekend was a weekend that Julian and I were staying with Dad, so I wouldn't have to talk to Mum about Potions until Sunday night. And maybe by then she'd forget to ask about it.

"I don't see why not," I replied now, looking at Fred and shrugging. "She probably won't be happy about it, but I think even she knows it'll be unfair if she tries to forbid me from doing it."

"What about if we ask you to come over?" George asked. "Will she let you?"

"Maybe," I shrugged. "I hope so, at least."

We dragged our trunks from the train and onto the platform, where we immediately scanned the crowd for our parents. It turned out that I didn't need to do much looking, because my brother spotted me before I spotted him. In fact, I felt him crash into me and wrap his arms around me before I saw him at all.

"Hey, Jules," I said, returning the hug. "I've missed you."

"I've missed you too," he said. "It's been way too long since Christmas."

"Mum still isn't mad at you about what happened with Bernard, is she?" I asked. That would certainly be a new record if she was.

Julian shook his head. "No, thankfully she isn't. But she was for a while. It was awful."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't even worry about it. It was an accident."

"If you ask me," Fred said, "it was brilliant."

"I caused a scene," Julian told him, peering up at him with his big green eyes. I fought back a snort. It sounded like he was simply reciting something that Mum had told him.

"But Lilah told me that the woman who fell _laughed_," Fred argued. "It _was _funny. Besides, no one got hurt. And like your sister said, it was an accident. You didn't mean it. You were on your way to go put Bernard back in his cage."

Julian didn't answer. Instead, he looked back at me. I smiled and put an arm around his shoulders. "Where's Dad?" I asked.

"He was right behind me," Julian answered, looking over his shoulder. "He should be here soon."

Sure enough, a moment later I saw Dad and Uncle Jesse making their way through the crowd. I grinned and ran to hug them both before introducing them to Angelina, Katie, Alicia and Lee. After that, things got a bit hectic as their parents started showing up and everyone was kind of talking at once.

"Don't forget to write," Angelina said, giving me a hug goodbye. "And we'll have to make plans to see each other. Maybe we can go get our school supplies together, too once our letters come in."

"Yeah, that sounds good," I told her. "We'll keep in touch.

Eventually, it was just me, Dad, Julian and the twins remaining on the platform. Mrs. Weasley hadn't shown up yet.

"She's probably here somewhere," George assured us. "Probably just meeting up with Percy and Charlie. You don't have to wait with us."

"Of course we'll wait," Dad said, waving his hand dismissively. "We're in no rush."

We didn't end up having to wait long. We saw Mrs. Weasley hurrying down the platform a moment later, holding onto Ron and Ginny's hands as Percy and Charlie trailed behind them.

"There you two are," she said breathlessly, pulling the twins into a hug. "It's awfully crowded here today. How was the rest of your year? Good?"

"Yeah, it was great, Mum," Fred said, wiping his cheek where his mother had kissed him. She rolled her eyes, but didn't comment on it. Then, her eyes fell on me.

"Lilah! It's good to see you again!" And to my surprise, she pulled me into a hug. She had done the same thing when I saw her before the Christmas holidays and it had surprised me then, but I clearly still hadn't gotten used to it. I mean, I hardly knew her. I just knew a few of her kids pretty well.

"It's good to see you too," I told her with a smile as I blushed and pushed a strand of hair behind my ear.

"Sorry," Fred whispered. "Mum can be a little…overbearing."

"Trust me," I whispered back, "I know overbearing and your mother isn't it. At least not in the same way mine is."

"Percy tells me he's been helping you with your Potions work, Lilah " Mrs. Weasley said, beaming at Percy and patting his cheek affectionately as he stared at the ceiling and sighed. But something in his expression told me that a part of him sort of enjoyed the praise.

"Yeah, he's been great," I told her with a smile. "I mean, I still don't fully understand a lot, but he's been trying. It's more me than him. I just don't really get math."

"I'm not quite sure I'm the best at explaining it," Percy said. "I'm not that great at explaining things in ways other than how the textbook or the professor explained it."

I shrugged. "Well, I did pass my exam, so I think you did help at least a little bit."

"Yeah, and you put George and I to shame on your other exams, Liles," Fred said. "Between you and Angelina, it's as if you like to make the rest of us look dumb."

"Of course I don't _like_ making you look dumb," I said with a scoff and a playful smile, "but I will admit that it is a nice ego boost."

"Shut up," Fred muttered, looking away and rolling his eyes.

"Well, I'm glad you all had a good first year," Mrs. Weasley said happily.

"So am I," Dad said with a grin. "The only sad thing is that time goes by even faster from here on out. And you can't use your new, first year status as an excuse for anything. You can't say you got lost or were unclear on any rules or expectations. After this year, you're supposed to know the ropes."

"But we can say that we forgot over the summer," Fred said with a smirk.

Mrs. Weasley sighed. "That's Fred and George for you," she said, shaking her head and looking at my dad. "Always pushing their luck and finding any loophole they can."

Dad laughed. "I used to be the same way when I was their age."

"When they were babies," Mrs. Weasley began, a fond smile on her face, "they got into absolutely _everything_. Every dangerous thing in the house, they got into, no matter how much I used to child-proof everything. At a year old, they figured out how to climb over the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs. I'm grateful that it wasn't the one at the top, but even still, I nearly fainted when I found that they had managed to climb halfway up the stairs. And we have quite a few steps in our house. I can only imagine what would have happened if they fell backwards."

"And," Charlie added dramatically, fighting back a laugh, "there was the time when Fred started climbing the bookshelf in the living room. He just clung to it, his little fingers gripping the shelf with surprising strength, and started trying to shake it back and forth while laughing with pure joy."

Mrs. Weasley groaned. "And then he got George doing it and we had to turn the bookshelf around to face the wall whenever we had the babies in the living room!"

"I've never seen Mum move faster in her life than when she sprinted across the room and grabbed them," Charlie chuckled. "But she made the mistake of just grabbing Fred first, so when she put him down and went for George, Fred was already back on the bookshelf. And when she put George down to grab Fred, George went for the bookshelf again. That's when she just grabbed both of them and stuck them in their high chairs."

I giggled. Fred and George's ears turned bright red and the looked down at the ground, but they were holding back laughter of their own. "I can totally picture you two doing that!" I exclaimed.

"And then," Charlie went on, just as dramatically as before, "once they realized they couldn't climb the bookshelf, they moved on to the coffee table. It wasn't a very high table, but we never thought that two one and a half year olds could climb onto it. Anyway, one morning, Mum was tending to a bad scrape I had just gotten on my knee. She was doing it in the living room so she could keep an eye on the twins. But she took her eyes away for _one_ _second_. That was all Fred and George needed, though. A second later, we heard a maniacal laugh and looked up to see Fred _standing_ on the coffee table and George halfway there himself. They both just smiled at us as if they had just done something worthy of applause." Charlie laughed again as the rest of us joined in. Charlie clearly thought the memories were hilarious and I could definitely see why. The twins were clearly very hilarious babies, despite how much trouble they had given their mother.

"While we're on the subject of troublemaking children," Dad said as his laughter subsided., "Lilah used to hate spinach, but her mother always loved giving some to her for whatever reason. She said it was healthy, but I always argued that there were way better tasting vegetables out there that Lilah would actually like. But anyway, she didn't listen until one day when Lilah grabbed a handful of spinach and dropped it as casually as possible right on the floor, all while staring her mother right in the eye. Joanna was horrified, but before she could do anything, Lilah seemed to realize that she liked this option better than eating the spinach. So, she grabbed two fistfuls of spinach from what was sitting on her high chair tray and this time, starts flinging it all over the place. It got everywhere. I thought it was hilarious."

The twins were practically roaring with laughter at Dad's story and even Mrs. Weasley was laughing a bit. I had to admit it was funny. I wished I could remember doing that, but I had only been a little over a year at the time.

"I could do this all day," Mrs. Weasley said with a sigh. "Time goes by so fast….You know, I really hope Lilah and the twins can get together at least once this summer. We'd love to have her over. Or maybe the three of you would like to join us for dinner one day." She looked at Dad hopefully.

"Yeah, that would be great. Maybe we can pick a day when I have Lilah and Julian at my place and we'll do that."

"Do you think you're ex-wife would like to come?" Mrs. Weasley asked, biting her lip. She clearly didn't know the details of the divorce-Fred and George didn't even know, so how could she? But it was obvious that she was concerned about bringing up my mother. She didn't know if things had gotten messy or not and she didn't know if inviting my Mum to dinner was appropriate or if it was going to send Dad into a fit of rage. I thought it was kind of sweet of her to be concerned about bringing it up.

Dad hesitated as he took in a breath. "We can certainly extend the invitation," he said slowly, putting a smile on his face as he looked down at me and Julian. "It can't hurt, can it?"

I gave him my own tiny smiled as I shook my head. I knew just as well as he did that Mum wouldn't say yes. She probably would have some kind of work to do, but even if she didn't, she'd make an excuse. She probably wouldn't even be too thrilled about the rest of us going over, but I don't think she could stop us, especially if Dad was going. Despite their marital status, he _was_ still our parent.

We said our goodbyes to the Weasleys and Dad brought us back to his flat. It was in London and he had actually done a pretty good job of fixing it up. It had been messy for a while, but he had actually managed to decorate and clean up really well in the time since the divorce. He had also greatly improved his cooking skills. Nowadays, he was eating more home-cooked meals than Julian and I were. It kind of made me feel like the question of who was the more suitable parent to raise two kids needed to be reevaluated. True, Dad still wasn't making tons of money, but he was making more than he used to. And he was home more than Mum. Way more. But he still could only afford this tiny flat with only two bedrooms and one bathroom. It wasn't quite big enough for three people. As it was, Julian and I shared a bedroom when we were here, but we had to set up some Muggle thing called an air mattress on the floor because there was no room for two beds.

"So," Dad said, clapping his hands together as I set my trunk down by the door. "What do you want to do first? It's almost noon on a Friday, we have all day…what should we do?"

Julian and I looked at each other. "Get ice cream at Florean Fortescue's," we said together.

"I don't think it's a good idea to have ice cream before you've eaten lunch," Dad began.

"I had candy on the train ride home before lunch," I said, giving him a look.

"You didn't let me finish," Dad said dramatically, holding up a hand. He paused, something he also made dramatic, before speaking again. "I was going to say that we could go to the Leaky Cauldron and then go get ice cream. I would never directly shoot down a proposal for ice cream. What kind of person do you think I am?"

I smiled and looked at my brother, who grinned back at me. I could already tell this was going to be a great weekend, just like all of our weekends with Dad were. The only downside was that they always went by entirely too fast.

* * *

"Fred says they call their house the Burrow," I told Dad. It was a week later and Julian and I were sitting on his bed as he finished getting ready to leave. We were going to the Burrow for dinner tonight. I had let my mother know the day before we left for Dad's for the weekend, more so that she would be aware as opposed to telling her so that I could get permission. After all, Dad was my parent too, and we were visiting the Weasley's on his watch. Mum agreed that we could go, probably for that reason, but she didn't look pleased. She had some kind of mixed emotions towards the Weasley's lately. She still wasn't happy that they had "landed me a detention" as she phrased it, but she did somewhat appreciate Percy helping me with Potions.

That had been my doing, actually. My mother and I were discussing my Potions marks. She still wasn't thrilled about them, but she had to admit that she was glad to see an improvement. I told her all about Percy and how he had been the reason for it. She still wished I had gone to Professor Snape, but I managed to convince her that Percy had been more of a help than Professor Snape because he was actually way more patient. And my mother could see that Percy wasn't like the twins-he clearly wasn't going to earn me any detentions, that's for sure-which is probably why she was pretty easily convinced that going to him wasn't the end of the world. That and the fact that my marks _had_ gone up, however slight the improvement had been.

"Why's that?" Dad asked now, putting his jacket on and turning to look at me with a smile and a raised eyebrow.

I smiled. "Fred said it was because once their great Aunt Muriel made a comment about how they bred like rabbits, so they kind of turned it into a joke, nicknamed their house the Burrow, and it kind of stuck."

"Interesting," Dad said with a laugh, grabbing his wand off the dresser. Then, he grabbed a bouquet of flowers that had been lying next to it. "It's always nice to bring a little something to dinner, right?" he asked with a shrug.

I nodded and smiled. "Mum would be proud that you remembered that."

"Please," Dad snorted. "I'm not a complete Neanderthal." He reached out and ruffled my hair and chuckled when I swatted his hand away so I could fix it. "Ready to go?" he asked.

Julian and I nodded and each grabbed one of Dad's hands. He counted to three before turning on the spot and Apparating to the place Fred had instructed us to. I opened my eyes once I felt my feet collide with solid ground and I felt my mouth spread into a grin.

"Wow," Julian breathed, stretching out the word as he slowly tilted his head to look upwards.

We were standing at the front gate to what had to be the Burrow. It was entirely necessary for Julian to look upwards, because the house was probably about five stories tall. From the looks of it, it seemed to have actually started out as a stone pigpen, but had obviously been added to over the years. It looked as if the house would actually fall over any second, but I supposed it was held up with magic. On the left, I could see a larger shed from where I was standing and another smaller one that was probably where the brooms were kept.

"It's lovely, isn't it?" I asked, staring at the house with a smile on my face. I already loved it here. I loved that the house was unique and nothing like my own. My own house was nice, of course, and so was Dad's flat, but the Burrow was...charming. It looked extremely homey and, well, lived in.

"Very charming," Dad said, actually voicing my thoughts. He paused. "Perhaps it's for the better your mother didn't come tonight, eh? She'd have collapsed face first in the dirt."

I smiled fleetingly. I didn't want to think about how Mum would've reacted at the sight of the house. No doubt she would've commented on the fact that the Weasleys lived in a literal pigpen. I would've had to disagree, however. Maybe it had been a pigpen once, but not now. Now, it was very clearly a home.

The three of us walked through the gate and up the path to the front door. Dad smiled at me and Julian and gave the bouquet of flowers to Julian. "You give these to Mrs. Weasley, okay?"

Julian nodded, but he didn't say anything. I saw him fidget with his sleeve and I put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Don't be nervous," I said. "I may not have ever been here before, but something tells me that the Weasleys are going to make you feel right at home. You'll be okay. They're a lot easier to talk to than all of Mum's work friends, so don't worry so much."

"Yeah, Jules," Dad agreed, tousling Julian's hair a bit before smiling at me. I smiled back and smoothed down my shirt nervously. It's like Julian's nerves were contagious. I don't even know why I felt so jittery all of a sudden. I really didn't think I needed to feel that way. Fred and George were my friends so I had no need to be shy around them. I didn't get to dwell on my nerves any longer, though, because my Dad was lifting a hand and knocking on the Burrow's front door. There was no going back now. Not that I would ever want to, of course.

* * *

**A/N: I hope everyone liked the chapter! Thanks to everyone who's been reading/reviewing/adding to their favorites and alerts. It means a lot!**


	14. Chapter 14

Immediately after knocking on the Burrow's front door, we heard the sound of voices and rapid footsteps. Seconds later, the door was flung open and I found myself being nearly tackled to the ground by two identical redheaded blurs.

"Lilah, you're here!" Fred exclaimed. He wrapped his arms around me and tried to lift me up, but only succeeded in bringing my feet about an inch off the ground before he stumbled, almost knocking me into the doorframe of his house. "Sorry," he muttered, righting me and dusting off my shoulders. "You okay?"

"Perfect," I said, grinning at him.

"We were just admiring your house," Dad said, looking up towards the top of the tall structure again. "Who's the lucky family member who gets the room at the top?"

"Ron," George muttered, rolling his eyes. Then he seemed to brighten. "But he's actually not all that lucky because of the ghoul."

"The ghoul?" Dad asked, raising an eyebrow in amusement.

"Yeah, we have a ghoul that lives in the attic," Fred explained. "The attic also happens to be right above Ron's room and the ghoul can make quite a racket when he wants to."

"Interesting," Dad said with a laugh. "I've never met a family with their own personal ghoul."

"Not many people have," Fred said proudly. He paused. "Why don't you guys come in?"

Julian, Dad and I followed the twins inside the Burrow into the living room that contained a comfortable looking couch and three armchairs surrounding a large fireplace. A bookshelf was in the corner as well as another armchair, a floorlamp and a table with a few chairs around it. A staircase was on the other side of the room, near the opposite wall, which opened up into an archway that I guessed led to the kitchen. I could see a little bit of a table and I could hear the sounds of pots being moved around.

"What's that?" Julian piped up, pointing to a clock sitting on the mantle.

"I believe that," my dad said, patting Julian on the shoulder and fighting back a laugh, "is a clock, Jules."

"It's not a regular clock, though," Fred said excitedly. "Come look!"

He led us across the room to the clock and I leaned in closer to examine it. It did look like a regular clock, but now that I was closer, I could see that there were nine hands instead of two and instead of numbers around the edge, there were words. Words like _home, work, school, lost, _and _mortal peril_. And on each of the nine hands was a picture of a member of the Weasley family. Currently, all nine hands were pointing to the word _home_.

"Wow," I breathed. "So, this clock tells you where everyone in your family is at all times?"

The twins nodded. "Almost like the map," Fred hissed in my ear, "but not as cool."

I shrugged. "I don't know. I still think it's cool," I answered.

Fred smiled. "If you say so," he said with a laugh. Then, he noticed the flowers in Julian's hand and gasped dramatically. "Merlin's beard, Julian, are those for me? You shouldn't have!" He clapped a hand to his chest and pretended to tear up.

Julian looked down at the flowers and started to shake his head, but then he stopped and I saw the smile that was spreading across his face. I almost smiled too. I could tell he was about to play along instead of being his usual shy-in-front-of-practical-strangers self.

"They're for you, but not from me. They're from Lilah. She was just too ashamed to give them to you herself so she made me do it. She's kind of a bully sometimes."

"Julian!" I exclaimed, gaping at him as I fought back a laugh. I hadn't been expecting him to say _that_.

Fred, George and Dad were practically roaring with laughter. But Fred managed to catch his breath long enough to look at me and bat his eyelashes. "Is that true, Lilah? You wanted to give me flowers?"

"You caught me," I said, giving Fred a sarcastic smile. Fred snorted and I gave him a playful shove before looking away to hide the real smile spreading over my face. "Is that the infamous bookshelf?" I asked, pointing across the room. "The one you and George climbed on as babies?"

"The very same," Fred answered with a grin. "Luckily, we're passed the point of needing to turn it to face the wall."

"You mean you don't still climb on it and laugh manically?" I asked, feigning surprise.

Fred and George both laughed before George grinned deviously. "Don't tell Mum," he whispered, gesturing towards the kitchen with his thumb.

"Don't tell me what?" Mrs. Weasley asked, appearing in the kitchen doorway with her hands on her hips.

"Apparently your sons haven't quite grown out of their climbing on the bookshelf phase," Dad said with a laugh.

"Don't say that," Mrs. Weasley groaned, crossing the room to us. She smiled at me and gave me a hug before giving Julian one as well and shaking Dad's hand. "Dinner's almost ready," she told us.

"It smells delicious," I said earnestly.

"Thank you dear," Mrs. Weasley answered with a smile. "I didn't quite know what to make so I made a variety of things I thought you'd like…."

"Oh, we'll eat anything," Dad said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "We're not picky at all….unless you're a one year old Lilah with her spinach." He nudged my shoulder and I rolled my eyes as I swatted him away.

Mrs. Weasley smiled. "Well, in that case you'll be glad to know I didn't make any spinach today." She paused. "Why don't you come into the kitchen? As I said, dinner's almost ready and then we'll be able to eat. My husband will be here any moment. He's outside in the shed where he keeps all of his Muggle things. He loves to collect all these Muggle items...It drives me mad, but he seems to enjoy tinkering with them. Anyway, he'll be here soon."

We followed her into the kitchen, where the incredible smells of food only got stronger. Julian seemed to remember once again that he had flowers in his hand and he immediately held them out to Mrs. Weasley. "These are for you," he said with a shy smile.

"Oh, they're beautiful!" Mrs. Weasley gasped, taking the flowers and bringing them up to her nose. "Let me get a vase and I'll put them in right now." She began searching in a cabinet for a vase while the twins turned to me and Julian.

"What to see our room?" George asked, gesturing between Fred and himself.

"Sure," I nodded. I was actually really eager to see more of the Burrow. I loved it so far. There was something warm and inviting about it that made me feel instantly comfortable.

The twins led me and Julian back towards the stairs and up to the next floor, where they pointed at the door on the right. "Ginny's room," Fred said. "The door on your left is a bathroom."

We made our way up to the next floor where the twins finally stopped. George reached out to turn the doorknob of the door on the right. "This is our room," he said, "and across the hall is Percy's room. One floor up is Bill and Charlie's rooms. Above them is Mum and Dad's room as well as another bathroom and then there's Ron's room and above that, the attic."

"Wow," I said as George swung the door open and led us inside the room. "So did your parents just keep adding to the house every time another kid was expected to come along?"

"Pretty much," George said, flopping onto the bed closer to the door while Fred took the one near the window. I claimed the window seat as mine while Julian sat down in Fred's desk chair.

"So," Fred began after a moment of silence. "How's your holiday been so far?"

"Good," I shrugged. "I saw Ange not too long ago. She came over for a bit. How about you?"

"We've seen Lee twice," George said. "But other than that we've just been writing to everyone else."

"Did Ange meet your mother?" Fred asked with a smirk, tucking his hands behind his head.

I nodded. "I think she was totally nervous at first, but Mum was actually pretty normal the whole time. Ange stayed for dinner and Mum was actually…fine."

Fred glanced at George before looking down at his blanket uncomfortably as he fiddled with the edge of it. "But she wasn't able to come tonight?"

I shook my head as I instantly felt terrible. I knew what was going on. Fred and George could tell that day at the station that my mother wasn't their biggest fan right off the bat. It upset them that she didn't like them to begin with, but throw in the fact that she liked Angelina and it made things a bit worse.

"Look, I'm working on her, okay?" I told them gently. "I really want her to get to know you because once she sees what I see in your family…things will be fine. I just have to get her to realize how wonderful you are."

"I can only imagine what she thinks of us," Fred snorted as he looked away. "Just from what you've said about her…."

"And how she acted at the station," George said.

I felt my cheeks turn bright red at their comments and I stared out the window as I chewed on the inside of my cheek. The view from the twins' room was beautiful. It was all green grass and rolling hills as far as I could see. It was peaceful, despite the chaos that probably occurred daily inside the house.

"Liles, you okay?" I heard Julian ask. At the sound of his voice, I glanced back at him and nodded before turning to look at the twins.

"_I _like you, okay?" I told them. "I think you two are amazing and no matter what my mother says I'm going to be your friend." I didn't want to tell them that my mother had said she'd prefer I wasn't friends with them. That would only hurt their feelings more, and I wouldn't blame them for feeling that way. Besides, it didn't matter. As I had said, I was going to friends with them anyway.

"You mean that?" Fred asked, tilting his head and smiling at me.

I nodded and gave him a small smile back as my hazel eyes met his blue ones. "I do," I said quietly.

"Thanks, Liles," he said, smiling wider.

Just then, we heard Mrs. Weasley's voice calling us down for dinner and Fred and George were up in a flash, stampeding down the stairs with Julian and I right behind them. My stomach let out a growl as I entered the kitchen and realized just how wonderful it smelled in there.

There were the sound of more footsteps on the stairs as Ron, Ginny, Charlie and Percy appeared behind us. The back door also opened to reveal a redheaded man that had to be Mr. Weasley. I had never met him before up until now, but he looked friendly enough. The twins looked a lot like him and so did Charlie and Ron, while Percy and Ginny looked more like their mother. I didn't know about Bill, though. I had never met him in person and had only seen one picture of him that the twins had shown me.

"It's wonderful to finally meet you," Mr. Weasley said as we all found seats. It was a tight squeeze, but we all managed to fit around the long table.

"It's great to meet you too," Dad said. "Lilah never stops talking about Fred and George."

"And they never stop talking about her," Mr. Weasley said, passing the bowl of green beans to Percy who was sitting on his left.

"I heard they got her into a bit of trouble back in January, though," Dad said with a playful wink at me. I smiled and rolled my eyes. Dad hadn't minded one bit that I had gotten a detention. He knew I wasn't planning on doing anything wrong. He figured that as long as we were just practicing with the Quidditch supplies, we were fine. Besides, Filch had been caretaker when he was at school and even back then, nobody had really cared for him very much. Dad even claimed that on one of Filch's particularly cranky days, he had tried to give Dad a detention for sneezing too many times in a row.

"Filch is just out of his tree," Fred said with a snort.

"But you do realize how important the rule you broke is, don't you?" Charlie asked, raising an eyebrow. "Tampering with Quidditch equipment—"

"We _weren't_ going to tamper with it!" Fred exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air and rolling his eyes.

"Fred, calm down," Mrs. Weasley said, shooting him a look.

"Yeah, no need to get worked up," Dad added. "While I don't necessarily want Lilah to get in the habit of being placed in detention, I can't be mad at her for getting a few here and there. Merlin knows I did."

"You got more than a _few_ I bet," I snorted.

"Okay, maybe I did," Dad chuckled. "Part of being a parent, though, is making sure that you don't make the same mistakes that I did. Or at least hoping you don't." He shrugged. "But then again, as much as I'd like to push you in the right direction, in the end, it's probably good for you that you make your own mistakes. What good would it be if I prevented you from making any?"

"Fred and George are good boys, really," Mrs. Weasley added, smiling at the twins. "I know they can be a little…mischievous, and I know they have a knack for getting in trouble, but they're really very good boys."

"I have no doubt about that," Dad said.

"They also wouldn't dare do anything too crazy," Charlie said with a smirk. "Not with an intimidating Prefect like me keeping an eye on them."

"Please," the twins snorted. "You aren't intimidating, Charlie."

"Yes, I am!" he argued, flexing his muscles and grinning.

"You're actually not, Charlie," I said with a sympathetic smile. "You're actually a pretty relaxed Prefect. One of the more relaxed ones I've seen, really. I don't know how you even got the job."

Charlie gaped at me as the twins laughed. "Lilah," Charlie gasped as he fought back his own laughter. "You really have been hanging out with my brothers too much!"

I shrugged. "Sorry." I paused. "In all honesty, though, you are a good Prefect, just more lenient then most, which I happened to like. I mean, you don't confiscate any of those items on Filch's list for one thing."

"Because nobody likes Filch," Charlie said with a shrug.

"Charlie, be nice," Mrs. Weasley scolded.

"Did you like him when you were at Hogwarts?" Dad asked curiously. He had a knowing smile on his face, though. "Come on, tell the truth."

Mrs. Weasley sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "He wrote up a form for me once, suggesting that I receive a detention for accidentally stepping on Mrs. Norris' tail."

"Yeah?" Dad asked as the rest of us laughed.

"You never told us that!" Fred and George cried.

"Because it was silly!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed. "And I never got the detention because everyone else knew it was silly too! But it made me mad and I tried to steer clear of him after that."

"I purposely stepped on Mrs. Norris' tail a few times," Dad shared. "But I never got caught. I was sneaky about it."

"That's the way you have to be," George said seriously.

I smiled and glanced at my brother, who was nibbling on a dinner roll and looking around the table in amusement. I knew the stories about Hogwarts was getting him excited to actually go himself and to one day have his own stories to share. That was probably why he, Ron and Ginny hadn't really said anything yet. They weren't at school yet and had only heard about Filch and Mrs. Norris from other people.

"I'm excited for Julian to finally start school next year," I said, smiling at him. "But knowing him, he'll actually make friends with Mrs. Norris. He loves animals."

"Do you?" Charlie asked, looking at Julian.

"Yeah," Julian nodded. "I have a pet hamster at home. I'd have more pets if I was allowed."

"I heard about the hamster," Charlie said with a smile. "Bernard?"

Julian nodded and turned bright pink as he clearly remembered the Christmas party incident. Dad, who was sitting on his other side, patted him on the shoulder comfortingly.

"You'll love Care of Magical Creatures, then," Charlie said. "That's my favorite class. I love animals, too. In fact, I'm planning on going to Romania after I graduate next June so that I can work with dragons."

Mrs. Weasley let out a tiny huff and pursed her lips as she stabbed at her plate with her fork.

"Molly's not too happy with the idea," Mr. Weasley explained with a shrug. "She hasn't quite adjusted to it yet."

"And you have?" Mrs. Weasley asked, raising her eyebrows at her husband before turning to Dad. "I just think working with _dragons_ of all things is a bit too dangerous for my liking. And all the way in Romania! It's hard enough with Bill in Egypt…."

"I know you think I'm going to get my head bitten off, but I feel prepared," Charlie said. "Hogwarts has given me a great education."

"I know," Mrs. Weasley sighed. "And I do want you to be happy, but I just worry, you know? It's my job. I'm your mother."

"Hey, Dad," Julian said eagerly. "Do you think I could work with dragons one day?"

Dad chuckled and shook his head as everyone else laughed. "If that's what you really want," he said. "But you have loads of time to decide. You only just turned ten last month. Let's take it slow for a bit, okay? Don't be in such a hurry to get older." He reached out and ruffled Julian's hair as Julian shrugged and smiled.

"You just aren't thrilled about the idea but you would never outright say no," he said.

"That's because I am an amazing father," Dad said. "Probably the best in the world if you ask me."

"Actually, I'd say second best to me," Mr. Weasley said with a smile.

I giggled as Dad pretended to be offended. I looked around the table before closing my eyes for a second and letting out a sigh. As much as I wished my mother could have realized what she was missing out on, I had to admit that this night was incredible. It was what I wished dinners could have been like at my own house. Filled with conversation and laughter. Easy. Fun. _Relaxed_. And now here I was experiencing it mainly with a family that wasn't my own. Maybe it should have bothered me-it probably could have if I let it-but right now it wasn't. Right now I was happy. To put it honestly, I had felt that too many things in my life had come to a sad ending lately and I couldn't bear to give up what I had started with the Weasleys. I could only hope that the coming years would draw us closer and bring many more nights like tonight.

* * *

**A/N: I just wanted to thank CrowningAster, who has totally started helping me out of the rut I was getting myself into with this story and giving me some awesome advice with where to take the story in the next few chapters!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	15. Chapter 15

"Are you waiting for anyone else to join you?"

I snapped out of my trance and looked up at the sound of the polite sounding voice to see a waitress standing beside my corner table at the Leaky Cauldron. She gestured to the two empty place settings at the table.

"I am, actually," I told her. "They should be here any minute."

"Okay, I'll be back in a few minutes to check up on you." She smiled before hurrying away while I began searching the room, resting my chin on my hand and blowing a puff of air out of my mouth.

I was waiting for my dad and Julian to meet me at the Leaky Cauldron after they finished shopping for Julian's supplies. I had gone off and gotten my things on my own and I had arrived at the restaurant ten minutes early. But now Julian and my dad were now going on ten minutes late and I was getting impatient and kind of bored, which allowed my mind to wander a bit.

Nearly four years had passed since my first day at Hogwarts and now I was going into my fifth year. I honestly couldn't fathom how fast the time had gone. I hadn't completely believed anyone that told it would until I began to witness it for myself.

I was still living with my mother and visiting Dad every other weekend. It had been the same routine for the past five years now, but perhaps a bit more improved. For example, I could cook a lot better than I could when I was eleven, which meant that we had more options at dinnertime. This also meant that Mum still wasn't cooking for us. As usual. She was working just as long and as hard as she always had and our relationship hadn't worsened or improved over the years. It had stayed oddly stagnant and I didn't know if this was good or bad. Luckily, this weekend was a weekend that Julian and I were with Dad so we could go school supply shopping with him. Otherwise, Mum would have taken us and it probably wouldn't have been much fun.

Finally, the bell above the door jingled and my gaze snapped up to see my dad and little brother entering the room. Dad saw me first and nudged Julian, who began to lead the way towards me.

"Hey," I said with a grin, sliding in towards the wall so Julian could sit beside me. Dad took a seat across from us and set Julian's bags of new supplies beside him. "Did you get everything you needed?"

Julian nodded as he returned the smile. "Yeah, we got everything."

"Good," I replied, reaching out to fix the collar of his shirt as my eyes instinctively searched him for anything else that was out of place. Maybe it was a bit of my mother rubbing off on me, or maybe it was because I was so used to taking care of Julian and helping him to get ready for years of Christmas parties and a few dinners with Mum's work friends over the years. Or maybe it was both. I had helped take care of him for so long that I always seemed to check him over out of habit now, despite the fact that he was thirteen and didn't really need me.

"Dad, she's doing it again," Julian sighed, giving dad a weary look.

Dad chuckled and smiled at us as I froze and gave him a guilty look.

"Sorry," I told Julian, flashing him a half-smile and retracting my hand from attempting to smooth some of his hair down.

"You haven't forgotten what we agreed on two years ago, have you?" Julian asked, giving me a look.

I shook my head. "No, I haven't," I sighed. Two years ago, when Julian had been about two start his first year of school, he made me promise not to _baby him_, effective immediately once we got to Kings Cross and lasting throughout the school year. He even told me that he'd prefer if I didn't do it in the summer either, but especially not while he was in school. According to him, he actually wanted to make friends and he couldn't do that with me _hovering_. I had been a little insulted at first, but after I thought it over, I understood. He didn't intend to come across as mean; he was just nervous about school and didn't want to be treated like a kid anymore. I got it, truly, I did. I still got it, but as I've said, it's become a habit for me.

Suddenly, the waitress appeared at the end of the table, notepad in hand, asking if we knew what we'd like. We ordered and fell into silence again once she left.

"Sorry we were a little late," Dad said, looking at me apologetically. "Julian wanted to take a look in the Quidditch store and took a little bit longer than I expected."

"Dad!" Julian protested, rolling his eyes in frustration.

"You know what, you're right, I'm sorry," Dad said, holding his hands up. "You took _way_ longer than I expected." He grinned, and when Julian pouted, he reached across the table and attempted to tickle Julian's neck, his most ticklish spot. Instantly, Julian raised his shoulders, clamping them as close as he could to his head, but he did smile, which was what Dad had wanted, so he retracted his hand, his own grin spreading over his face.

"Are you still upset you won't be able to try out this year?" I asked Julian. "I mean, I'm sorry it had to work out that way, but all the spots are full. This is Wood's last year, though. Next year you can try out for keeper!"

Julian shrugged. "Yeah, I just wished it had worked out that I got to be on the team sooner. I could've tried out for Seeker last year if Harry hadn't gotten put on the team before we were even old enough to try out."

I smiled. My brother had been sorted into Gryffindor his first year, which was a huge relief for both of us. We had desperately wanted to be in the same house. He had made friends with Ron considering they were the same age and they had already known each other beforehand. And wouldn't you know it, the two of them had gone and made friends with Harry Potter on their very first day of school. Julian liked Harry, he really did, but I think the Quidditch thing just got to him a little bit considering how much he had wanted to be on the team and how hard he had worked when Harry had made it accidentally and without ever having been on a broomstick before.

While Julian was fairly close to Ron, Harry and Hermione, a bushy haired, intelligent girl in their year, I think he had become even closer to a boy named Neville Longbottom. Both of them were fairly shy and had kind of bonded during their first Potions class. Julian and Neville had ended up partners and Neville had melted his cauldron within two seconds of trying to brew a Forgetfulness Potion, which was, ironically, the easiest one to remember how to make. Julian had helped Neville clean up the mess, despite Professor Snape ordering that nobody help. Fred and George had laughed when Julian retold the story and claimed they had finally found someone who was even worse at Potions than me. I had glared at them in response. It was true that I had still never melted my cauldron, but I still wasn't doing too great in that class and I knew how Neville must have felt. I was proud of Julian for helping him out.

"Well, even a few years on the team will be better than none at all," I told him now with a half-smile as the waitress dropped off our food.

Julian glanced at me and gave me a wry smile. "Are you turning into Tess or something?"

I giggled. "No, I guess I've just hung around her so much that she's been starting to wear off on me."

"Not a bad thing," Dad reminded me. "She's a great girl. Jesse's done a wonderful job raising her."

I nodded in agreement. Once we finished our food, we headed back to Dad's flat, where I collapsed onto the couch with a sigh and stared back at the ceiling. I had to write a letter to the twins sometime today. They had written me yesterday and I hadn't gotten the chance to write back yet.

Currently, the entire family was in Egypt visiting Bill, the oldest Weasley child. Mr. Weasley had won seven hundred Galleons from a contest the Daily Prophet had put out. I was glad they had won, to be honest, even if it did mean I had to miss them terribly while they were away.

I still had Tess around, though, and Alicia, Katie, Angelina, and even Lee, which was good. Mum had been surprisingly lenient about letting me hang out with them. She still pursed her lips whenever I mentioned the Weasleys, though, but she did still let me hang out with them, which I was grateful for.

Not much had changed about our friendship since first year except we had become even closer with every passing day. The Weasleys were like an extended family at this point. I loved them with all of my heart and so did Dad and Julian. I still sincerely thought Mum could too, if she bothered to give them the chance. Every time we gave her the opportunity to meet them, she still made up some excuse. And so the years had gone by without her officially becoming acquainted with them.

Making my decision to get started on the letter to the twins now, I stood up and headed for my dad's room, where I nicked a piece of paper from his desk and brought it into the kitchen, where my dad and Julian were playing wizard's chess on the kitchen counter.

"Writing to the twins?" Dad asked, frowning as one of Julian's pieces whacked one of his right off the board.

I nodded. "They come back next week!" I said excitedly. "And I'll finally be able to see them in person again." I paused as I stared at the chess board. "Merlin, Jules, you've gotten so much better at this game."

"Ron's been helping me," he muttered, studying the board intently. "He's really, really good at it. I'm hoping to surprise him when he gets back by actually winning a game against him."

"I hope you do," I said, making myself comfortable on the stool beside him.

"I wish Charlie wasn't going straight back to Romania," Julian said after a few minutes, glancing over at my half-written letter. "I miss him."

I nodded. "I do too." The second oldest Weasley had left for Romania a few months after finishing his last year of school. That was two years ago and he hadn't been back to visit much since. Actually, I think he'd only come back once. Mostly because he was very busy and very far away.

"Do _you_ still want to go to Romania and work with dragons?" Dad asked, breaking his intense stare-off with the chess board and raising an eyebrow at Julian.

"I don't know," Julian answered. "I'm thirteen. I don't know what I'd like to do. It _sounds_ cool and interesting and I do like animals, but it is far away and now that I know Charlie doesn't get a lot of time to come home…."

"Aw, you'd get homesick?" I asked, grinning at my brother as I finished up my letter and signed my name.

Julian rolled his eyes. "No."

Now it was my turn to roll my eyes as I let out a snort. "Okay, Jules." I hopped off my stool and patted my brother on the shoulder as I headed off to find Casper so I could mail my letter.

* * *

"You two will be okay?" Mum asked, glancing between me and Julian as we stood next to the barrier that led to Platform 9 ¾.

"We'll be fine, Mum," I assured her with a half-smile. "We've done this enough times to know the drill."

Julian and I were about to go back to Hogwarts for our third and fifth years and this time, September 1st just happened to fall on a day we were with Mum instead of Dad. She wasn't even going to come onto the platform with us. She was just going to send us through the barrier and go to work. It wasn't necessarily a big deal—I could handle it after all—but sometimes I just wish she wasn't always in such a rush.

"Okay," Mum said breathlessly, checking her watch. "You'd better get going or you'll miss the train. Merlin knows I certainly don't have time to help you get in contact with Dumbledore and help arrange another way for you to get to school."

"I'm sure we could have managed that on our own," I muttered, digging my toe into the ground.

"You're mumbling again, Lilah," Mum said, irritation evident in her voice.

"We could have managed on our own," I said, speaking louder and looking her in the eye. "I have Casper after all."

Mum nodded. "I'll admit that I wasn't sure about having an owl in the house, but you have been very responsible with him."

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. According to my mother, being _responsible_ with Casper meant letting him out for fresh air only at night and sending most of my letters at night. I was supposed to keep from sending letters during the day unless it was urgent. It could be frustrating, but at least I had an owl. And it could always be a lot worse. According to Julian, Harry's aunt and uncle made him keep his snowy owl, Hedwig, locked up in her cage.

After Julian and I said a hurried goodbye to Mum, we ran towards the barrier together and within seconds were standing in front of the bright red Hogwarts Express.

Grinning, Julian took off down the platform, rapidly pushing his cart before hopping up onto the back and coasting along ahead of me. I followed him, keeping an eye out for any of my friends. We were supposed to catch up with each other, but we'd never made any definite plans. I didn't know if I'd see them on the platform or in our usual compartment at the back of the train.

"I see them!" Julian suddenly cried, glancing over his shoulder as he propelled his cart forward with one leg.

"See who?" I asked. "There are plenty of people we're trying to keep an eye out for right now." I paused. "And maybe you shouldn't be riding on the back of your luggage cart. You know, in case it tips over."

Julian snorted but hopped off the back of his cart anyway and let me catch up to him. "First of all, I spotted the Weasleys." He pointed to the group of redheads standing a little ways up ahead. "Secondly, I think my actual luggage balances the cart out so I'm fine. You worry too much."

I sighed and shook my head, but didn't reply as we headed towards the Weasleys, who were all grouped together beside the train. Mrs. Weasley was brushing off the front of Ron's sweater while Ron looked annoyed. Harry and Hermione were there, too. Apparently, they had stayed with the Weasleys at the Leaky Cauldron for the past few nights.

Beside Mrs. Weasley stood Percy, looking extra proud of himself from all the way where I was standing. He had been made Head Boy over the summer and according to the twins, he hadn't stopped talking about it or puffing out his chest to show off his badge.

The twins were standing slightly behind Percy. They were both imitating him behind his back, puffing out their chests and pretending to shine imaginary badges. They hadn't seen me and Julian yet, and I found myself giggling at their impressions of their older brother.

Julian suddenly took off again, hopping back up on the back of his luggage cart and zooming towards the Weasleys. He hopped off just as he reached them, stumbling slightly and almost knocking Percy over with the cart. I saw Percy make a face of annoyance and adjust his glasses.

"Nice entrance," I heard Fred comment as I reached them. He ruffled Julian's hair and grinned. Then, he looked up and saw me standing there. He made a face. "You, not so much, Liles."

I snorted and rolled my eyes. "Sorry, but I don't live to impress you."

Fred stuck his tongue out at me before smiling and tilting his head. "Come here."

I immediately laughed and flung myself into his arms, giving him a hug. "I missed you all so much!" I exclaimed, moving on to hug George. I even made my way through the rest of the family members, including Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. "How was Egypt?"

"It was incredible!" the twins exclaimed. "We tried to shut Percy in a pyramid!"

"But then Mum caught us," George added.

"Was trying to shut Percy in a pyramid the highlight of your entire trip?" I asked.

"Yes," Percy scoffed.

"No," the twins said innocently.

I giggled. "I'm actually inclined to side with Percy on this one. Something tells me that you two got great enjoyment out of that."

"There was so much more they could have been interested in!" Percy exclaimed. "All the history, all the cool things Bill told us about…." He shrugged and scowled. "But no, they were too busy planning to shut me inside the pyramid to care about anything else."

"Sounds about right," I agreed.

"How have you been, Lilah dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked me. "Did you have a good rest of your summer? I know Fred and George certainly missed you while we were away."

I nodded. "It was okay. And I missed them, too. Things just weren't the same without them here. They were almost…quiet." I glanced at the twins and smirked as they both made faces at me.

We didn't get much time to talk after that because the train's whistle blew. It was almost eleven o'clock. Mrs. Weasley ushered all of us onto the train, where we began separating into groups. Julian headed off with Ron, Harry and Hermione, while Ginny and Percy left in search of their own friends. That left me, Fred and George to make our way towards our usual compartment. Angelina, Alicia, Katie and Lee were already there. Tess wasn't yet, but she had written to tell me that some of her Hufflepuff friends had asked her to sit with them and she had agreed, but she was going to try to come find me at some point of the train ride.

The rest of us spent the journey catching up with each other. Fred and George told us all about Egypt in detail and about how Percy had been acting even more pompous than usual after being made Head Boy. It was obvious from only seeing him for a few minutes that what they said was true, but I couldn't help but feel a little bad for Percy. After all, he had always been willing to help me with my Potions work. It wasn't as regular as it had been during my first year, but if I ever got so hopelessly stuck on an assignment, I went to Percy. We still weren't exactly close, but we were friendly.

Eventually, the conversation moved the Quidditch and I found myself just staring out the window after a while. Fred and George had made the team as Beaters our second year. Also, Katie, Alicia and Angelina had made the Chaser positions. Lee had managed to become commentator. That left me as the only person not involved with the team in some way. Which was fine with me, honestly. I didn't have any interest in playing or commentating. I enjoyed the game, don't get me wrong, but I was a much better spectator than player.

"Lilah, you okay?"

Angelina's voice brought me back out of my thoughts. I blinked a few times before nodding. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"You completely zoned out on us," Fred said with a laugh. "Katie asked if you'd heard the news about Sirius Black and you didn't even blink."

"I zoned out when you were talking about Quidditch," I confessed, stretching my arms out in front of me. "And, yes, I have heard about Sirius Black. Everyone has."

"Our mother barely let us out of her sight when we went to Diagon Alley," George said, biting off the head of the chocolate frog in his hand.

The others nodded and I shrugged. I doubted my mother would have let me walk around alone either, but my dad had. He felt that Sirius Black would have to be an idiot to appear in a public place when everyone was out looking for him. It kind of made sense to me, but I wondered if he could be wrong. All the hype about the breakout had made me more nervous. And besides that, there was the fact that Sirius Black was the first person to ever break out of Azkaban. No one knew how he could have possibly done it.

"Well," Angelina began, "Hogwarts is the safest place anyone can be, isn't it? If Sirius Black wants to murder a bunch of students, he'd have to get through all the protective charms and risk being seen and captured."

"If he can escape Azkaban, he can probably get into Hogwarts," Fred said in an eerie, dramatic voice. He widened his eyes for effect and lowered his voice to a whisper. "You never know. You could be walking down the hallway and he could be hiding behind a tapestry, waiting to jump out at you…."

"Boo!" George yelled, causing the rest of us to shriek in horror.

"You complete idiots!" I exclaimed, chucking a licorice wand at George's head. He yelped slightly as it made contact, but he didn't stop laughing. In fact, he and Fred were about to fall out of their seats from laughing so hard.

"I think we made a mistake becoming friends with these two," I muttered, rolling my eyes as Angelina snorted and shook her head.

Just then, the lights flickered and the train screeched to a pretty sudden halt. Fred and George stopped laughing at once and looked around in confusion. "Weird," Fred muttered. "What's all this about? We can't be there yet."

"Have we broken down?" Alicia asked, her eyes wide with fear and worry.

The lights flickered again before going out completely. I whimpered and grabbed onto Fred's arm in the darkness. "Is this your idea of an elaborate prank?" I hissed.

"Are you mental?" Fred asked. "Of course not. Why would George and I want to make the train break down? Even if we wanted to make the illusion of it breaking down, we'd probably have to get the conductor in on it, which would never work. Besides, George and I are—"

"Shh," Angelina hissed, pressing her face to the window. "I think I see something out there."

"It's pouring rain," Fred said confidently. "And it's dark. You're also paranoid, so I doubt you actually saw something."

"I did!" Angelina said indignantly. "I swear something was moving out there! Something shadowy."

"Perhaps an actual shadow?" Fred asked with a snort. Despite his confident air, I knew he was actually scared. I knew because he hadn't shaken me off yet. I was still clutching his arm.

"Is it just me or is it getting colder in here?" Lee asked, staring as his breath became visible in the air in front of him.

"It's freezing," I whispered.

We all saw it at the same time. A figure moving in the hallway outside of our compartment. It moved slowly and almost looked like it was floating. The compartment door slowly slid open. I could feel my heart thumping in my throat. I whimpered again and held on tighter to Fred's arm. I was probably hurting him, but he didn't say a word.

The figure slowly stuck its head inside the compartment. It was covered in a black tattered looking cloak with the hood pulled up. I couldn't see a face, or any body parts really. All I did see was a hand poking out from the end of the cloak sleeve. But not just any hand. It pretty much resembled a corpse's hand.

"Blimey, a dementor," Fred breathed.

I turned my head into his shoulder and closed my eyes. My heart was still pounding and I felt cold and miserable. An intense feeling of sadness and dread was falling over me. For some reason, all I could think about now was the night my parents divorced and how it was my fault. How I wasn't smart enough and could barely pass Potions. How I kept disappointing my mother. How I wasn't good enough.

And then just like that, it was gone. The compartment door had clicked shut and the dementor had gone. A moment later, the lights flickered on and the train began moving again. I raised my head off of Fred's shoulder as I felt my body steadily growing warmer. I was still trembling, though, and I felt like I had tears on my cheeks. I wiped them away hastily, before anyone could see. Not that anyone was paying attention to me, though. They all looked just as shaken as I did.

"Why in the name of Merlin's dirty sock was a dementor on the train?" George asked.

"Searching for Sirius Black, probably," Katie replied. Despite her matter of fact tone, her voice still shook slightly.

I groaned and dug the heels of my hands in my eyes as I rested my elbows on mu knees.

"You okay, Lie?" Fred asked. I felt him put a hand on my back and gently start moving it in circles.

I nodded and let out a sigh as I sat up. "I just…I felt terrible. I still kind of feel weird. Better, but still not right. As if the effects of the dementor haven't quite worn off yet."

"Same," Fred answered, nodding vigorously. "I felt miserable and…_sad_. As if I'd never be happy again. And I was _freezing_."

"I kept remembering every stupid thing I've ever done," Lee added, shaking his head slowly. "And it felt so much more stupid as if it was the end of the world."

Katie, Angelina and Alicia were nodding too, but before anyone could add anything else, the compartment door slid open again and we all looked up.

A man was standing there. He must have been in his early thirties, but he looked extremely tired, which made him seem older. He wore robes that looked as if they'd seen better days and a kind smile on his face.

"Everyone okay?" he asked.

We nodded. "Yeah," George said. "We're fine, but we were just saying how weird we felt when the dementor showed up."

"Ah, well unfortunately that's normal," the man said, his smile widening sadly for a brief moment. "The dementors stopped the train and were checking it for Sirius Black."

"We figured," Angelina muttered.

"Anyway, here, have some chocolate," the man said, breaking off small bits of chocolate from the bigger piece he had in his hand and passing them around to each of us. "Believe me, it helps."

And just like that, he was gone. We hadn't even gotten the chance to figure out who he was.

"So…do we trust him?" Angelina asked nervously.

"He wouldn't be allowed on the train if he wasn't trustworthy," Alicia said with a shrug as she took a bite of the chocolate in her hand.

I snorted. "How can you say that after a _dementor _was just searching the train, Leesh?"

"Well, it wasn't exactly welcomed on the train with open arms," Alicia pointed out. "It forced its way on. _And_ it was looking for Sirius Black who might be a whole lot worse." She paused. "You all better eat your chocolate, by the way. I feel _so_ much better."

The rest of us glanced at each other before shrugging and taking bites of our own chocolate. Alicia was right. Almost instantly, I felt a lot better. The remaining chill in my body went away and I stopped feeling any last bits of misery that were looming in my mind.

"You know, maybe meeting Sirius Black isn't worse than meeting a dementor," George suddenly pointed out.

"Come again?" I asked, giving him a look.

"You have to admit, Liles, what we all just felt was awful. Besides, I've heard that if you're on the receiving end of a dementor's kiss, it isn't pretty. I've heard it's worse than death. So then maybe being kissed by a dementor is worse than being killed by Sirius Black."

"Actually, I'd just prefer it if I never meet either one of them," Lee snorted, finishing off his chocolate.

"Agreed," I said, standing up and making my way to the compartment door.

"Where are you going?" George asked, sounding alarmed, as if even though the dementor was gone, he didn't think it was a good idea to wander the train alone.

"I'm going to find Julian and make sure he's okay," I said, as if it were obvious. "Aren't you worried about Ron?"

"Yeah, of course," Fred said, "but honestly I'm sure they're fine. The dementor was looking for Sirius Black not any of us. The worst that happened to them is that they felt the same way we did. Also, I bet the man who gave us the chocolate gave some to them too. I bet they're all fine."

I shrugged. "Still….I just want to see my brother. I'll be back."

I found Julian a few compartments away sitting with Harry, Hermione, Ron, and, surprisingly, the man who had given us the chocolate. "Er…hi." I said, moving my gaze from the man to my brother, who looked completely fine. I knew he wasn't easily terrified of things, but it was impossible to not be at least uneasy around a dementor. Then again, he had had time to regain his composure and had already been given chocolate, which did help significantly.

"I just wanted to make sure you were all okay," I said. "After, you know…what happened."

"We're fine," Julian said. He pointed to the man in the compartment. "Professor Lupin gave us chocolate and it made us feel a lot better."

"Yeah, us too," I said, looking over at the man—Professor Lupin, I guess. I was assuming he was our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Hopefully he'd be a lot better than the previous ones we'd had, who'd mostly just been horrible teachers. The last two had been the worst I've ever had, though. One was a crazy plagiarist and then the other one had You-Know-Who sticking out of the back of his head. Something told me that this Professor Lupin guy couldn't be weirder than that. I didn't know if that was a comfort or not, though.

"Harry fainted, though," Ron pointed out, earning himself a glare from Harry.

"Thanks for letting her know, Ron," he muttered.

"How come?" I asked, giving him a look of concern. "Is that normal?"

"It's been known to happen," Professor Lupin said coolly. "It's nothing to worry about. The chocolate worked its magic and Harry's as good as new."

I nodded and looked back at the others. "And the rest of you…you're all okay?"

They nodded. "Are you?" Julian asked.

"Yeah…I just felt weird, though. We all did."

Julian nodded again and I saw him searching my face, making sure I wasn't trying to downplay anything.

"We should be arriving at Hogwarts soon," Professor Lupin said, checking his watch. "Probably within the next fifteen minutes or so."

I nodded. "I should go change into my robes, then." I scanned the compartment once more, meeting Julian's eyes and smiling at him as I did so. He smiled back and after that, I made my way back to my own compartment where I changed into my school robes. Not even two minutes later, the train was coming to a stop at the Hogsmeade station.

Once we were settled into the carriages and nearing the Hogwarts gates, I looked up and shivered slightly. A dementor was positioned at either side of the gate.

"They're surrounding the school?" Katie asked, making a face.

"As long as they keep us safe, though, right?" Angelina asked, but I could see in her expression that the presence of the Azkaban guards made her nervous as well.

I swallowed as I looked away from the hooded face of the dementor nearest me. "And just as long as they stay away from me."


	16. Chapter 16

"What's up with you, Harry?" George asked the next morning at breakfast.

I glanced up from spreading jam on my toast to see Harry, Ron and Hermione sitting down beside George. Harry looked absolutely miserable.

"Malfoy," Ron answered as Harry continued to scowl.

Fred, George and I immediately looked up and sought out Draco Malfoy across the hall. He was staring at Harry and laughing. He pretended to faint dramatically and then continued to laugh some more.

"That little git," George said, shaking his head. "He wasn't so cocky last night when the Dementor was down at our end of the train. Came running into our compartment, didn't he, Fred?"

"Nearly wet himself," Fred agreed, nodding vigorously.

I smiled to myself as I looked at the twins fondly. They were lying to make Harry feel better. Malfoy hadn't set foot in our compartment last night. It was honestly pretty sweet of them to do something like that.

Julian appeared at my side just then and plopped down on the bench, his schedule in his hands.

"What classes do you have?" I asked, peering over his shoulder at the schedule. McGonagall had just passed them out moments ago. "Transfigurations, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Herbology…the usual…." I trailed off as I scanned the rest of the timetable. "Care of Magical Creatures," I smiled and ruffled his hair, "you'll like that class. And…Divination. Yuck." I wrinkled my nose.

"Why, what's wrong with Divination?" Julian asked. "Seeing the future? Sounds cool to me."

I snorted. "I dropped that class after third year. Sorry, Jules, but Divination is stupid unless you're actually a Seer."

"What if I am?" Julian asked defiantly.

"Maybe, but I highly doubt it. They're kind of rare and the traits run within families. We don't have any Seer relatives."

"Your sister's right, kiddo," Fred said, leaning forward to look at Julian. "George and I dropped the class, too. We considered staying in it for the laughs and the competition of seeing which one of us could come up with the most outrageous 'predictions'"—he made quote marks in the air—"but then we realized that we were running out of outrageous predictions and that we were also falling asleep more than we were staying awake in class to laugh, so we dropped it. Normally, we wouldn't have minded an extra nap during the day, but waking up to see Trelawney's face peering at you…." He trailed off and shuddered. I punched his shoulder for being so mean. Sure Professor Trelawney was strange, but I also thought there was something oddly likeable and amusing about her. Still not enough of an incentive to keep the class, though.

"What's wrong with Trelawney?" Julian asked curiously.

"She's just…very eccentric," I told him. "Huge eyes, glasses that make them seem bigger, wild hair, lots of shawls…."

Julian nodded. "So, what did you pick up instead? After you dropped Divination, I mean."

"Ancient Runes," I replied. "Fred and George decided on Muggle Studies. It requires less brain power."

"Shut up, Lilah," the twins grumbled. I giggled.

"Well, it's too late for me to switch now," Julian said, chewing on a piece of bacon. "But I'll give Divination a try and hope I don't fall asleep."

"Good luck," George said. "The room is so _warm_ and you have to sit on all these fluffy armchairs and cushions." He snorted. "It was all kind of silly. I thought it was going to be an easy class, but it was more of a joke."

"I thought you loved jokes," Julian said with a smile.

"Yeah, _good_ ones," Fred said with a roll of his eyes.

I laughed again and turned to Julian. "Who knows? You might end up liking it."

"I'm not so sure anymore," Julian sighed. Then, he brightened. "But I am excited for Care of Magical Creatures."

"I figured."

"And Hagrid will be teaching!" Julian exclaimed. "I wonder what that'll be like."

"I'm wondering the same thing, actually," I said. "We don't have that class until tomorrow, so let us know how it goes."

"Only if you let me know how Defense Against the Dark Arts goes," Julian replied, examining his schedule. "That's the class I don't have until tomorrow. I want to know what kind of teacher Professor Lupin is. He seems cool."

"He does," I agreed, finishing my pumpkin juice and standing up. Julian did the same beside me and I began to instinctively reach out to straighten his tie, but stopped at the last minute. "Sorry," I whispered sheepishly when I saw Julian's knowing look.

"You promised," he hissed.

"Well, you do it then," I answered, gesturing to his tie. "Straighten your tie unless you want to walk around with it crooked all day."

Julian pursed his lips at me, but he straightened his tie nonetheless. Then, he grabbed his bag and his schedule and brushed past me.

I sighed as Fred and George stood up from the table.

"What was that about?" Fred asked, staring after Julian.

"I was _babying_ him." I crossed my arms and stared at the twins. "It's instinct, not intentional."

"I'm sure he knows that," George said with a shrug. "But he's thirteen. You remember how it was. They all want to act so grown up all the time."

I let out another sigh. "But he's so young and I sometimes feel like he never got the chance to act his age. He's always acted older…he never got much of a chance to ride a broom or play with other children..."

"What about you?" Fred asked, staring at me and searching my face. "You never got any of that either."

"Well, no, but I couldn't afford to act like a child. Before my parents divorced, I needed to help my dad around the house and help take care of Julian and after the divorce, I had to take on a lot more and still take care of Julian. As much as he hates admitting it, he needed me to take care of him. No one was going to take care of me. I'm the oldest. Mum gets upset with _me_ if anything goes wrong."

Fred and George were quiet as they studied me for a moment.

"She shouldn't," Fred finally whispered. "She shouldn't take it out on you as hard as she does."

"How would you know how much she takes out on me? I haven't exactly dropped the information into your laps."

"No, but I can sense it," Fred shrugged. "Although, I wish you'd talk to us," he added as we began our walk to class. "We've known each other for years and all I really know about your mother are the little snippets you seem to leak about her here and there. We've only met her, what, twice? Briefly. You don't talk about her…." He trailed off and shrugged again.

"Why do you care?" I asked curiously, peering up at him.

"Because I feel like I don't know you like I should. You know almost everything about George and I. Mum even showed you a picture of us in the _bathtub_! You can't get more personal than that."

"First of all, I didn't ask to see that picture," I snorted. "Secondly, it's not like I even _saw_ anything personal," I snorted. "Just your little toddler torsos and your soap beards. Which is still way more than I would've liked to see if you ask me."

"You're aware that we don't have toddler bodies any more, aren't you?" George informed me with a wink. "So, if you want a second look to see if you've changed your mind…."

I pretended to gag. "No, thanks. I'll pass."

We reached the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and headed inside. Alicia, Katie, Angelina and Lee were already there, so the twins and I immediately made a beeline for them. Luckily, there were still empty seats surrounding their tables, despite the fact that we had been cutting it close and had very nearly been late.

Professor Lupin entered the room right on time and the class fell silent as he made his way towards the front of the room. He looked a little less tired than yesterday, which was a good sign.

When he got to the front of the room, Professor Lupin turned to face us and looked around at our desks. A textbook was lying on every single one, waiting to be cracked open. "You can put those away," he said.

We all looked around at each other, not knowing what to make of this. Our Defense teachers our first and second years had sworn by the textbooks and we had used them every day. Then, there had been Professor Quirrell, who had been the same way. Gilderoy Lockhart, on the other hand, was the first teacher I had who didn't use our assigned textbook once. We had all bought it considering it was one of the ones on our list, but we didn't open it all year. Instead, we spent most of the time learning about Gilderoy Lockhart's favorite topic: himself.

So now, with Professor Lupin telling us to put our books away, we were both nervous and intrigued. I didn't get the feeling he was going to talk about himself too much, but he had already made it clear we weren't going to use the textbook today either. So did that actually mean we'd be doing hands on work?

Professor Lupin waited with a slight smile while we all shoved our books back into our bags. Once we were done, he stood smiling at us for a moment before sticking his hands in his pockets and ambling back towards the doorway. He continued walking until he had left the room completely.

I turned and gave my friends looks of confusion as murmurs from the other students filled the room. I was beginning to fear that this new teacher was going to be as mental as the last.

Suddenly, Professor Lupin stuck his head back into the room. "Well, come on," he said, beckoning for us to follow him. He left the room again, leaving the class sitting in stunned silence. We all looked at each other unsure of what to do. That is, until Fred stood up from his chair with a shrug. "I don't know about you guys but I'm officially curious now," he said, making a beeline for the door.

"Your twin is mental," I hissed to George, but even as I said it, the rest of us were standing up and following him into the hallway where Professor Lupin was waiting.

He led us to the staff room, which was unoccupied. I wondered what we could possibly be doing in here.

"Here we are," Professor Lupin said, coming to a halt in front of a wardrobe where I assumed the teachers kept their things.

"What, are we playing dress up or something?" Fred hissed in my ear. I rolled my eyes and ignored him as the wardrobe suddenly shook violently. A few people jumped in alarm.

Professor Lupin smiled. "Don't worry, there's nothing to be afraid of. There's only a Boggart in there."

"_Only_?" Lee scoffed, raising his eyebrows.

"I know that Boggarts can seem intimidating, but…." Professor Lupin began. He paused. "Actually, before I go any further, Mr. Jordan, would you care to explain what a Boggart is?"

"It's a shape shifter," Lee said. "It takes the shape of what would most likely frighten us the most. We read about these a few years ago."

"Ah, yes, you _read_ about them, I'm sure," Professor Lupin said, "but you've never faced one, have you?"

We all shook our heads.

"Boggarts are not uncommon to find," Professor Lupin continued. "They like dark, enclosed spaces, such as a wardrobe." He pointed to the one beside him, which was shaking again. "It's very useful to be able to know how to get rid of one."

"But will this come up on our OWLs?" A Ravenclaw girl was looking at Professor Lupin skeptically. "I mean, boggarts are third year subject material. When are we going to learn what will come up on our exams?"

Professor Lupin continued to smile. If he was insulted, he didn't show it. "I understand your previous teachers haven't given you much reason to have faith in _me,_" he said, "but I can assure you that I am confident you will be fully prepared for your examinations come June. I must ask that you please _trust me_."

Nobody else said a word, and Professor Lupin took that chance to continue. "Now, the charm that repels a Boggart is quite simple, but requires a certain kind of concentration, focus, and force of mind. What really finishes a Boggart is laughter, so you need to force it to assume a shape that you would find amusing." He paused. "We will practice the charm without wands first. Repeat after me, please…Riddikulus!"

"_Riddikulus_!" the class chorused.

"Very good! But there's more to it than just saying the incantation, I'm afraid." He searched the room. "Who'd like to volunteer first?"

Everyone still seemed a bit uneasy, so after a moment of awkward silence, I put my hand up. "I will."

"Thank you, Miss Fitzgerald," Professor Lupin beamed. "Please step forward."

I walked forward a few steps until I was standing in front of the class, facing the wardrobe. Needless to say, I was nervous, but at least I'd be getting this over with before everyone else.

"Okay, Lilah," Professor Lupin said, "first thing's first. What would you say frightens you most in the world?"

I slowly blew a puff of air out of my mouth as I thought about that. If I was being totally honest, it was my mother when she got that look on her face. The look of disappointment. The one she wore after Julian's hamster incident, every time I talked back to her, and every time I gave her an update on Potions class. I wondered if it was a stupid or complicated fear. I debated whether or not I should just say spiders, but I actually wasn't really afraid of them. At least not normal, little spiders. I'd heard about Hagrid's giant spider from Ron and I didn't think I'd be too keen on meeting him, but then again, I doubt most people would be. Anyway, I'm sure the boggart would pick up that I didn't quite fear spiders and the whole class would know anyway.

"Currently," I finally said, "I'd have to go with my mother being disappointed in me. You see, she's kind of intense and—"

"No need to explain," Professor Lupin said kindly, holding up his hand. He paused. "Does your mother ever wear high heels?"

I blinked. That was a strange question. "All the time," I answered in confusion.

"Good, good." Professor Lupin nodded to himself and gazed at the ceiling as he thought that over. "Okay," he finally said, looking at me. "Here's what I'd like you to do." He stepped closer and leaned forward to whisper the next instructions in my ear so that the rest of the class wouldn't hear. "First, picture your mother lecturing you or yelling at you. Then, picture one of the heels of her shoes breaking mid-rant. Focus on it. Then, say the charm. It's hard to take someone's argument seriously when they're thrown off balance." He smiled.

"Are you sure that's not a little…mean?" I asked skeptically. I didn't want my mother to get hurt in any way…even though the boggart wasn't really my mother. It still felt weird though.

"Breaking her shoe is only to elicit laughter," Professor Lupin. "It's the only way you can defeat a boggart, like I said. It's not like you're breaking her leg and besides…it's a boggart, not really your mother." He smiled again and patted me on the shoulder. "Just keep that in mind." He straightened up again. "Ready?" he asked.

I took a deep breath and found myself holding it as I nodded my head, faced the wardrobe and held up my wand. Professor Lupin waved his own wand and unlocked the wardrobe door. It swung open to reveal my mother. She was glaring at me intently and it was all I could do not to start cowering.

Within the next few seconds, she had opened her mouth and started lecturing me. The entire class got an earful, that's for sure. They heard all about how she was disappointed that I couldn't properly take care of my brother, that I couldn't pass Potions, that I couldn't grow up into the young lady she'd hoped for me to be. The more she talked, the closer I felt to tears. My throat was so constricted, I didn't think I'd be able to say the charm and properly demonstrate how to repel a boggart. Just another disappointment to add to my mother's list.

"Lilah, go ahead," Professor Lupin urged me. "Remember what I said. Focus. Concentrate. You can do this. Ignore what she's telling you and focus on what I told you to focus on."

I nodded and did my best to swallow away the lump in my throat. As I did so, I concentrated so hard on my mother's shoe heel breaking. The snapping sound it would make, how it would throw her off balance and put an end to her rant. When I opened my eyes, I set my jaw and held my wand up higher. "Riddikulus!"

I was actually a little bit surprised when the charm worked. The heel of one of my mother's shoes snapped right off, causing her to wobble dangerously and an expression of panic to cross her face. Her arms waved like a windmill as she tried to keep her balance. A ripple of laughter passed through the class and even though I smiled a tiny smile of my own, I hated that we were all laughing at her expense. Maybe I was a terrible person after all. Thinking this, my smile slowly faded.

"Good job, Lilah!" Professor Lupin exclaimed, clapping his hands together as I continued to stare blankly ahead of me. He clapped me on the shoulder. "You okay?" he asked quietly. "That was a lot more intense than I thought."

"I'm fine," I whispered.

"Boggarts also tend to…embellish, you know. A person could be afraid of snakes and the boggart will turn into the biggest one you've ever seen. Your mind really has a lot of effect on a boggart. It controls what the boggart turns into as well as being the thing that pushes it away."

I knew he was trying to comfort me and I appreciated it. But the thing was that I wasn't sure my boggart had been all_that_ much of an embellishment. Sadly.

Nodding, I backed away and went to stand behind my classmates as they eagerly lined up for their turn to face the boggart. I stood off to the side and watched my classmates fight off fears that were way less intense than mine. Spiders and rats were common, as well as a snakes. A few people were afraid of drowning, heights, or confined spaces. All relatively common and all depicted by the person watching the boggart take the shape of themselves and acting out the fear. Appearing near the ceiling and falling, water gathering at their feet and rising, as if an invisible container were being filled around the boggart, that sort of thing. No one seemed to be all that affected once they managed to defeat the boggart and get everyone laughing. As a matter of fact, it looked like they were all having fun.

Finally, it was Fred's turn. Laughing and turning back to make a thumbs up at George, he stepped forward to stand in front of the boggart. After a second, the boggart turned into a dead body. But not just any dead body. At first I thought it was Fred himself, but then with a jolt, I realized it was George. I saw Fred gulp from where I was standing and I could also see him trembling.

"I can't—I can't make this…funny," he stuttered, shaking his head. "I can't."

Before Professor Lupin could answer, the boggart _changed_, which was odd. Fred blinked, showing that he was surprised too. But nothing surprised me as much as seeing that the boggart had changed into an identical image of _myself_. My mouth dropped open and my eyes widened as most of the class turned to look at me. This didn't make sense. There had to be more to it. Fred wasn't afraid of me.

The boggart version of me was giving Fred a look of disgust. Finally, it—I?—opened its—my?—mouth and spoke. "My mother was right about you," boggart me said. "How could I ever have been friends with you? You bring me down. Your whole family does. It's shameful to even be associated with you! You're poorer than dirt. I can do so much better than the likes of _you_. You're a disgrace! Why couldn't you have been more like Percy? Or even Bill or Charlie for that matter? You could be if only you'd _grow up_."

Fred stood there, his mouth agape as he stared at the boggart. He was struggling. He couldn't make this into something funny for the life of him. Ironic, really. One of the two biggest jokesters in school was unable for probably the first time ever, to make a joke out of something.

Swallowing, I dashed forward and whispered something into Fred's ear. An idea to make the boggart funny so that people would laugh, he'd save face and not have to feel foolish later for being unable to defeat the boggart and make people laugh. It was his thing and if he couldn't do it now, he'd feel like he couldn't do it ever again. Stupid way of thinking, but it would be just like Fred to sulk and mull that idea over for a bit until he got over himself.

After I whispered my idea to him, he looked at me in alarm and confusion. "You're sure?"

I nodded. "Do it. Now."

Fred turned back to the boggart and aimed his wand. "Riddikulus!"

Boggart version of me stopped mid-rant and blinked as the words became funny—sounding as if she had a swollen tongue. Which was exactly what was happening. The tongue of the boggart me was not only swelling, but growing. It grew and grew until it was hanging out of the boggart's mouth. It must have been about three feet long and looked totally silly. Even I had to smile. The class was giggling and even Fred let out a short laugh before glancing at me.

"Ever the comedian," I said with a smile before backing away to let the next person have room to face the boggart.

* * *

**A/N: So I'm a bit unsure about this chapter. I didn't know if Fred and Lilah's boggarts were too much or if I wrote them well, but I do like to bring out Fred and George's serious side occasionally and I thought this was a good way to do it. It's also a really quick update because this whole chapter came out pretty quickly and I enjoyed writing it. I'd still love to hear what everyone thinks, though!**

**Also, fun fact, the little scene where Lupin leaves the room at the beginning of class and leaves everyone confused was a reference to Dead Poets Society, which is my favorite movie that I tend to talk too much about. It has Robin Williams in it, who (another fun fact) was actually the inspiration for Lilan's dad. Both him as a person and also his character in Mrs. Doubtfire, another one of my favorite movies.**

**Thanks for reading! :)**


	17. Chapter 17

I had been avoiding my friends all morning. There was a lot they were going to want to discuss, especially Fred, and I didn't want to discuss it right now. Or ever, preferably.

Avoiding them was especially hard to do in classes because we had pretty much the same schedule. Fred kept trying to throw bits of paper at the back of my head, but I ignored him. When it was time to switch classes, I bolted out of the classroom so he wouldn't have time to talk to me.

Right before lunch, however, he managed to catch up to me. He came out of nowhere, panting as if he had just run a mile (or chased me all around the school, rather). He grabbed my arm and steered me into an empty classroom to our left before releasing me, shutting the door and leaning against it with his arms crossed.

"Talk," he demanded.

"Say _please_," I demanded back, crossing my own arms.

Fred closed his eyes and sighed. "Lilah, _please_ talk to me. You've been avoiding me all morning."

"What do you want to talk about?" I asked somewhat innocently, shrugging my shoulders and picking at the hem of my skirt.

"Lilah," Fred said impatiently. "Don't play dumb with me. Not now."

I sighed. "Well, I don't know exactly where to begin."

"Can we start with your boggart?" Fred asked, his expression turning from impatience to concern. "That seemed terrible. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, fine," I said, brushing off his words with a shrug. It was partly the truth. I was fine _now_. But it still wasn't the whole truth and I think he knew that when I wouldn't quite meet his eyes.

"Is your mother really like that?" he asked quietly, taking a step towards me.

I nodded. "Pretty much. I mean, Professor Lupin said boggarts can embellish but at the time everything actually seemed accurate. Only now that I'm thinking it over…maybe it wasn't exactly accurate."

"Does she really tell you all of those things?" Fred asked.

I shook my head. "Not outright, which is why it wasn't totally accurate. But sometimes I feel like that's what she's thinking. Sometimes I feel like that's what _everyone's_ thinking."

"Not true," Fred answered. "I certainly have never thought you were a disappointment. I think you're smart and you do a wonderful job with Julian. He adores you. You're funny, clever, quick on your feet….And so what if you struggle with Potions? Once you graduate you can choose a job that will never require you to use Potions skills again."

"You really think all that about me?" I asked, looking up at him and tilting my head to the side.

Fred nodded. "Besides, I'm fairly positive that no matter what your mother seems to think, well, she loves you. How can she not? You're great and you're her daughter."

It was quiet for a beat. "Are you sick?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at my friend.

"No, why?" he asked, his brow furrowing in confusion.

"You didn't make a joke….I expected you to say that my mother loves me, but how she could is beyond you."

Fred let out a quiet laugh and looked at the ground. "Not the right time," he said quietly.

I smiled at him fondly. "Your sensitive side is making an appearance, you know."

Fred smiled and looked back up at me. "I know. But….every time I picture your expression while you were facing your boggart..." He trailed off and sighed. "You looked truly terrified. And hurt. Merlin, Lilah, you're one of my best friends. I can't let you look that way and not talk to you about what happened."

"I feel the same way about you," I replied, "which is why we have to talk about _your_ boggart." I walked over to the nearest desk and hopped on top of it. I swung my legs back and forth as I gripped the edge of the desk and stared at Fred, waiting for him to talk.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I'd say it was a pretty obvious fear. And I mean, George's was the same only he obviously saw me lying there and—"

"Fred," I interrupted. When he looked at me, I gave him a tiny smile. "First of all, you're rambling. Secondly, that's not the part I was talking about and you know it."

Fred stared at me as he let a puff of air out of his mouth. "Okay," he whispered, coming to sit on the desk next to mine. "I stayed after class to talk to Lupin about why my boggart changed like it did. He said that can happen when a person has two huge fears at one time and can't settle on one being bigger than the other. The boggart doesn't know which one to take the shape of, so it'll take on the shape of all of them, changing and going through the cycle of however many fears you have until you get rid of it with laughter."

"Okay," I said slowly. "So your first big fear was George dying," I said. "Totally understandable. But your second one…."

"I'm afraid of losing you," Fred said, looking down at the floor as he swallowed. He refused to look at me and I sat there frozen as I waited for him to continue.

"Go on," I urged after another moment of silence.

Fred took a deep breath and finally met my hazel eyes with his stunning blue ones. "I'm afraid," he began, "that your mother will one day force you to cut ties with me, or that you'll one day decide she's right and that you don't want to associate with me. Like I said, you're one of my best friends. I know everything about you except for what your mother's like. I don't know what happened when your parents divorced and I don't know the extent of your relationship with your mother. But I do know that she doesn't like my family. She can't or else she'd have made an effort to actually talk to us and get to know us by now. And from what you've said….I can just gather that she isn't our biggest fan. But you haven't really said anything outright or given me any details."

I swallowed. "No, you're right. I haven't."

"So I don't know what to think," Fred continued. "I don't know why your mother hasn't been friendly, but _has_ been letting you come over during the summer and just letting us be friends. I almost expect her to force you to stay away from me. So I don't know how bad she is. And your boggart made her seem _really_ bad, Liles. But then you said it was a bit exaggerated. I'm confused and unsure. I don't know your mother and I'm almost kind of waiting for a blow up and for her to pull you away or convince you that you shouldn't hang out with me anymore."

"Fred, that could _never_ happen," I assured him. "I can make my own choices and I choose to be your friend. Honestly, it was one of the best judgement calls I've ever made."

Fred just stared at me. "You're underage. Your mother could still technically try to pull you away somehow."

"Oh, I didn't know underage witches and wizards weren't allowed to make their own friends," I gasped dramatically. "I'm sorry."

Fred actually smiled and let out a quiet chuckle before looking back at me.

"If that happens," I continued, "then when I'm seventeen I'll come right back to you, okay? It's only in a little over a year anyway, remember?"

Fred nodded and grinned. "You'd do that?"

"Of course," I told him quietly. There was a pause. "And just so you know, I'm a bit surprised she hasn't said much about me and Julian hanging out at your house during the summers so often. If you want the truth, I expected her to say no."

Fred swallowed. "That doesn't make me feel any better," he whispered.

I shrugged. "If you want the truth so you don't have to be unsure…well, no I don't think my mother is all that supportive of our friendship, but for some reason she hasn't put an end to it. I'm not quite sure myself why that is….I actually think she saw something she liked in Percy. She liked that he was helping me with my Potions work."

"Ah," Fred said quietly. "But George and I are not Percy. Not even close."

"No," I said quietly. "You're not. But like I said, she hasn't said anything for now so maybe she never will. Maybe she's trying to be understanding about this or…." I blew a puff of air out of my mouth. "Maybe she knows I won't listen to her anyway. I'd find a way out or just do what I want once I'm seventeen. Maybe she knows it's petty to put an end to a friendship. I don't know. But we're still friends and I'm grateful. I'm going to take the opportunity without worrying about what my mother might do. And like I said, she can't put an end to this"—I gestured between the two of us—"permanently. I'm always going to want to be your friend, Fred."

"My charming good looks roped you in?" Fred asked with a smirk.

"No, actually, I saw the two ugly goons sitting on the Hogwarts express and felt sorry for them," I said.

"If you recall," Fred began, holding up a hand, "I asked _you_ to sit with _us_. I'm the one who felt sorry for the two lonely first years standing aimlessly in the train's corridor."

I let out a sigh of frustration and hopped off the desk. "Believe what you want, Fred, but I'm not going to argue with you. I'm hungry and I'm going to lunch." I reached the door and held it open as I turned slightly. "You coming?"

"No," Fred said sarcastically. "I think I'm going to spend the remainder of my lunch hour sitting in this empty classroom."

I snorted. "Now I know you're sick. Come on before my arm falls off from being chivalrous and holding the door open."

"Or just because you don't have the arm strength I have," Fred joked with a wink as he crossed the room to me.

I rolled my eyes. "Mhm, sure," I said before letting him pass through the door and following him down to the great hall.

By the time we got down to lunch, Angelina, Katie, Alicia and Lee had already filled Harry, Hermione, Ron and Julian in on our Defense Against the Dark Arts class. I didn't really mind considering I was planning on telling Julian anyway, but part of me still wished I had been the one to tell him what had happened.

The moment I sat down, he immediately began asking if I was okay. No matter how many times I said I was fine, he kept asking. As if I had changed my mind in the two minutes he hadn't asked. Sometimes I wondered who babied who in our relationship.

"I wonder if my fear will be the same," Julian whispered, glancing at me. "I have the class tomorrow…."

I shrugged. "No matter what, Jules, that boggart is turning into something you're afraid of. Either way, it's going to be a bit frightening." I paused. "I think we can both agree not to tell Mum about my boggart though."

Julian nodded vigorously. "Not a word," he agreed.

I smiled. "I'm glad you feel that way."

"Just looking out for you, Liles," he said with a smile.

* * *

"Quidditch is starting up again next week," Fred informed me during the second week of school as he sat down beside me on the common room couch. "Want to come to our first practice?"

"And why would I want to do that?" I asked with a smile.

"Because you love coming to watch us practice," Fred replied, leaning back and draping an arm over the back of the couch.

I nodded. It was true. I did enjoy watching the Gryffindor team practice. They were very good, but Oliver Wood never seemed to think they were good enough. I wondered how far he'd try to drive the team this year considering it was his last chance as captain to win the house cup.

"Okay, I'll come watch," I finally said. "I'm excited to see just how crazy Wood will be."

"Plenty, don't you worry," Fred snorted. "We'll be practicing in all kinds of weather…perhaps some early morning practices, too." He sighed heavily. "It's going to be awful."

"Sorry," I told him, reaching over to gently pat him on the cheek. He laughed and swatted me away. I giggled and went back to my homework. It was only the second week of school and we were already being given so much work. It was our OWL year after all, so I knew _why _we were getting so much to do, but it didn't mean I liked it. Especially as far as Potions was concerned. I was struggling to keep up in that class and I was thinking I was going to have to bother Percy with tutoring me regularly again.

Ten more minutes passed with me and Fred sitting side by side on the couch. I was so absorbed in my work that I didn't pay much attention to my friend until I finally felt forced to take a break. My fingers felt close to falling off and my eyes were incredibly tired.

I let out a long sigh as I stretched my arms in front of me and closed my eyes as I fought off a yawn. "How are you doing on the homework front?" I asked Fred. We hadn't really talked about homework since we'd been back at school and considering he and George were way more relaxed about schoolwork than I was, I wondered how they were handling the heavier load.

"Not great," Fred answered. "But George and I don't really mind. We're way more concerned with inventing."

"Inventing what?" I asked, turning to face him with a raised eyebrow.

Fred didn't answer. Instead, he looked down at the ground and bit his lip. "Promise you won't laugh?" he asked, finally glancing up to meet my eyes.

"Depends on what you're about to tell me," I said with a smirk. When I saw how serious Fred looked, however, it faded. "But if it's important to you, then I swear I won't laugh."

"George and I," he began, "want to open a joke shop once we're done with school."

I blinked. "Really?" I asked with a smile.

Fred nodded. "We want to make all our own products and buy our own place to sell them in…." He got a faraway look on his face. "It'll be brilliant. Think of how happy we'll make the next generation of pranksters. We want them to walk into our shop and feel the same way we felt when we went to Zonko's for the first time." He shook his head and grinned. "We've been starting to save up already and we're also starting to generate product ideas and figure out how to make them. George is better at Potions and I'm better at Transfiguration and Charms, so we'll each have types of products we'll be mostly in charge of. And those are the classes we're mainly concerned about passing…." He trailed off and looked at me as if he had just realized he was rambling a bit.

I smiled. "If the idea of opening a joke shop makes you light up like this then I think it's what you should do. It means it's the perfect job for you."

"You don't think it's silly or stupid?"

"No, why would I think that?" I asked. "I mean, picturing you behind a desk at the Ministry is comical…no offense. I can't see you working at the Daily Prophet either…or as Healers, to be honest. And even though you like Quidditch and working with animals, neither of those things make you as happy as pulling pranks does. Your excitement about pranks and jokes reminds me of how Charlie used to get when he talked about working with animals."

"Yeah?" Fred asked, tilting his head as he grinned.

I nodded. "So, have you come up with any ideas so far? For inventions, I mean."

"Well," Fred began slowly. "George and I have an idea in the works, but we're in the process of figuring out how to go about making them."

"Okay, tell me all about it," I said eagerly, tucking my legs up under me as I waited for him to answer.

Fred hesitated a moment and chewed on his lip again. "Okay, well, since George and I were going to have to tell you anyway…we got the idea from the day we fought off our boggarts. When you told me to make the tongue of the boggart-you grow longer."

"Okay," I said slowly, trying to understand what he was telling me.

"We were thinking of making a candy called Ton-Tongue Toffees," Fred said. "They make the tongue of whoever eats one to grow to at least three feet."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. "That doesn't sound safe," I said. "Choking hazard, don't you think?"

Fred shrugged one shoulder. "George and I can try to work something out so it isn't. But the important thing is that when I fought my boggart, everyone laughed when your tongue started dangling out of your mouth." He let out a little chuckle of his own.

I pursed my lips. "I remember," I said curtly.

"Come on, Liles," Fred said, swatting my shoulder gently. "Lighten up."

I sighed. "Fred, people also laughed when I made the heel of my mother's shoe break. What, are you going to make shoes that are designed to break all on their own after a certain amount of steps? The perfect gift for that girl you want to give a broken shoe and possibly a broken ankle?"

Fred stared at me, clearly fighting off a laugh. "That's not half bad, Lilah. Mind if George and I take that into consideration? We'll only use it with your permission, of course. It's why I said we'd have to talk to you about the Ton-Tongue Toffees after all. It was your idea."

"I don't want people to get hurt," I told him seriously.

"Lilah, George and I aren't cruel. We don't enjoy hurting people….unless they truly deserve it. So, no, our products are not going to be designed to hurt anyone. They aren't going to be dangerous. If you need more assurance, George and I are planning on testing all of our products on ourselves, and why would we want to do any damage to ourselves? We're too perfect to take that risk." He looked at me angelically and batted his eyelashes.

I shook my head. "Merlin, that head of yours can't get any bigger, can it?" I asked.

Fred simply shrugged. "So, do we have your permission to use your ideas?"

I sighed and looked at the ceiling. "Fine, go ahead," I told him.

"Thanks, Liles!" Fred exclaimed, pulling me into a quick hug. "I've got to go tell George the news!" He jumped up and headed for the boy's dorms. "Good luck on the rest of your homework!" he called over his shoulder.

In response, I let out a snort and flopped across the couch, lying horizontally on my stomach and burrowing my head into my arms. I always seemed to come out of most of my conversations with the twins feeling exhausted. They had that effect on people considering they were always going a mile a minute and not even being friends with them for four years had helped me grow accustomed to it.

* * *

"If we get caught for this, we're probably going to get expelled," I said. "And my mother will murder me. Even if we don't get expelled, if my mother finds out what I'm doing, she'll _still _murder me." I paused. "Please make sure I'm buried wearing the earrings Tess gave me for my twelfth birthday. They're my favorites."

"We know they are," Fred snorted. "And we're not going to get caught. No one will be able to prove it's us. George and I are experts after all."

I had to admit that the twins were some kind of experts. They were only fifteen, but incredibly clever and resourceful. They always thought every prank through incredibly well and hardly ever got caught. People suspected them, of course, but they never left behind any proof. They were sneaky like that. But they also always went all out. There was nothing they weren't afraid to do.

Anyway, the plans for this prank started yesterday when Graham Montague, a pretty nasty Slytherin, had made some rude comments to me in Potions. Snape had put me on the spot and asked me to answer a question I had no idea how to answer. Needless to say, I had turned bright red and muttered that I didn't know. It was embarrassing and Montague had loudly called me an idiot in every way he knew how before doing an obnoxious and exaggerated imitation of me saying _I don't know_.

Fred and George had nearly beat him up right there and then, and the only way I could get them to stay put was if I promised they could prank Montague later. And then somehow they'd roped me into executing the prank with them.

So now I found myself standing in the Slytherin fifth year boys' dormitory. In their bathroom, no less. Fred and George had hid behind a tapestry outside for hours until they discovered the password, using the map to make sure they didn't get caught. And then, using the map again, we had snuck back during dinner when the dorm was completely empty.

"Okay," I said now, looking around the room, "can we just get this over with so I don't have to spend another second in the bathroom of five disgusting Slytherin boys?"

I was standing in the middle of the room, almost afraid to touch anything. The room was a mess with laundry strewn all over the place. I doubted it was clean laundry either. I felt bad for the poor house elves who cleaned the dormitory bathrooms every day only for it to be messed up this badly only hours later.

"I thought you'd enjoy being in the same room that Montague showers in, Liles," Fred said, wiggling his eyebrows at me.

I shuddered. "One more word, Fred Weasley, and I might just keel over," I whispered, my eyes still scrunched tight. I heard the twins laugh and I scowled as I opened my eyes again. "Get on with it," I demanded. "Do what you need to do and I'll keep an eye on the map."

The twins nodded and got to work as I scanned the map. The coast was still clear, thank Merlin.

I looked up again to see George opening the tops of every shampoo bottle in the bathroom while Fred opened the package of color changing dye that he had just so happened to purchase at Zonko's on the last Hogsmeade trip. When George was ready, he held out the first shampoo bottle to Fred, who dumped a good amount of dye inside. They repeated this process until the bottle of dye was gone and all the shampoo bottles had some dye added to them.

"I can't wait until we see their hair tomorrow," I giggled as George replaced all of the shampoo bottles where he had found them.

"Agreed," Fred laughed. He examined the label on the empty bottle of hair dye. "It's supposed to last for twenty-four to forty-eight hours and cycle through every neon color imaginable."

"Now we've just got to hope Montague takes a shower before classes tomorrow," George said. "This prank is kind of risky with a troll like him."

"I don't know," Fred shrugged. "I think he'd want to make himself beautiful for all the girls that he'll never get but thinks he can."

"I don't know, I think Millicent Bulstrode might like him," I said with a smile.

"Well, hopefully she still will once she sees him with neon pink hair," George snorted as we double checked to make sure we had everything and that the bathroom was as we'd found it.

I checked the map once more and saw that no one was roaming the halls. Everyone was still at dinner, which was a relief, but soon everyone would be leaving to go back to their dorms so we'd have to hurry if we didn't want to be seen in the vicinity or even wandering around the hallways. Certainly there would be at least one teacher (probably Snape) that would be suspicious if the three of us were caught wandering the hallways instead of eating dinner.

"Anyone coming?" Fred asked as we made our way out of the dorms and through the Slytherin common room.

"Filch is up on the second floor," I said, lowing the map from my face. "I can't tell yet where he's heading, but let's hurry anyway. I don't want to risk being seen anywhere near the Slytherin common room."

We hurried out of the dungeons and headed straight for the kitchens. Dinner was almost over and it would be pointless to go sit in the great hall for only a few more minutes. Besides, we hadn't paid the kitchens a visit yet this year, which meant we were already long overdue even though we'd only been back at school for a few weeks.

Once we got there, we were greeted enthusiastically by Rosie, and when she heard that we hadn't eaten dinner yet, she seemed even more thrilled at the prospect of giving us an actual meal instead of just snacks like we usually asked for.

"I am _so_ excited to see Montague's hair tomorrow," George said, leaning back in his chair with a smug smile on his face as he crossed his arms. "He's going to look ridiculous and he's definitely going to regret ever calling Lilah stupid."

"Do you think he's right?" I asked suddenly, staring intently at my fingernails as I felt my cheeks turn a light shade of pink. When the twins didn't answer, I looked up to see them gaping at me.

"_Montague_?" Fred asked. "Do we think _Montague_ is _right_ in saying you're _stupid_?"

"How could you say such a thing, Liles?" George asked gently. "You're far from stupid."

"I'm awful at Potions," I told them. "And I do okay in everything else. Julian's doing way better than I was at his age. In _every _class, including Potions."

"You're not stupid, Liles," Fred whispered, looking at me sincerely. He paused. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that what he did hurt you way more than you're letting on. I mean, you kept playing it off as if it were no big deal, but…." He trailed off and shrugged. "It's okay if he hurt your feelings, you know. It _is_ partly why we pranked him in the first place. Firstly, because what kind of person says that to someone else anyway? And secondly, because you're one of our best friends and no one messes with you, especially if it's by saying or doing something hurtful."

"Thanks," I answered, shooting the twins a smile as Rosie and a bunch of other house elves appeared with our food.

I was starving. Our serious conversation was soon forgotten about as we ate. When we finally finished, we left feeling extremely content and extremely full.

Once we got back to the common room, though, we were practically pounced on by Angelina. "Where have you three been? You've been missing all evening and you missed dinner." She pointed an accusatory finger at the twins. "You two never miss a meal. What'd you do?"

"We ate in the kitchens, Ange," Fred grinned, shrugging casually.

"You wouldn't have to eat in the kitchens unless you were doing something else. What was it?"' Angelina asked. Merlin, that girl was logical. Or she just knew us really well. Or maybe even a bit of both.

"Fine," Fred said indignantly. "We were getting Montague back for calling Lilah stupid. Happy? It was all for a very good cause. I'm sure you're just as upset about what Montague said, so you'll agree that he deserves proper punishment."

Angelina sighed and chewed her lip. "I suppose. But that also depends on what you did."

"You'll have to wait and see until tomorrow," Fred sing-songed. He reached over and patted Angelina's shoulder. "But don't worry that pretty little head of yours. It'll all be fine." Angelina turned a light shade of pink at his words, but Fred and George were already heading up to bed.

"I'd better be heading upstairs too," I yawned. "I'm not only exhausted, but I've got more homework to do."

"Well, you would've had more time to be productive if you weren't off pranking Montague," Angelina said.

"He _did _call me stupid," I shrugged, turning on the stairs to face her and shrugging my shoulders. "Besides, Fred and George can be quite convincing when they want to be."

"So if they told you to jump of a bridge, you'd do it?" Angelina jokingly shot back.

"Perhaps," I sniffed. "Only if my very levelheaded friend was waiting with a lifeboat at the bottom."

"You know I would," Angelina said with an exaggerated smile. "Anything for you."

I gave her an exaggerated smile right back before turning and flouncing the rest of the way up the stairs, grinning for real when I heard Angelina snort from behind me.


	18. Chapter 18

The following week, Lee and I found ourselves watching the Gryffindor team's first practice. Oliver Wood, the captain, was losing patience extremely quickly, although it was up for debate whether or not he had even _began _practice with any patience at all. It was actually turning out to be pretty terrifying.

"Will you two quit clowning around for two minutes?" Wood roared at the twins, who appeared to be doing some sort of two person juggling act by simultaneously and rapidly tossing their Beater's bats at each other for the other one to catch. They had done pretty well so far, though, I had to admit. Neither one of them had dropped a bat yet.

"That would be two minutes of our day wasted, Wood," Fred yelled back, catching George's bat and immediately tossing it back at him.

Wood shot them both a glare that even intimidated me a bit. And perhaps it worked on the twins, too, because they stopped fooling around and started to focus. That meant that the second half of practice went a lot better than the first half, which was a relief for everyone involved.

"We _need _to get him a girlfriend," Fred muttered once Lee and I had caught up with the team at the edge of the field and started the walk towards the changing rooms. Wood was walking ahead of us, looking like his was deep in thought. Probably already putting together a game plan for the first match.

"Not me," Angelina snorted, shaking her head.

"Why, you like someone else?" Fred teased, smirking at her and raising an eyebrow.

Angelina blushed. "None of your business," she answered quietly, but coyly nonetheless. I looked at her thoughtfully, but she ignored me. I'd have to remember to talk to her later. I had a hunch and I wasn't sure yet if I wanted to be proved correct or not.

"I bet Oliver has a strict no-dating-team-members rule anyway," Katie said.

George let out a loud laugh. "He might try, but he can't enforce it. We're all at liberty to date whoever we'd like. It's our own responsibility to make sure we don't get distracted."

"I agree," Angelina said. I looked over at her again to see her glance at Fred. I chewed on my lip. My hunch was seemingly proving to be correct little by little.

"What about you, Liles?" Fred asked, peering over at me.

"What about me?" I asked, tearing my gaze from Angelina to look up at Fred.

"Any interest in going on a date with Oliver Wood?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Is that a joke?"

"No, of course not. It might be a good thing. Oliver is way too uptight. He's probably only ever been on two dates in his life and they never went anywhere. I believe he only even ended up kissing one of them. And I don't even think he liked it."

"Maybe he doesn't like girls," I suggested.

"No, he does, I'm fairly certain," Fred said, furrowing his brow in thought. "He's never shown an interest in boys, at least."

"He does show an interest in Quidditch, though," I shrugged. "Maybe that's his one true love."

The others let out snorts of laughter. "You might be right," Fred said, "but I think the rest of us believe he needs a girlfriend to distract him from Quidditch."

"You sure that'll work?" I asked. "I'm not sure he'd let himself be distracted, girlfriend or no girlfriend."

"That's his problem!" Fred exclaimed, throwing up his arms. "He's so obsessed with Quidditch that he isn't _living_. He's worse than Charlie. Don't get me wrong, Charlie was obsessed with Quidditch too, but he balanced a lot. And he was never as tough a captain as Wood is."

"Winning the house cup is important to him," I argued with a shrug. "To him, it symbolizes that he was a good captain."

"Lilah, listen to me," Fred said, turning to face me and putting his hands on my shoulders. "Wood is my friend, okay? And I don't think it's healthy for him to eat, sleep and breathe Quidditch the way he does. Getting him to loosen up is part of it, but we're also worried that he's going to wind up a hermit. He can't play Quidditch forever. Even if he plays professionally, well…he's going to get old."

"Fred," I said, giving him a look while also trying to hold back a laugh.

"It's the truth, Liles. We don't want him to be alone for the rest of his life."

"So, what, you want me to marry him just so he'll have company when he's too old to play Quidditch anymore?"

"I didn't say marry," Fred said. "Just…go out with him on a date or two so he can see that he can have a life and be a great Quidditch captain. Besides, he doesn't necessarily need to be so hard on us. We goof off, but we want to win the cup, too. We know how important it is."

"So, wait," I said, pulling away from Fred and continuing the walk to the changing rooms. "You want me to _use _him as part of _your _plan to help him out?"

"Think of it as an intervention," George piped up.

"That's still using him, George," I sighed. I looked at the rest of the group over my shoulder. "Are you all in support of this?"

"Well," Angelina began slowly. "I don't like the idea of using Oliver, but I do think he needs to get out more." She paused and looked at the sky thoughtfully. "Hey, why don't we invite him along on the Hogsmeade trip next month? It's on your birthday, Liles. Would you mind if he crashed our birthday gathering? We'd all hang out together. It doesn't have to be considered a date. That way, we help Oliver without having to use him."

"That doesn't sound too bad," I answered slowly. "But I don't want anyone," I looked pointedly at the twins, "trying to purposely set me and Oliver up. This is going to be a strictly friendly gathering. After all, I barely know him."

"Maybe you should _get _to know him, then," Fred chuckled as we reached the changing rooms.

I made a face before leaning against the wall outside. "Lee and I will wait here for you all to come out."

We actually didn't have to wait that long before the others came pouring out of the changing rooms, minus Wood. The twins were quietly hissing with laughter as the girls tried to shush them, but they were giggling too.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"We asked Wood to come with us to Hogsmeade next month," Alicia said. But she couldn't go any further before she was doubled over with giggles.

"Well, Angelina started the whole thing," Katie giggled, "and she just—she just—." Now Katie was laughing too hard to speak as well. She had to lean on Alicia for support and the two of them just stood there laughing so hard, tears were forming in their eyes.

"Oh, hush," Angelina said, but she was smiling.

"Let's just say Angelina wasn't as suave as George and I are," Fred said as he began walking towards Gryffindor tower.

"What'd she say?" I asked. "Please don't tell me you brought me into this and said something totally foolish that made me look like an idiot."

"No, we didn't," Fred said, glancing at Angelina. "All she said was '_So Wood, you've heard of Hogsmeade, haven't you?'_" He started laughing again. "As if he's been living under a rock for his entire life. He's not that bad, Ange."

"Well, how was I supposed to know?" Angelina asked. "I've never seen him actually go into Hogsmeade."

"That doesn't mean he doesn't know about it," Fred snickered. "He probably just opts to work on his Quidditch game plans, like he said he was planning on doing next month."

"So he said he wasn't going to come?" I asked with a smile. "Because he has to work on his game plans? And he knows this a month and a half in advance?"

Fred held up a hand. "Patience, Liles. Anyway, after Angelina asked him if he'd _heard_ of Hogsmeade, he gave her a look like she had ten heads and then slowly just said _yeah_. So then I stepped in to help my dear friend Angelina out. I told him that since it is his last year as captain and since he's been a great one for the past few years, we thought he deserved a break. So I told him he should come to Hogsmeade with us on Halloween and we'd all chip in to treat him to lunch at the Three Broomsticks."

"And he said no," I snorted.

"Initially, yes," Fred continued. "He did say he would probably have homework to do. He's in his NEWT year, so he does have a lot, I'll give him that. But I mean, we're in our OWL year, and were managing to have lives."

"You and George more so than the rest of us," Katie said with a roll of her eyes.

"That's beside the point," Fred continued, waving his hand around impatiently. "Anyway, then he said he still has to find time to make sure he's working on his game plans for Quidditch. He has to be strict because it's his—"

"Last year," we all chorused, nodding our heads knowingly. That just showed how adamant Wood was about winning. Even Lee and I knew Wood's recent speeches and pep talks by heart and we weren't even on the team.

"Okay, so how did you convince him to say yes?" I asked. "And don't say your devilish charm."

Fred laughed. "No, I just told him he'd be getting a free lunch out of it and it never hurt anyone to take a break from things once in a while. Plus, I told him if he didn't want to stick around after lunch then he could go back to the castle and have the rest of the day to do his boring homework and game planning. But," he smiled widely, "we're going to make sure he has fun. Honestly, he'll have plenty of time to be a grandpa in fifty years. Why waste time acting like one now?"

"You know, you're right," I told him with a sarcastic snort, "you really are just _so_ charming." I paused. "But I suppose you do have a point."

"Of course I do. I got Wood to say yes, didn't I?" Fred answered with a wink.

I shrugged. "Just remember…no trying to set us up. We're all hanging out together. As friends. That's all."

"Okay, okay," Fred said, holding up his hands defensively.

"Where is Wood anyway?" I asked, peering over my shoulder. "He was the first one in the changing rooms and he didn't come out with you."

"Stayed behind to actually start drawing out his latest game plan on the giant chalkboard in there," George snorted. "We're serious, Liles, you don't even know the half of his obsession. He needs a life outside of Quidditch."

"I'm sure he has one," I said. "I'm sure he has other interests and things he's good at. You just don't know them."

"Because he won't talk about them," the twins said together, throwing their hands up.

"Did you ever ask?" I argued.

"No," the twins scoffed.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "You two are absolutely unbelievable."

Fred and George looked at each other and grinned. "We know," they answered together, "and thank you."

* * *

The day of my sixteenth birthday began with me getting the living daylights scared out of me.

I was sleeping ever so peacefully when I heard a loud popping sound right next to my ear. Needless to say, I shrieked and sat upright, looking around the room wildly. After a moment, I focused on my roommates, who were all doubled over in hysterical laughter. Angelina was holding the remnants of a balloon in her hands.

"How rude," I muttered, scowling at my friends. "That's no way to wake up a girl on her birthday. Honestly, it sounded like the room was exploding!"

Angelina, Katie and Alicia were still laughing hysterically. "Sorry, sorry," Angelina finally said through her laughter. "It was my idea...but Katie and Leesh did give permission, since the three of us did chip in to get you your balloons."

"That you decided to pop in my ear instead of letting me actually see it when I woke up?" I asked. "What a waste."

"If you were paying attention," Angelina said dramatically, "I used the plural form of the word. Also, if you were paying attention, you would have noticed the humongous balloon bouquet at the end of your bed." She pointed and I turned to see that she was right. A giant collection of brightly colored balloons stood at the foot of my bed.

"We figured we could spare one to wake you up," Katie said. "And it _was _totally worth it."

"Well, I suppose the nice gesture does make up for popping a balloon in my ear," I said with a shrug. "Somewhat, anyway."

"Hopefully we'll be able to make it up to you even more by carrying on one of our best traditions," Alicia said, smiling extra sweetly and batting her eyelashes.

I smiled. I knew what was coming. "All right, go ahead," I told them.

"Ready, ladies?" Alicia asked, looking at Angelina and Katie, who both nodded. The three of them launched into an out of tune (as usual) version of Happy Birthday. When they were done, I clapped.

"I think you were slightly less tone deaf than last year," I said. "Amazing."

"Thank you, thank you," Alicia said with a bow.

"I actually think we might have improved a bit since last week when we sang for you, Ange," Katie said with a giggle. "So at this rate we could be replacing the Weird Sisters in a few years."

"Or a hundred years," I snorted.

"Shut up," Angelina joked, hitting me over the head with her pillow as she began the process of making her bed.

Smiling, I got out of bed and dressed, putting on a comfortable pair of jeans and a pale blue sweater.

"Ange?" I asked, leaning against the bathroom doorframe as I watched my friend fix her hair in the mirror.

"Mm?" she replied, turning her head back and forth to check over her handiwork.

I fiddled with the ends of my sleeves for a moment. "Do you like Fred?" I hadn't brought this subject up with her yet, but I had noticed more and more signs over the past few weeks, like the way she'd blush when he'd tease her or put his arm around her; the way she'd smile almost shyly at him and brush her hair behind her ears while they were talking; the way she'd always giggle at his jokes, even more so than she used to, but still genuinely, without being obnoxious or forcing it.

Angelina met my eyes in the mirror and blinked. "Why do you say that?" she asked.

"I'm not an idiot, Ange," I said. "I notice things. And I've noticed your behavior around him has changed a bit."

Angelina turned a light shade of pink. "Okay, fine. Maybe I do like him. A little bit."

I smiled. "A little bit?"

"Well, yeah, I just mean, I'm just trying to see where it's going to go right now," she shrugged. "I only started liking him relatively recently. It's not like I'm in love with him yet or anything."

"Yet," I smirked, picking up on her word usage.

Angelina rolled her eyes and turned towards me. "Why do you make things so difficult?" she teased. "Can't you just…bugger off?" Her mouth twitched slightly as she fought off a smile.

I widened my eyes jokingly. "Bugger off. What a way to speak to one of your best friends, who just so happens to be the birthday girl."

"Sorry," Angelina shrugged, patting my shoulder as she headed past me back into our room.

I chewed on my lip as I followed her, lost in thought at what she had said. She liked Fred. Of course, I had no idea how he felt about her, but a part of me still worried that this would change our friendship. Essentially, I didn't want to lose either one of them so completely to the other because they'd be too wrapped up in having feelings for each other to remember me or any of their other friends. Another part of me knew that was ridiculous, though. Fred and Angelina would never let that happen.

But a part of me still worried that it would happen anyway.

* * *

"I'm beginning to think Fred and George were right about you."

Oliver Wood snapped out of his trance and blinked at me, seeing me for the first time since I had appeared beside him in the aisle at Honeyduke's. Or perhaps even for the first time all day. I swear, his head had been off in another world, probably preparing for the team's first Quidditch match.

Wood cleared his throat before picking up a bag of Fudge Flies. "What are they right about?"

"Basically that you don't get out much and that you're always too busy thinking about Quidditch."

Oliver frowned. "Can't they cut me a bit of slack?" he asked. "I've explained to them many times how important this year is for me. It's my—"

"Last year as captain," I finished. "I know." I shrugged one shoulder. "But you've always been this way if you ask me."

"How would you know? You hardly know me."

"You're right, I don't," I said, examining the colorful, candy filled shelves in front of me. "But we're in the same house and I have eyes and ears."

Oliver snorted. "I came out today, didn't I?"

"Yes, it was a good effort, but you still don't look like you're having much fun," I said. "In fact, it looks like you're in a daze, thinking about Quidditch, as usual. Which is why I said that I was beginning to think the twins were right. But you didn't hear that part, of course. Too busy fixing up your newest game plan, I expect."

Oliver turned bright red and turned the bag of Fudge Flies around in his hand. "Am I really that bad?" he whispered.

I shrugged. "Maybe," I said with a lopsided smile and a giggle. There was a pause. "Those are my favorites, by the way," I finally said, gesturing to the Fudge Flies.

"Mine too," Oliver confessed, looking at me. "Always have been."

I nodded thoughtfully. "Okay, so that's one thing besides Quidditch that you like. Who knew?"

Oliver shot me a look. "Well, I still don't know anything about you."

"That's not true. I just told you Fudge Flies were my favorite candy too, didn't I?"

Oliver shrugged before turning and making his way towards the register to pay for the candy. I followed him.

"I also only like to watch Quidditch. I can't play to save my life."

"I'm sure that's not true," Oliver said, glancing at me as we joined the end of the moderately long line at the front of the shop. "All of the positions are so different, there has to be one that would suit you."

I laughed. "Oliver, not everyone is cut out to play Quidditch. I'm sorry to break it to you, but that's how it is and that's okay. I'm perfectly content just watching. I _like_ to watch. Really. Why do you think I come to nearly all of your practices?"

"Because you're friends with nearly everyone on the team?" he asked with a chuckle.

I smiled. "Well, yeah, there's that, but I also do like watching...Lately, it's been pretty intense, though, hasn't it?"

Oliver groaned. "I know you're best friends with them and all, but if Fred and George would just stop goofing off during most of practice, we could actually get so much more done."

"Or maybe you just need to be more flexible," I shrugged as the line inched forward a bit. "Look, I know how important this is to you, but you can still relax, you know? You don't have to get all worked up over this."

"Easy for you to say," Oliver muttered. "You don't even like Quidditch." It was finally his turn in line and I was quiet as I watched him pay for his candy. "Want one?" he offered, opening the bag and tilting it towards me as we stepped out of the line.

I hesitated for a moment. "They're yours," I finally said, despite the fact that just looking at the Fudge Flies was making my mouth water.

"Yeah, but my mother did teach me to share, you know," he chuckled.

Smiling, I reached a hand into the bag and pulled out one of the Fudge Flies before popping it into my mouth and sighing happily. "So good."

Oliver laughed. "Aren't they?" he asked, taking one of his own and eating it.

Just then, we were interrupted by the rest of our group appearing beside us. "Now, Wood," Fred said, clapping the older boy on the shoulder, "I would tell you that eating candy before lunch would spoil your appetite, but truthfully, I'm just so happy to see you out and about without obsessing over Quidditch right now. Honestly, all that obsessing isn't healthy. If you didn't have us looking out for you, I'm afraid, you'd turn out to be a lonely old man with seventy cats."

"I'm allergic to cats," Oliver responded dryly.

"See?" I asked the twins. "All you have to do is talk to him and you find things out. Just like I said. Shocker, isn't it? Now you know one other thing about him besides his love for Quidditch."

"You're making me regret coming along today," Oliver said before the twins could answer. He was trying to be serious, but I saw the corners of his mouth turning up into a smile.

"Ah, but remember, you're getting a free meal out of it," George said as we headed towards the Three Broomsticks. We were supposed to be meeting Tess there as well, who we had invited to spend the day with us. She had said she had other plans for the morning, but could meet up with us at lunch.

When we finally reached the Three Broomsticks we weren't surprised to see it already packed with people. I sighed. There were nine of us, including Tess. That meant the only place we'd all fit was in the huge, horseshoe shaped booth in the back corner. And judging by the crowd, we'd probably have to wait for it to be available.

"Oh, look," Fred said happily, "Tess is already here and she grabbed the big booth." He leaned in towards me and smiled. "Your best friend is a genius."

I smiled. "It doesn't take a genius to figure out we'd need that booth, Freddie. She just used her common sense and managed to quickly snag that booth before we got here." Patting his shoulder, I led the way towards the back of the room where Tess was waiting.

"Hey, birthday girl!" She exclaimed, brightening when she saw me.

I grinned as I slid into the booth beside her and gave her a hug. "Hi, Tess."

"How's your day going so far?" she asked as the rest of the group arrived and started the process of fitting into the booth.

"Well, it began with Angelina popping a balloon in my _ear_," I said, shooting Angelina a look. She was directly across from me, at the other end of the horseshoe shaped booth and also beside Fred. We all just fit into the booth, so she was squished against him slightly. I rested my chin in my hand and gazed pointedly from her to him. In return, she gave me a look of annoyance.

"Wood, aren't you going to sit down?" George suddenly asked.

I glanced up to see Wood standing beside me, looking uncomfortable. It was true that he never normally hung out with us, and we were all so close, which made me feel bad for him. I didn't want him to feel excluded.

"Sit," I urged him, pushing over into Tess a little bit more. I had told her all about Oliver coming along with us today and she had thought it was sweet to include him. I supposed it was, but I hadn't mentioned how Fred and George originally had wanted to do it to distract him from Quidditch.

Oliver tentatively sat down next to me before looking at me nervously as if he was afraid his close proximity was making me uncomfortable. Which it totally wasn't. I mean, maybe it was a little odd considering I didn't know him all that well and now I was squished beside him in a booth. But I also didn't have a choice unless I was going to force him to sit on the floor.

After we took a few minutes to settle in, Fred, George, Angelina, Oliver and I wound up getting back up in order to get drinks since we were on the ends of the booth.

"So, have you been hitting it off with Wood?" Fred asked as the two of us hung back a bit. Angelina and Oliver had managed to make their way to the front of the crowd at the bar and were ordering drinks.

"We've talked for a total of about five minutes," I said, shooting him a look. "Not much of a basis for declaring my love for him."

"That's not what I asked you, Lilah," Fred answered. "I asked if you were hitting it off. As in getting along."

"Again, we've talked for only a short time. It was a decently pleasant conversation about Fudge Flies. So, to answer your question…I guess so?"

"You guess so," Fred repeated slowly. "Spoken in the form of a question. Sounds promising."

"Why are you so adamant about setting me up with Wood anyway?" I asked as we inched forward a few more steps.

"He needs a girlfriend, like I've said," Fred answered swiftly.

"Oh, that's right. You want me to use him so he'll be in better moods for your Quidditch practices," I replied with a roll of my eyes.

"No," Fred said. "Well, yes. Partly. But also…we've known Oliver since our first year and since George and I made the team, we've become a bit closer to him. I honestly do worry about him sometimes. It's almost like all he ever does is homework and Quidditch. He rarely comes into Hogsmeade or does anything for fun. It's sad."

I smiled and. "Why hello, Fred's sensitive side. It's good to see you making an appearance again. It's been a little while and I wondered when we'd be meeting again."

Fred rolled his eyes, but I could tell he was trying not to smile.

"Seriously, why am I a good candidate for Oliver's girlfriend?" I asked.

"Well, if George and I are going to set him up, it'll be easier to do that with someone we know. And it's no secret that Alicia's been ogling that Ravenclaw boy in our Defense class for weeks now, Katie has firmly insisted that Oliver's not her type, and Angelina…."

"Doesn't like Oliver. She likes someone else. I know for a fact," I said with a smirk, rocking back and forth on the balls of my feet. I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell Fred who Ange liked. I didn't get the feeling she wanted me to, but telling him could also help her. She _was _one of my best friends, after all and I wanted her to be happy. Then again, part of me was still nervous about how Fred would react. If he didn't like her and confronted her about it, would things get awkward? If he did like her and they dated, would _that_ make things awkward as well? I was terrified to change one iota about the friendship of our little group.

Fred's eyes widened and darted towards Angelina, who was grabbing up the two drinks Madame Rosmerta had placed in front of her. "Who does she like?"

"I believe she said it was Marcus Flint," I said thoughtfully, trying not to laugh.

"Lilah, who is it?" Fred asked. "Do you know? Did she tell you?"

"She might have also said Filch…." I said, tapping my chin in thought and ignoring his question.

"What'd she tell you, Liles?" Fred asked, clasping his hands together as he made a pout and pleaded with me. "Tell me."

"Why do you care so much?" I asked with a laugh, stepping closer to the bar and watching George order his drinks. I paused as a realization dawned on me. "Wait a minute. _You_ like Angelina, don't you?"

"I didn't say that."

"Not in exact words," I countered. "But your actions and interest in Angelina said it all."

"Who does she like?" Fred asked again. "Come on, Liles, I'm one of your best friends. We don't keep secrets."

"Angelina is also one of my best friends and I owe it to her to not spill her secrets to the whole world," I argued. "So I'm not going to tell you." Finally, George's space at the bar opened up and I stepped forward and placed my drink orders with Madame Rosmerta, while Fred stood behind me, poking me in the shoulder repeatedly.

"Tell me, tell me, tell me," he chanted.

"You're being a bit pathetic," I said without looking back at him. "I suggest you calm your raging hormones if I'm going to tell you anything."

Fred essentially ignored me. He continued to poke me, but at least now, he was doing it after thirty second intervals. Finally, my drinks were ready and I grabbed them before turning around.

"Tell me," Fred demanded.

"I won't tell you," I said. "Not outright. But I will say that if you flirt with her, she probably won't object." With a wink, I turned away and began squeezing my way through the crowd and back towards our table.

* * *

"Did you have fun?"

We were walking back to the castle after a full day in Hogsmeade and I had hung back to talk to Oliver. I still wasn't interested in dating him, but there was nothing wrong with being friendly, especially if Fred was right in saying Oliver needed to expand his friendship circle a bit.

"Yeah, I did, actually," Oliver nodded, glancing away as someone accidentally knocked into him. Seeing it was towards the end of the day, a lot of other students were heading back to school just like we were. "It was weird at first because I haven't done something like this in a while," Oliver continued, "but….I think I may have loosened up over the course of the day."

"Yeah? You sure?" I asked, raising my eyebrows jokingly. He had seemed more relaxed as the day had gone on, but he still had mainly kept pretty quiet and I had usually been the one who tried to talk to him just so he didn't look so lonely. "You kind of looked pathetic most of the day," I added honestly.

Oliver laughed, to my slight surprise. "I'm sorry!" he exclaimed. "I'm a bit rusty. What do you want from me?"

"I want you to go out and have fun once in a while. I'm beginning to see that the twins were right. You don't do it enough. It's all about Quidditch and homework."

"I'm Quidditch captain _and _a NEWT student," Oliver protested. "Do you have _any_ idea how hard that is to manage? It's like if I want a good Quidditch team, good grades, time to sleep and eat, and a social life….well, something's got to go. I could just give up showering, but that would knock off my social life totally on its own, freeing me up to do more of something else."

"You could eat while you practice Quidditch," I said. "Or sleep in the shower. Multitask. That always saves time."

Oliver laughed again. "Is that how you're managing to get through your OWL year?"

"Mhm," I replied with a grin. "I'm so good at it by now that I can sleep, eat, shower and study all at the same time."

"Really?" Oliver asked, raising his eyebrows and letting out a puff of air. "That is impressive. Wow." He shook his head sarcastically.

I smiled. "Breaking news: Oliver Wood loves Fudge Flies, is allergic to cats and has a sense of humor."

Oliver blushed and looking at the ground as we entered the castle. We were quiet for a moment. I watched Angelina and Fred walking together a little ahead of us. I wondered if Fred was flirting with her. Probably. I wondered how I felt about that. I still wasn't sure.

"So, how _do _you do it?"

"Hm?" I looked back at Oliver, pulled from my thoughts by his question.

"How do you balance everything? I know you don't do Quidditch, but you balance your friends, your homework, your social life…_and _you find time to eat and sleep."

"I told you already," I answered with a wry smile. "I do it all at once."

"I'm serious," Oliver said, shooting me a mock-exasperated look.

I shrugged, becoming serious. "I don't know," I answered. "I just…I work hard. I always have. My mother really expects it of me. But at the same time, I _need_ time to be with my friends and goof off. My dad's really funny and really laid-back, while my mother isn't, so I feel like I've been raised on two ends of a spectrum, maybe causing my own habits to be a healthy medium. And with being friends with the twins….sometimes it's easy to get roped into a midnight visit to the kitchens or into a prank on Montague or Flint. I need it, though. It keeps me sane."

"But how do you make time for it all?" Oliver asked.

"Well, as you said, I don't play Quidditch. That saves a chunk of time right there. I come to practices, but I'm not on a broom, so I can sit in the stands and do homework or study. And to be honest, there have been times where I haven't slept very much or I've skipped a meal, but I know how to get into the kitchens, which are pretty much open twenty four seven. The house elves work in shifts, you see. The ones that prepare the meals will sleep at night, but the ones who clean will be awake and are more than happy to get you leftovers."

Oliver was quiet as he shook his head. "I'm clearly terrible at multitasking and time management and it's cost me a lot. Unfortunately."

Before I got the chance to answer, we had reached the hallway where the portrait hole was. There was a crowd of students, who were all murmuring nervously. I couldn't see past them to figure out what was going on, but it certainly didn't sound good.

"What do you think's going on?" I asked Oliver. "All these people can't have forgotten the password."

Oliver shrugged as he craned his neck to look over the heads of the people in the crowd. "No, you're right, they couldn't have. But nobody seems to be moving and the portrait hole doesn't look open."

"Something has to be wrong, then," I answered.

Percy made his way through the crowd just then, brushing past me as he tried to squeeze through, announcing loudly that he was Head Boy the whole time. The crowd began to part when they realized he was coming and soon he had reached the front of the group.

"Someone get Professor Dumbledore, immediately," he finally called.

A girl at the back of the group ran off and about five minutes later, she returned with Professor Dumbledore on her heels. The crowd parted even more to let the headmaster through. He joined Percy near the portrait of the fat lady and a silence fell over the hallway.

"_What _is going on?" I asked. I was starting to feel a sinking in my stomach. This wasn't looking good at all. Percy had sounded nervous when he had sent for Dumbledore, which set off alarm bells immediately. Percy never let it show when he was nervous. Never. He was all about looking confident and taking charge. And the fact that Dumbledore had to be sent for in the first place was another bad sign.

Just then, Ginny appeared in front of them. "The Fat Lady—she's gone!" the young redhead panted, looking terrified.

"Gone?" I asked, blinking. "Are we sure she's just not visiting her friend, Violet? She likes to do that sometimes…." Even as I asked the question, I knew it was probably stupid. There wouldn't be a reason for everyone to sound so panicked if the Fat Lady was just off on a visit to another portrait.

"Her painting's been slashed," Ginny said, chewing on her lip and wrapping her arms around herself nervously. "Three huge gashes going right across."

I stood on my tiptoes, trying to get a better look. I could see Dumbledore looking at the painting in shock and I could see that it was in fact, ruined.

"We'll need to search every portrait for the Fat Lady," he said, turning to Percy. "I'll have Mr. Filch do it if you'll kindly—"

Suddenly, a cackle interrupted Dumbledore's instructions. Everyone looked up at the source of the sound to see Peeves floating in the air, laughing madly.

"I know where the Fat Lady is," he said with a smile.

"Peeves, tell us what you know," Dumbledore demanded. "This is quite an urgent situation."

"I saw the Fat Lady running through a landscape portrait on the fourth floor, crying something terrible," Peeves said. "She's a horrible mess. Doesn't want to be seen. It might take a while to find her. Poor thing."

"Did she say who did this?" Dumbledore asked, gesturing to the painting.

Peeves nodded. "Oh yes," he said, looking thrilled that he knew exactly what had happened to the Fat Lady. However, he didn't continue after admitting that he knew something.

"Out with it, Peeves," Dumbledore ordered. "Now."

Peeves rolled over in the air and looked at Dumbledore upside down. "Well, you see, he got very angry when she wouldn't let him in. "Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."

Gasps could be heard ringing through the crowd. I personally felt as if the wind had been knocked out of me. I was gaping up at Peeves, my mouth opening and closing like a fish.

Sirius Black had broken into what was supposed to be the safest place anyone could be. Sirius Black had gotten it, just like he had gotten out of Azkaban. And he had tried to break into Gryffindor tower. And now, instead of anxiously (and hungrily) awaiting the Halloween feast, I suddenly didn't feel much like eating anymore.

What a way to end a birthday.

* * *

**A/N: I know this chapter's a bit long, and I'm sorry that it's a bit longer than usual, but I wanted to end with Sirius Black's break in and getting there took a bit longer than I thought. Anyway, I hope everyone likes the chapter! Thanks for reading!**


	19. Chapter 19

After Peeves spilled the news about Sirius Black, Dumbledore ordered the Head Boy and Head Girl to escort the Gryffindors down to the great hall. Dumbledore met us there and, with a flick of his wand, cleared away the four house tables and replaced them with numerous sleeping bags. He informed us that the teachers were searching and securing the castle and that we were to sleep here for the night.

I immediately found Julian and tried to make sure he was okay, but after a bit, I was accused of hovering again before he walked away to sit with Neville, Seamus and Dean.

"Your brother?" a voice from behind me asked.

I turned to see Wood standing there, his hands in his pockets as he stared after Julian.

"Yeah," I nodded. "He's thirteen and he's always accusing me of babying him." I shrugged. "I can't help it, though."

"It's the age," Oliver said with a shrug of his own. "Just became a teenager, didn't he? He thinks he's way more grown up than he really is. Wants to be treated like an adult, even though he's nowhere near being one. Wasn't it like that for you at that age?"

I was quiet for a moment. "No, not really," I responded. I thought of elaborating on that, even by a little, but in the end, I didn't.

Oliver was quiet. "It was for me. Big time." He let out a laugh. "Sometimes, I feel like it still is that way."

I didn't say anything. I was curious about what he meant, but I didn't want to push him if he didn't want to continue. If I wasn't going to elaborate, he didn't have to either.

"It's kind of a terrible way to end your birthday, isn't it?" Oliver finally asked, gesturing around the great hall.

I shrugged. "At this point I suppose maybe I should get used to it."

Oliver raised his eyebrows. "Bad things happen on your birthday often?"

I let out a tiny giggle. "Well, last year the Chamber of Secrets attacks began on my birthday. The year before that a mountain troll was brought into the castle. And two years before that, my parents decided to get divorced." I didn't know why I told him that. I usually didn't prefer to mention it to anyone, especially people I hardly knew. Mostly because I was afraid they'd ask for more details, but again, Oliver didn't ask.

"I'm sorry," he said, giving me a sympathetic look. "That must have been awful."

I nodded and shrugged again. "Yeah, it wasn't one of my better birthdays by a long shot."

"Well, here's hoping next year will be better," Oliver said with a smile.

"Today actually wasn't so bad up until we found out a mass murderer tried to get into our common room," I told him.

Before Oliver could answer, the twins appeared at my side. "We've pulled all of our sleeping bags into the corner over there," George said. "You joining us, Liles?"

"Yeah, I'm coming," I told him. I smiled at Oliver. "See you." I waved before turning and following the twins across the great hall. They had compiled the sleeping bags in a circle, arranged so our heads would be in the center. Lee, Angelina, Alicia and Katie were already in theirs, but none of them looked the least bit sleepy at the moment.

Soon after the twins and I climbed into our sleeping bags, we heard Percy announcing that it was lights out in a few minutes. I could hear hushed conversations happening all over the great hall as I lay on my back with my hands behind my head, staring up at the starry ceiling.

I could hear Fred and Angelina whispering a few sleeping bags away. Katie and Alicia were whispering as well. Lee and George were quiet, just like me.

"Liles? You awake?" George suddenly asked, rolling on his side to look at me.

I nodded. "Yeah, I am," I whispered.

"You all right?"

"I'm fine, George. Why wouldn't I be?"

"I just meant…are you scared?"

"A little. But the teachers are searching and barricading the school as we speak. Plus, the Fat Lady probably made a huge ruckus after her painting was slashed. I doubt Black would want to stick around long enough to get caught. But the fact that he slashed the painting….It doesn't sound like a safe way of dealing with anger."

"It's definitely not a safe way," George snorted. "But you have a point. I'll bet any money he's long gone by now."

"Good," I replied firmly. "He can stay gone." I paused. "I wonder if Harry's scared. You know, since Black is supposedly looking for him."

"Maybe," George said slowly. "I probably would be scared."

"Really?" I asked, glancing at him. "You're outright admitting you'd be scared of something? That's shocking."

"I'm only human, Lilah," George snorted, reaching over and lightly punching my arm.

Just then, Percy announced that it was lights out and that he didn't want to hear another peep from any of us.

Less than a minute after Percy finished speaking, there was a sound. I was ninety nine percent sure it came from Fred.

"_Peep!_"

Without turning my head, I looked towards where Percy was patrolling the perimeter of the room. He paused and glanced in our direction, but I don't think he was certain it came from our group. Or even certain he heard anything for that matter. A second later, he was moving again, continuing walking along the wall.

"_Peep_!" This time, the sound came from George. I was sure of it. He was lying right next to me.

Percy looked in our direction again and I knew he was beginning to be more certain it was us. However, he didn't say anything more than, "Shh!"

Ten seconds passed. I know because I counted. When nobody else made a sound, I sucked in a breath. "_Peep, peep_!"

After that, peeping noises started popping up all over the room, in shorter intervals. Five seconds after I peeped, I heard Angelina, Katie, Lee and Alicia make peeping sounds, all in quick succession. And then it spread to the rest of the great hall until the room sounded like it was occupying a bunch of newborn chicks.

"Honestly, that's enough!" Percy finally exclaimed. "Professor Dumbledore might be back any minute and this is how you'd like him to see you all behaving? The castle is still being searched and barricaded, so this is no time for jokes!"

The room fell into silence once more and stayed like that for quite some time. I was just feeling myself beginning to drift off to sleep when I heard a sound come from both Fred and George's sleeping bag at the same time.

"_Peep_!"

I turned my head into my sleeping bag to stifle the laughter that was coming out of my mouth almost uncontrollably.

"Fred and George Weasley, I am not an idiot! Go to bed!" Percy exclaimed.

And even though it was dark and my eyes were closed, I could practically see Percy's livid expression, which only made me want to laugh harder. I lay there with my shoulders shaking silently until I felt George nudge my side.

"Honestly, Lilah, we're all trying to sleep and you're over here keeping us all awake with your muffled laughter. Enough already."

I snorted quietly and rolled my eyes. Despite the darkness, I could hear the smile in his voice.

"Goodnight, George."

"Goodnight, Lilah."

And despite the terrifying turn of events leading to our current situation, I fell asleep that night with a smile on my face.

* * *

I hated this weather. It was raining and the wind was blowing in huge gusts. It was also freezing cold. The weather had been like this for about a week now and apparently, it wasn't supposed to let up for a little while longer. That meant that the conditions for the first Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff this Saturday wouldn't be that great.

"I should've sat this practice out," I muttered as Lee and I waited outside the changing rooms for the teammates. We usually waited for them outside while they changed and then walked to the pitch together, where Lee and I would then climb into the stands while the others started practice.

"We should've sat the last six practices out," Lee muttered. "I'm going to get pneumonia from being out in this cold so often."

"Don't be dramatic," I told him. "We're all bundled up pretty well and we always get to go back to the warm fire in the common room later. Besides, you could always go to Madame Pomfrey for a pepper-up potion."

"I suppose," Lee shrugged.

Just then, the others came out of the changing rooms looking a bit frustrated, but Oliver especially.

"What's going on?" I asked as I jogged after them, following their path to the Quidditch pitch.

"We're not playing Slytherin on Saturday after all," Oliver muttered. "We're playing Hufflepuff!"

"Okay," I answered slowly.

Oliver sighed. "Slytherin plays differently than Hufflepuff. We've been planning to play against Slytherin for weeks and now all of our tactics are practically useless!"

"Why the switch?" I asked.

"Malfoy's still faking his injury," Harry piped up darkly. "So Flint's claiming they don't want to let him play with a bad arm."

"Really?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Harry nodded. "But they really just don't want to play in this weather. They think it'll ruin their chances. Plus, Malfoy loves all the attention he's been getting. _And _his dad's been trying to investigate the accident and get Hagrid or Buckbeak in trouble."

"That's rough," I said, shaking my head. "I wish we had proof that he didn't hurt himself that badly."

"Don't we all," Oliver muttered. "Anyway, as for Hufflepuff, they've got a new Seeker and Captain…Cedric Diggory."

Katie and Alicia giggled.

"What?" Oliver asked, turning to glance at them.

"He's that tall, good looking one, isn't he?" Alicia asked.

"Strong and silent," Katie added wistfully as she and Alicia started to giggle again.

"He's only silent because he's too thick to string two words together," George said impatiently.

"Tess has a huge crush on him," I said with a giggle. "But I also think they're kind of…friends. I haven't actually talked to him, though. She hasn't introduced me."

"Lucky Tess," Alicia snorted.

"The point is, Oliver," Fred said with a roll of his eyes, "that George and I don't know why you're worried. Hufflepuff's a pushover. Last time we played them, Harry caught the Snitch in about five minutes, remember?"

"We were playing in very different conditions!" Oliver shouted, his eyes wide and a vein bulging in his neck. I looked down and covered my mouth with my hand to try and stifle a laugh as he continued. "Diggory's put a very strong side together! He's an excellent Seeker! I was afraid you'd take it like this. We mustn't relax! We must keep our focus! Slytherin is trying to wrong-foot us! We _must_ win!"

That was it. I let out an involuntary giggle and turned away. I felt Oliver glaring at me, but I couldn't help it. When I looked back at him, I saw a look of embarrassment cross his features so quickly, it might not have been there. And then, he was right back to looking angry.

"Oliver, calm down," Fred said, fighting back a laugh of his own. "We're taking Hufflepuff very seriously. _Seriously_."

Lee and I sat through the whole practice, getting incredibly soaked and incredibly cold. Part of me continued to wonder why I even bothered to go to practice whenever the weather was like this, but another part of me knew that at this point it had become kind of a tradition. And from what I knew, my friends liked it when Lee and I were there to cheer them on.

By the time the actual day of the match arrived, the weather hadn't improved one bit. It may have even worsened slightly if that were even possible. The wind was howling and rain was pouring down from the sky in sheets.

Despite the awful weather, almost the entire school was present for the match. Although, how we were going to actually see anything was beyond me. It was raining so hard, I could barely see two feet in front of me.

Lee was commentating and had already made his way down to the stands, so I walked the others to the changing rooms on my own.

"Good luck," I said with a tiny smile.

They all smiled back except for Oliver who let out a noise between a grunt and a whine.

"He's just nervous," Fred assured me. "Nothing against you."

"No, I figured it was nerves," I said. "After all, it is his last year to win the house cup."

Oliver let out the odd grunt-whine noise again and I snorted with laughter. But truth be told, even my stomach was twisted in a nervous knot.

"You'd better get to the stands," Oliver finally said. "We've got to get inside." He gestured to the changing rooms. "I've got to go over some last minute things…."

"Yeah, of course," I said, waving them off. "Go." I shooed them away one last time before turning and making my way towards the stands, ducking my head against the rain. By the time I reached my seat, I was soaked through and shivering uncontrollably. I managed to find Julian and plopped myself down next to him. I waved to Neville, Seamus, Ron and Hermione before looking out at the pitch, squinting to see if anything was going on yet.

"It shouldn't be starting for another five minutes," Julian told me, practically shouting over the noise of the wind and rain.

"Not like we're going to notice anyway," I sighed. "I can barely see and I don't think I'd be able to hear Lee's commentary either."

"I think they're about to start," Julian said, pointing towards the grass of the pitch.

I squinted and could barely make out the red robes of the Gryffindor team and the yellow robes of the Hufflepuff team making their way towards each other. Two figures that I assumed to be Oliver and Cedric Diggory shook hands. Then, the rest of the team mounted their brooms. A second later, they were off.

It was hard to see anyone unless they flew close enough to the stands. I couldn't make out which players were which for sure, so I had to guess. Anyone who looked like they were swinging a bat was probably Fred or George. I wasn't even going to bother trying to tell one from the other in this weather. It was nearly impossible in good weather due to their quick movements, but at least then I could look at the numbers on the back of their Quidditch robes. Fred was number five and George was number six, but in the pouring rain, the numbers were basically nonexistent.

After a while, lightning started flashing in the sky and thunder rumbled in the distance. Madame Hooch blew her whistle, signaling a time out. Gryffindor was fifty points up, but I wondered how Harry was ever going to be able to see the Snitch in this weather when I could barely even see _him_ from my spot in the stands.

When I voiced my concerns out loud, Hermione suddenly jumped up with a gasp. "I've got it!" she exclaimed before hurrying away.

"Sorry, but what exactly does she have?" I asked Julian curiously.

He simply shrugged and shook his head, staring out at the field. "She does that a lot. I've given up trying to figure it out and have resorted to just waiting to see what she does."

"Yeah, we'll probably find out in a moment," Ron added. "She probably came up with an idea to help Harry see better in the rain. I just don't know what it is yet, but like Julian said, we'll find out soon enough."

The match started up again and a few seconds later, Hermione was back. "I fixed everything," she said, smiling proudly.

"Then why is it still raining?" I asked with a smile as I shivered. Beside me, Julian let out a snort.

Hermione sighed as she took her seat again. "I caught up to the team in the middle of their time out and charmed Harry's glasses to repel the rain water. It should help him to see a lot better in this rain."

"Genius, Hermione, truly," Ron muttered, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees as he squinted to watch the match.

Another flash of lightning lit up the stadium as the thunder boomed even closer than last time. I wished Harry would catch the Snitch soon. I didn't think it was exactly safe to be out here in the middle of a thunder storm, especially with six tall, gold hoops standing out on the pitch. I wondered how much of a lightning rod each of those hoops served as.

"Look, I think Harry's seen something!" Julian exclaimed, jumping to his feet and pointing.

I stood up as well and followed his finger towards the pitch, where I could just make out a red blur zooming down the middle of the field, a yellow blur close behind him. The rest of the Gryffindor fans had caught on by now that the Snitch had been sighted and they were cheering Harry on wildly.

I kept my eyes glued to the two blurs, my fingers gripping the railing in front of me as my heart pounded in anticipation. From what I could see, Harry and Cedric were neck and neck. It was really anyone's game at this point. But if they lost track of the Snitch, the game would have to continue on for who knew how long. And at this point, I was ready to go inside and sit by the fire.

Suddenly, I felt a chill go down my spine, which I brushed off at first considering I'd been freezing during the entire match. But then everything seemed to go silent and still as a hush fell over the stadium. A few screams could be heard from the stands.

Dementors had appeared through the mist, giving the impression that they had come out of nowhere.

I felt the same feeling that I had felt on the train. The freezing cold (made even more intense by the weather), the emptiness, the sadness, and the feeling that everything I had ever done wrong was so much more of a big deal than it was. But all that went away in the next few seconds when I saw Harry's red-robed figure slip off his broom and fall from the sky, tumbling quickly towards the ground. Cedric, who had pulled slightly ahead and didn't know that Harry had fallen, closed his hand around the Snitch just a moment later.

Dumbledore ran onto the field, moving incredibly quickly for someone his age, and waved his wand in Harry's direction, slowing his fall and lowering him gently to the ground. Then, Dumbledore brandished his wand at the dementors, shooting some silvery, shining looking mist at them. It worked instantly, blasting them all backwards and off of the field, most likely back to their posts at the entrance.

"Let's go," I said immediately, grabbing Julian by the arm and dragging him towards the exit to the stands. Ron and Hermione had the same idea and were already squeezing their way through the crowd ahead of us.

It was still pouring rain and I nearly slipped a few times in my hurry to reach my friends. They were filing after an unconscious Harry who was being levitated to the hospital wing by Dumbledore. Because of the rain and the crowds, Julian, Ron, Hermione and I didn't catch up to the others until we made it into the hospital wing, tracking water and mud everywhere. Not that it really mattered, though. The Quidditch team had already tracked in enough of it. A little more wouldn't make a difference.

"What's going on? Is Harry going to be all right?" I asked as we appeared at Harry's bedside, where Angelina, Alicia, Katie and the twins were already gathered. Wood wasn't there, though. I wondered where he had gone. He was probably upset about losing the match and was most likely sulking. Personally, I thought he should have come to check up on Harry before doing anything else. Maybe Fred and George were right and Oliver's Quidditch obsession was more serious than I thought.

"Yeah, he'll be fine," Angelina said. "Dumbledore managed to slow his fall so that he wouldn't be injured. He's just going to be knocked out for a few more minutes."

"What were dementors doing on the Hogwarts grounds?" I asked furiously. "They aren't supposed to be here!"

"No idea," Fred said with a shrug. His face was pale. "But Dumbledore was livid. Never seen him that angry, have we, George?"

George shook his head. "He doesn't like having them here in the first place, so for them to come on the grounds and disrupt a Quidditch match…."

He trailed off and we fell into silence. I wrapped my arms around myself as my teeth chattered. I was so cold. The others were shivering too and I knew we all wanted nothing more than to take a warm shower and sit in front of the fire, but we weren't doing that until Harry woke up.

No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than Harry let out a groan and his eyelids fluttered.

"Harry?" Hermione asked anxiously, reaching out to grab Harry's wrist. "Harry, can you hear me?"

Harry's eyes suddenly snapped open all the way and he peered up at us in terror.

"Harry! How are you feeling?" Fred asked.

"What happened?" Harry asked, ignoring Fred's question.

"You fell off your broom," Fred explained. "Must've been, what, fifty feet?" He glanced at the rest of us and we all nodded.

"We thought you'd died," Alicia whispered dramatically, through her chattering teeth.

"But the match," Harry said. "What happened? Do we get a replay?" When none of us answered, his eyes widened in horror. "We didn't…_lose_?"

"Diggory got the Snitch," George whispered, moving to sit in the chair beside Harry's bed. "Just after you fell. He didn't realize what had happened. When he looked back and saw you on the ground, he tried to call it off. Said he wanted a rematch, but they won fair and square. Even Wood admits it."

"Where is Wood anyway?" Harry asked.

"Still in the showers," Fred answered. "We think he's trying to drown himself."

I shook my head. "He should've come immediately up here. The rest of us did."

"I told you," Fred muttered, nudging me with his elbow. "Obsessed." I gave him a wry smile before looking back down at Harry, who had buried his head in his hands.

"Come on, Harry, no one blames you," I told him.

"Yeah," Fred chimed in, reaching out and giving Harry's shoulder a shake. "You've never missed the Snitch before."

"There had to be one time you didn't get it," George added.

Despite Fred and George's words of encouragement, Harry didn't seem to have cheered up very much and it didn't help that a few seconds later, Madame Pomfrey ushered everyone except Hermione and Ron out of the room. I was thankful, too. I was anxious to go get warm.

The moment I set foot in the Gryffindor common room, I headed for my dorm. And even then, I let the other girls use the bathroom before me. After all, they had been the ones playing in the bad weather. So by the time I finally did take a warm shower, I was ready to cry with happiness.

When I finally made it back down to the common room, my eyes fell on Oliver, who had clearly not succeeded in drowning himself. He was sitting in a corner of the room, curled up in a chair with a book in his hands. Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I made my way over to him.

"Why didn't you go visit Harry?" I asked, getting right to the point.

Oliver looked up and blinked at me. "Hm?" he asked.

"Harry. Why didn't you go visit him in the hospital wing with the rest of us?" I asked. "He's completely blaming himself for how the match turned out."

Oliver hesitated and that was all it took for me to send him a look of disbelief. "You don't really think that, do you? That it's his fault?"

"No, of course not!" Oliver exclaimed.

"Then what's the problem?" I asked, taking a seat in the chair across the table from him.

Oliver closed his book and put it in his lap as he sat up and sighed. "Losing the first match of the season doesn't exactly get my hopes up for a great year," he said. "Besides, we didn't just lose….It was a total disaster! And we could have won if the dementors hadn't caused Harry to fall off his broom."

"My brother says the dementors affect Harry worse than they affect everyone else," I said.

"I wonder why," Oliver muttered, tapping his quill on the table thoughtfully. "And I wonder if he could figure out a way to deal with them."

"There's the Patronus charm," I said, "but really, Oliver? He's got enough on his plate without having to learn a bit of magic that's advanced for someone my age, never mind a thirteen year old. Besides, the dementors aren't supposed to come on the school grounds. They probably won't be back."

"They stopped by today, didn't they?" Oliver asked, his tone bordering hysterical. "Decided to pay us a friendly visit?"

"Oliver," I said firmly, giving him a look. "Calm down." It was quiet for a moment as Oliver looked away. Finally, I continued, keeping my tone calm. "It was the first match," I told him. "You have plenty of other chances to redeem yourselves and get yourselves to first place. The reason you lost was because of the weather and the dementors. Not your poor ability to captain a team."

Oliver raised his eyes to meet mine. It was probably an inopportune time for me to notice how beautifully brown they were, but I did. They were a dark, deep brown until the firelight reached them and then they lit up to be a beautiful golden brown.

"I can't do this," he whispered, laughing bitterly. "I can't be Quidditch captain and do all my homework and study for my NEWTs. I think I'm already going insane and it's only November." He shook his head.

"Oliver, you've got a great team put together. As I've said, all that stopped you from winning today was the weather and the dementors, both of which were things you had no control over." I paused. "I think you just need to learn how to relax. And not take yourself so seriously."

Oliver snorted.

"Have you ever been down to the kitchens?" I asked.

Oliver shook his head. "I didn't even know it was possible to go in there until you mentioned it back in Hogsmeade."

"Well, it's technically not allowed, but…." I shrugged and smiled innocently.

"You, Fred and George go there regularly," Oliver finished with a smile.

I nodded and stood up. "I'll be back in a minute. And when I come back, you're leaving your books here and coming with me to the kitchens."

Oliver chewed on his lip for a moment as he looked at his books almost guiltily as if he knew he should be studying, but really wanted to toss everything out the window.

"Fine," he finally answered, looking up at me. "Although, I'm not sure why I should trust you." He smiled slightly at me.

"I have your best interests at heart, Oliver," I told him. "You've got to relax once in a while and take care of yourself. Or else you _will_ go crazy. In fact, you may already be showing signs."

Oliver snorted again. "Thanks, Fitzgerald."

"You're welcome," I replied cheerily, before turning and running off to get the Marauder's Map.


	20. Chapter 20

It was times like these when I thought I knew exactly how Oliver was feeling. It was a week after the first Quidditch match, I was swamped with homework and just barely managing to keep up. Particularly in Potions. I felt like I was slowly losing my mind. Besides, yesterday I had woken up with a sore throat and now, around seven o'clock the next night, I felt terrible. I was cold, my throat hurt and my nose and head felt completely stuffed. I hadn't slept much the night before and was skipping dinner now to work on my Potions homework in the library. Needless to say, I felt about ready to keel over onto the floor.

"You're skipping dinner, too?"

I looked up to see Oliver standing beside me, his bag slung over his shoulder and a few books in his arms. I nodded. "Yeah," I rasped out, unable to do much more than that due to my sore throat.

Oliver set his things down and gave me a once over as his eyebrows came together in concern. "You look awful."

"Thanks," I said, letting out a hoarse, bitter laugh.

Oliver was quiet for a moment. "You probably got sick from being out in the cold during the Quidditch match and not getting enough sleep afterwards." When I gave him a questioning look, he chuckled. "I've noticed you staying up late this past week to do your homework. It seems you actually aren't so good at doing everything at once."

"I'm swamped," I told him. "And I'm really struggling with Potions. I'm awful at it and nothing's been working to help me or make it any easier. Percy even tried tutoring me but it only helped a little. Still not enough. I've been barely passing for the past four and a half years."

Oliver snorted. "Percy's smart, but I'm not sure he's cut out to be a teacher."

I shrugged. "No, probably not, but I was desperate."

"What if I tutored you?" Oliver asked after a pause. When I looked up at him, he blushed. "If you'd like me to, that is."

"I don't want to trouble you," I said, resting my head on my arms and closing my eyes for a moment. Merlin, did I feel terrible.

"I don't mind," Oliver said.

"I thought you were pretty busy yourself," I said, raising my head. "What with Quidditch and NEWTs and all that."

Oliver swallowed. "I'm working on balancing," he said. "I need to have a social life, or like you said, I might go crazy."

I smiled. The night I had brought him to the kitchens, I had continued to give him a pep talk, reminding him how important it was to not hole himself up all the time and to actually talk to people once in a while.

"You're good at Potions?" I finally asked.

Oliver nodded and gave me a smug smile. "I don't want to toot my own horn, but yes."

I let out a weak laugh before groaning and closing my eyes again as I swallowed thickly and shivered.

"You're cold?" Oliver asked. "Even with your sweater on?"

"Two sweaters," I whispered, rolling up the bottom of one sweater to reveal the second one underneath. I was so glad that Mrs. Weasley had started including me in the Weasley Christmas sweater tradition my second year. They were the most comfortable, warmest sweaters ever. Except tonight they didn't seem to be doing their job very well.

"Merlin, Lilah, are you sure you don't have a fever?" Oliver asked in alarm.

"No, I'm not sure," I said weakly. I felt terrible, so I wouldn't be surprised if my body temperature was through the roof right now.

Oliver leaned forward and pressed his hand to my forehead. His eyes widened. "You most definitely have a fever," he said, retracting his hand and standing up. "Come on, I'm bringing you to Madame Pomfrey. Pepper-up potion works wonders for colds, you know. Plus, it wouldn't hurt to have her give you something extra for that fever. I meant what I said. Your face felt _really_ warm."

"No, I have to finish my homework," I protested.

"Lilah, up," he demanded.

I sighed. I had to admit, I was fighting to keep my eyes open and I didn't know how much longer I'd last just sitting here. Maybe getting a pepper-up potion would be for the best. It would keep me focused.

"Fine," I agreed, pushing myself to my feet. The second I let go of the table, I felt myself wobble and start to lose my balance as the room spun. Great. I was so sleep deprived and sick that I was about to faint. And my high fever plus the fact that I hadn't eaten dinner probably wasn't helping.

Luckily, Oliver reached out and grabbed me before I could fall. The next thing I knew, he was scooping me up bridal style and carrying me out of the room and up to the hospital wing. What happened after that, I don't quite remember because my eyes were growing heavier and heavier until it got to a point where I couldn't keep them open any longer.

When I opened my eyes again, I was in the hospital wing, snugly tucked into a bed. There was light streaming through the window and Madame Pomfrey was pressing a cold cloth to my head.

"What time is it?" I asked groggily.

"It's around eight in the morning," she answered, peering down at me. "Mr. Wood brought you in here last night with one of the highest fevers I've ever seen. In fact, he just left not too long ago in order to make it to classes on time."

"I have to get to classes too," I said, my brain instantly latching onto the fact that I couldn't afford to miss a day of classes right now. I didn't even dwell on the fact that Oliver had stayed with me all night, even though maybe I should have. Why would he do that? It was incredibly sweet of him.

"No, you don't," Madame Pomfrey said firmly, gently pushing me back down as I tried to sit up. "I've brought your fever down significantly, but I'd still like your temperature to go down a few more degrees before I deem you suitable to function. Besides, you were out cold when you came in last night so I was unable to give you any pepper-up potion."

I nodded. She did have a point. I still felt kind of lousy.

"So…Oliver was here all night?" I asked, as Madame Pomfrey stood up to prepare the pepper up potion that was sitting on the nightstand, removing the cloth from my head in the process.

"Indeed he was," she said with a slight smile. "When he wasn't keeping that cold cloth on your head, he was trying to do his own homework. Didn't sleep a wink. Sometimes I wonder if he's overworking himself. If he doesn't watch out, he's going to get sick, too. Pepper-up potions only go so far." When she saw my confused expression, she continued. "He comes in here every so often for one, especially during the winter or when there's a Quidditch match in the cold, rainy or snowy weather. His parents are Healers, so he's learned a few tips from them. But like I said, the potion only goes so far."

I didn't answer. Instead, I thought over what the nurse had said. I hadn't known Oliver's parents were Healers. He didn't talk about them much. Although that did explain why he had somehow not gotten sick so far from all the stress and lack of sleep combined with playing Quidditch in the freezing cold weather the previous week. But Madame Pomfrey was right. The potion wasn't totally a cure for the common cold, just a way to relieve symptoms for the time being and also a pretty effective precaution to prevent it. But it wouldn't always prevent it completely.

"Here you are, dear," the nurse said, handing me a tiny vial of the pale grey potion. Bracing myself, I downed the whole thing in one sip, trying not to cough the liquid back up. It was called pepper-up potion for a reason: it tasted just like pepper and burned something terrible going down. But afterwards it did warm you up and clear your head. I could already feel everything draining and I could breathe so much better now.

Not even five seconds later, the door to the hospital wing burst open and the twins ran in, making a beeline straight for me.

"Wood's just told us," Fred said breathlessly, taking a seat in the chair at the side of my bed while George stood beside him, nodding vigorously.

"Told you what?" I asked with a smile.

"How sick you are," Fred answered. "He said you—"

Madame Pomfrey cleared her throat. "Shouldn't you two be getting off to class?"

"We probably _should_ be," Fred said, looking up at the older woman innocently. "But, you see, one of our best friends is gravely ill." He tilted his head towards me and smiled as charmingly as he could. I rolled my eyes. Maybe that smile would work on people who didn't know any better, but Madame Pomfrey was one of the people who knew just how Fred and George operated.

The nurse scoffed. "Lilah will be well enough to eat dinner with the rest of you tonight. Right now, she needs rest and you two need to get to class."

"Can't they just—," I began. Despite the fact that I knew the twins wouldn't be able to charm Madame Pomfrey into doing what they wanted, it didn't mean I didn't wish she could somehow be convinced to let them stay.

"No," Madame Pomfrey snapped, shooing the twins away. "You'll be fine later. You can talk to them at dinner tonight."

I gave the twins an apologetic smile, but they were too busy glaring at Madame Pomfrey as she shooed them out the door and closed it behind them with a loud click.

* * *

"So, he sat with you all night?" Fred asked in a hushed whisper.

"That's what Madame Pomfrey said." I glanced down the Gryffindor table at Oliver, who was sitting with a few friends from his year. It was dinnertime that night and I was filling the twins in on what happened. Katie, Alicia, Lee and Angelina hadn't arrived yet, but I'd have to fill them in as well when they got here. Oliver had already stopped by to check up on me on his way to his seat and the twins had watched the whole exchange with raised eyebrows.

"Huh," Fred said, nodding slowly and staring thoughtfully in Oliver's direction. "Interesting."

"Why? What did you want him to do? Leave me to pass out on the library floor?"

"No, of course not," Fred said, "but that's not what we find so interesting. We're very glad he brought you to Madame Pomfrey, but what we're thinking about is how he sat with you all night."

"He did homework while he was there," I said. "It's not like he was completely focused on me."

"You brought him down to the kitchens," Fred continued. "And showed him the map. I still don't know how I feel about either of those two things, by the way."

"You agreed to it. I asked you first," I told him, holding up my hands.

Fred simply shrugged and took a sip of his pumpkin juice. "I suppose it was worth it now that you two so obviously like each other."

"What?" I spluttered. "Is that what you were getting at with all of this?"

Fred peered at me over the top of his drink and raised an eyebrow. "Well, _yeah_," he said as if I were dense.

I pursed my lips. "No, you've got it wrong. It's not like that."

The twins looked at each other and smirked as they shook their heads. "That's what they all say," George told me.

Fred nodded. "It's something else I'm not sure if I like the idea of," he added.

"Again, your idea," I snorted. There was a pause. "How's it going with Angelina?" I asked. If they wanted to meddle in my love life, I was going to meddle in theirs.

Fred grinned. "I asked her out on a date last night," he said proudly. "We're going to Hogsmeade together on the next trip. It's right before term ends for the holidays next month."

"Just you two?" I asked, propping my chin up in my hands.

"Yeah," Fred replied. "Just the two of us."

I sighed. That was going to be weird. All of us usually hung out in Hogsmeade together, especially the last one before the Christmas holidays. That was usually the most fun trip of all with the end of term and Christmas nearly in our grasp and very little for us to worry about for the time being.

Keeping my chin propped up on one hand, I picked up my fork with the other and began pushing my food around.

"You're sure you're feeling better?" George asked, his tone full of concern as he watched me. "You aren't eating much."

"I'm fine," I insisted, rolling my eyes slightly as Lee, Angelina, Katie and Alicia joined us at the table, followed shortly by Julian. Angelina opened her mouth to talk to me, but Julian beat her to it.

"I heard you were sick," he said breathlessly, staring up at me wide eyed.

"Yeah with a high fever and a cold," I answered. "Nothing serious."

"Yeah, Jules," Fred said with a wave of his hand. "The whole team was given pepper-up potions when we went to check on Harry after the last match. Just to warm us up. And we've been lucky so far. But Lilah got there too late and was probably shivering all day…._and _she's been staying up late to do homework. And she skipped dinner last night."

"What was your point?" Julian asked, looking as if Fred's speech hadn't helped him feel better at all.

Fred raised his eyebrows in surprise at Julian's impatience. "My point was _going _to be that a lot of people have been getting sick lately."

"Yeah," Angelina chimed in. "Half of the people in our year couldn't stop sneezing this week during classes."

"One girl even vomited," Fred chuckled.

"That's not exactly funny," I told him.

Fred shrugged. "No, but it did get her out of that class and the rest of her classes that day. In fact, it got me and George thinking of a potential new product."

"Oh, Merlin, what is it?" I sighed, sharing looks with the others. We were used to the twins talking a lot about their products. They actually did spend quite a bit of time planning them and sketching them out as well. All they probably had to do now was make them.

"A line of sweets that make you ill," George said proudly. "They're color coded and once you stick one end in your mouth, you get sick instantly, efficiently getting you out of class. Once you leave, you stick the curing end in your mouth and _voila_, you're cured and you have a whole chunk of time to do whatever you'd like."

"So, let me guess," Angelina said. "One of them will make you vomit?"

The twins nodded. "That's all we've got so far," Fred admitted. He paused and looked at me thoughtfully. "We could probably make a fainting one too. And a fever one. Lots of people are coming down with things like that what with the bad weather and all. It's not just you, Lilah. And every time, they've gotten out of class." His face lit up with excitement at his epiphany and he reached down into his bag, pulling out a quill and a piece of parchment. Then, he and George immediately began whispering together as Fred jotted down his new ideas.

"I hope this joke shop idea makes them rich," Angelina muttered shaking her head, "because they won't pass their OWLs if they aren't planning on spending much time studying or doing homework."

"They do homework," I said with a shrug. "Sometimes. And just not that well."

Angelina shrugged as if to say _same thing_ before going back to eating her dinner.

* * *

"I heard you're going on a date with Fred next month," I said, addressing Angelina that night. I was sitting on my bed while she sat on hers, doing her homework.

She smiled shyly and glanced up at me. "Yeah, he asked me the other night to spend the next Hogsmeade trip with him." She hesitated. "And last night, he actually brought me down to the kitchens and we just sat there and talked for a while."

"Oh," I replied, looking down at my hands. I didn't know what else to say. I felt a pang of jealousy at the knowledge that Fred had brought Angelina to the kitchens. But I knew I didn't have the right to feel that way considering I had brought Oliver down there, too.

"I really like him, Liles," Angelina whispered. "Is that ridiculous?"

"No, of course not! Why would having feelings for someone be ridiculous?"

"Because he and I are so different," she replied. "I'm so organized and he's so…not."

I laughed. "That's probably why you like each other. Opposites attract, right?"

"Maybe," Angelina sighed, fiddling with her quill. Then, she looked up at me again. "Alicia's going on a date with that Ravenclaw boy in our defense class next month," she said. "They're spending the day in Hogsmeade together, too. She told me when you were in the hospital wing."

I smiled. "I'm happy for her," I said. It was true. Alicia had been staring dreamily at that boy for weeks and I guess he felt the same way about her that she did about him. But then again, I hated that everyone in our group was separating to do their own things during the next Hogsmeade trip. Angelina and Fred wouldn't be around and neither would Alicia. That left me, Katie, George, Lee and perhaps Tess, which was great, but still not the same. Maybe a part of me was terrified of losing my friends or having anything change between us from what they had been for the past four and a half years. I had been so lucky to make a group of such great friends that I didn't want anything to change even though I knew change was inevitable. Things were bound to change for sure at some point, so I supposed the only thing left for me to do was accept it.

"What's going on with you and Oliver?" Angelina suddenly asked. "Since we're on the subject of boys."

"Nothing's going on between me and Oliver," I replied firmly.

Angelina snorted and looked back down at her homework as she made a face that completely expressed how doubtful she was of my claim.

"I'm serious," I insisted.

"You're in denial, Liles," Angelina said, finishing up her essay with a flourish before setting her quill down and rolling up her parchment. "And that's okay. I won't be mad when you admit you like Oliver and that I was right all along."

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever, Ange," I sighed, rolling over and staring at the wall, deep in thought. The truth was that I was learning that there was more to Oliver than just his love of Quidditch. I was learning more about him with every passing day and I actually enjoyed spending time with him. Maybe I _did_ like him like that, but I had no idea how he felt about me, so what was the point of admitting anything just yet?

* * *

By the middle of December, I had hoped that the professors would have lessened the work load due to the upcoming holidays, but no such luck. Particularly with Professor Snape. He didn't seem to even recognize that we had a break coming up, never mind the fact that we had all been working incredibly hard this term.

Luckily, I had agreed to let Oliver have a go at helping me with Potions. We had been working together a few times a week to help me with my homework. He was actually very good at it. Percy had been good, but Oliver was even better, which kind of came as a surprise. We would meet in the library at a table in the back and he'd work with me. Sometimes he'd let me work on what Snape had assigned while he did his own work and if I had any questions, I'd ask. Other times, he'd spend some time re-explaining the lesson to me in his own way, which was what Percy had struggled to do and it actually made a difference for me. I still struggled when I did things on my own, but working with Oliver actually made things a little clearer because I always had his help and direction whenever I needed it.

Today, we were working on decimals and percentages. Snape had given us a bunch of word problems to prepare for the written portion of our OWLs and a lot of them asked us stupid things like percentages. If you add one third of a rat tail to your potion, what percentage is it? It was ridiculous, really.

"I feel like this stuff is more likely to come up on an Arithmancy exam!" I exclaimed in frustration. "I mean, what's the point of Snape asking us to figure this stuff out? I thought he was teaching us to simply make Potions."

"Making Potions is sometimes more than just following a recipe and adding things to a cauldron," Oliver explained. "I mean, there are probably people in every year who want to become Healers, right? So they need to be prepared to do all kinds of math involving Potions. They need to know how to measure ingredients and know how much of something is in a certain potion. They need to know exact numbers and nutrients that are in each and every ingredient they're using."

"You certainly seem to know a lot about that," I said, resting my elbows on the table and staring at him with a raised eyebrow.

"My parents are Healers," he admitted, flipping through his notes lying on the table in front of us. He was simultaneously trying to study for Transfiguration and help me work on my Potions homework. I had to wonder how his brain hadn't melted yet.

"I know," I told him with a smirk. "Madame Pomfrey told me back when I was sick and you brought me to the hospital wing."

"Then why did you ask?" Oliver raised an eyebrow at me as he looked up from his notes.

"I didn't," I answered. "I simply commented that you seemed to know a lot about what it takes to be a Healer. I kind of wanted you to tell me, though. I mean, you don't talk much about your family."

"Neither do you," Oliver shot back.

I shrugged. "My family is complicated."

"So is mine," Oliver answered.

"Fair enough." I held up my hands in defeat.

"Since you know what my parents do now, can you tell me what yours do?"

I was afraid of him asking this. I didn't answer at first as I fiddled with my quill and stared at the table. "My mother works at a book publishing company."

"And your dad?" Oliver pressed.

"He has a Muggle job," I answered. "It's called a stand-up comedian. He makes up all these jokes about pretty much anything and he imitates all these great voices…He's really funny. And then he performs at these Muggle places and goes through his performance. A lot of people think he's really great. He's gotten a lot more popular over the years, actually. But he's still not famous or anything…." I trailed off and shrugged.

Oliver blinked at me and I was worried that telling him had been the wrong choice. I was worried that he'd tell me how weird my dad's job was, but he didn't. Instead, his answer both surprised me and made me really happy.

"I'd love to go to a performance," he said. "After this year, I need a laugh."

I smiled. "Maybe we can go to one together. Just say when. But you have to promise not to drown yourself in the showers if the next Quidditch match isn't up to your standards. Because then you won't be able to go anywhere."

Oliver laughed. "It's a deal."

* * *

I was positively annoyed with Fred and George. It was the day after the last Hogsmeade trip of the term and I was doing my homework in front of the fire, fighting back a scowl. I probably shouldn't have been as annoyed with them as I was considering their reasoning for doing what they had done was very thoughtful. But it was something I wished they would have spoken to me about before they went ahead and did it.

"Want to come down to the kitchens with us?" Fred asked suddenly, plopping down beside me on the couch with a huge grin on his face. George sat beside him, looking at me a bit more hesitantly as if he were scared I was going to blow up in their faces.

"What's the point?" I asked, without giving them so much more than a glance. "We'll be out after hours and we won't be able to check to see if anyone's coming because you _gave away_ the Marauder's Map without telling me."

"We told you," Fred shrugged.

"Are you serious?" I asked in disbelief, setting my quill down and finally looking up at Fred with wide eyes. "You told me today _after_ I tried to set up plans for the kitchens tonight. And now that we don't have the one thing that'll help us not get caught, I don't know if I'm in the mood to go."

"Lilah, Harry needed it way more than we do," Fred reasoned, his smile fading as he gave me a serious look. "He didn't get his Hogsmeade permission slip signed because his relatives are all great ugly gits. It would be unfair for him to miss out _again._ He's been skipping Hogsmeade all year and every time there's a trip, he looks miserable watching everyone else leave. Besides, we know the map by heart."

"Oh, you've memorized everyone's schedule and know where they'll be at all times?" I asked. The moving dots on the map had been the best, most useful aspect and now we'd never know what teachers would be in the vicinity if we found ourselves sneaking around.

"No," Fred said impatiently. "What I meant is that we've memorized all the secret passageways, all the handy little hideouts…Like the cozy little nook behind the tapestry on the fourth floor. We know what passageways are caved in and which ones lead where. With those, we won't need to worry about teachers. Really, don't be such a downer."

I glared at him. "I _know_ Harry needed it. I don't mind you giving him the map in the least. If you asked me, I would have said go for it."

"Exactly, which is why we didn't. We thought we'd all be in consensus."

"That's not the _point_, Fred!" I exclaimed, throwing my hands up in frustration. "I wanted you to actually ask me instead of just assuming it'd all be okay. I'm willing to bet you consulted with George, didn't you?"

The twins gave each other guilty looks. "Yeah, I did," Fred mumbled.

"See? I was in on the secret of the map, too, you know. It wasn't just you and George."

"Well, you _were_ against me even taking it from Filch's office in the first place, remember?" Fred asked, giving me a hopeful smile, as if his excuse would make it all okay.

"That was before I knew what it was," I muttered, going back to my homework.

"Don't be mad, Lilah," George piped up. "We're sorry. We probably should have come to you, but it was a last minute decision and we wanted to catch Harry before he went off somewhere to mope."

I shrugged, but didn't answer them. They didn't say anything else for a few minutes either until I finally spoke again. "How'd your date go with Angelina?" I asked Fred. I hadn't gotten the chance to talk to her about it yet, but I was curious to know how things had gone.

Fred grinned. "Wonderful."

"They kissed," George shared with a grin.

"Gross," I teased, sticking my tongue out. Then, I tried to fight back a smile as I gave Fred a serious look. "You're spreading germs that way, you know."

"It's worth it," Fred said, smiling as he leaned back into the couch cushions. "You'll understand once you have your first kiss, Liles." He reached over and patted me on the head.

I let out a whine of annoyance and swatted him away. I hated being treated like a child. Even more so when it was by someone who was the same age as me. Five months younger, actually, if we wanted to be technical.

"I'm surprised Wood hasn't kissed you yet," Fred commented. "You spend an awful amount of time in that library together."

"We're too busy studying to be doing anything else," I snorted. "Besides, it's not like that with us."

"Uh-huh," Fred nodded skeptically.

"So are you and Angelina officially boyfriend and girlfriend?" I asked.

Fred nodded proudly and stretched his arms above his head. "We are."

"Where is she right now?" I asked.

"The library," he answered. "She said she loved spending the day with me but she also really had to study. I knew that she wouldn't let herself be convinced to take a kitchen break, but you on the other hand…."

I sighed. "I have homework to do, too, you know. And so do the both of you. Aren't you nervous you're going to fail all your exams?"

"We're not going to fail all of them," Fred answered.

"Probably just some of them," George added with a shrug. "But as long as we each pass the exam for the classes we're good at, we'll be all set to open our business and combine our skills to make our products and sell them."

"Your mother is going to kill you," I sighed. "Does she know your plans to open a joke shop?"

"No," Fred said, shaking his head. "We haven't told her yet. But you're right…she wouldn't like it if we did. I think she wants us to go into the Ministry like Dad. Or at least find a job that isn't as daring as opening our own business."

"But that's just who you two are," I laughed. "You're daring. You take risks. Isn't she used to it by now?"

"No," the twins answered together as I giggled.

"So…kitchens?" Fred asked hopefully.

I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I debated. "Fine," I finally answered, snapping my textbook closed. "But not for too long. I have to come back and study."

"If anything's going to spread germs, Lilah, it's that," Fred said seriously. "Seriously, studying so much is going to give you some kind of nasty disease."

"I can live with it as long as it all pays off in the end," I sighed, rubbing my eyes.

"What _do_ you want to do when you leave school, anyway?" Fred asked curiously as we stood up and made our way to the portrait hole.

"I don't know," I answered. "I haven't decided yet. But I figure that if I get really good grades I can have the pick of the draw, right? So when I do decide, all my options are open. Plus, my mother wouldn't have it any other way."

"When can we meet her?" Fred asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know."

"I mean, even after all we've heard, we'd still like to meet her," George added.

"This summer," Fred said. "I want to meet your mother, Lilah. I've known you for nearly four and a half years."

I swallowed and looked at the ground as we walked. "Okay. I'll talk to her. Or you can just come over or something because you haven't been to my house, either."

"No, that's right, we haven't," Fred said, nodding. "I know you like to avoid talking about your family, but you know a lot about mine and we've all spent a substantial amount of time with you, Julian and even your dad. It's just…I think it's time we fully get to know you, Lilah, don't you? I think it's only fair."

"You're right," I said. "Again."

"I know I am," Fred answered, sticking his nose in the air pompously.

"You're beginning to remind me of Percy," I told him with a laugh, knowing just how much he would hate that.

Sure enough, Fred wrinkled his nose before his expression changed to a grin. "That reminds me," he said, glancing at George. "We need to fix his Head Boy badge again."

"I agree," George said seriously. "It hasn't read _Bighead Boy_ in quite some time."

"I wonder if we can beat his record of how long it takes him to notice you've changed it," I laughed. The last time Fred and George had tampered with the badge, it had taken Percy a full day to notice, which was odd, considering how obsessed he was with adjusting it on his robes and polishing it every ten seconds.

"We're keeping our fingers crossed," George answered hopefully.

"I'm sure you are," I said with a smile. "Because you wouldn't be you if you weren't."

"You wouldn't trade us for the world, though, Liles. Just admit it." Fred lightly punched me in the shoulder.

"No, you're right, I wouldn't," I replied, grinning at him as I began to relax slightly. I had started getting a bit worried at the news of his new romantic relationship with Angelina, but so far he hadn't forgotten about me and he was treating me like he always did, which was a good sign. I was happy for him, don't get me wrong. If he was happy, I was happy. But I knew how he must be feeling: starry eyed and excited about his new relationship. Angelina would be the same way. I just worried about change sometimes and I definitely worried about endings. I knew firsthand how some endings worked and how they could change things in a second. I didn't want anyone to get hurt and I didn't want anything good to fall apart. Not again.


	21. Chapter 21

I went home for the Christmas holidays, just like I always did. My mother was having her usual Christmas party and Julian and I naturally were required to be there for it. But I actually didn't mind considering all my friends were going home as well. There'd be no point in staying at school.

I found out the day before break started that Oliver's parents had a Christmas party every year as well and he hated going to his just as much as I hated going to mine. But, like me, he was expected to go to his and at least look like he was enjoying himself, so I really understood how he felt. It usually wasn't a fun experience.

So on Christmas Eve, I found myself all dressed up and standing in the living room talking to Mr. Hamilton, my mother's boss.

"Do you get good marks in school?" he asked, smiling down at me.

"Yeah for the most part," I answered. "I work hard, that's for sure."

"And what about you, son?" he continued, turning to Julian, who I could tell came quite close to making a face at being called 'son'.

"Yeah, I do all right," he shrugged.

"Oh, Julian, don't be silly!" My mother seemed to appear out of nowhere, all smiles, and placed a hand on Julian's shoulder. "Julian does extremely well in school! He's got some of the highest marks in his year! In fact, the one person who seems to get better grades than he does is one of his friends! What did you say her name was, dear? Hannah? Harriet?"

"Hermione," Julian muttered.

"Right," Mum said with a wave of her hand, "well, anyway, this girl is a Muggleborn. I found it surprising at first, because she didn't grow up knowing about any of this. I hate to say it, but I've occasionally wondered if she's been cheating."

I couldn't believe she said that, especially in front of her boss. But a moment later, I understood why she did say it. He didn't even care. He smiled sympathetically and said, "It _has_ been known to happen, even with students who aren't Muggleborn."

"Hermione studies _really_ hard, Mum," Julian chimed in. "And she's naturally really smart. She doesn't cheat."

My mother ignored him. "My main concern is her cheating off of Julian," she said.

Julian and I shared a look of irritation, but knew better than to try to interrupt. It would get us nowhere and Mum would probably just get angry.

"Julian still does extremely well in school and I couldn't be prouder," she continued now. "He gets wonderful marks in every class."

"That's great," Mr. Hamilton said with a grin.

"And he likes to play chess," Mum bragged. "He's gotten quite good at it. He has an interest in Quidditch as well, but there aren't any spots open on the team for him to try out for until next year."

I rolled my eyes. Julian liked chess, sure, but he only practiced a lot because he could be competitive and he wanted to beat Ron in at least _one _game. And he didn't just have an interest in Quidditch—he loved it. Mum had never really approved, however. She was only bringing it up now because she was trying to make Julian seem well-rounded. Which, of course, he was. She just didn't _like_ what he was interested in.

"And what about Lilah?" Mr. Hamilton asked, smiling at me.

"Well," my mother said slowly as if she were trying to stall and think of something. "She likes to read. And she writes very good essays for school."

I fought back a sigh. That sounded so silly compared to everything she had just said about Julian. I wasn't like him. My interests did include reading and writing and I was terrible at anything involving math. But still, I only got to read for fun over the summers and I only wrote essays for school. I was boring. Plain and simple.

Mr. Hamilton still smiled, though. "If you keep that up, you'll be publishing a book with our company in no time."

I smiled for real. "That _would_ be cool," I said.

"But of course you should always have another plan," Mum said. "I mean, book publishing is very competitive. And if you keep getting rejected without anything else to fall back on…." She smiled and shook her head. "I've just seen so many books get rejected time and time again. Even books that are well written, but just aren't what we're looking for or what we think will sell."

Mr. Hamilton nodded. "Your mother has a point. It's a tough business out there."

I forced a smile of my own before excusing myself to get another drink. I was still stuck drinking water at my mother's parties because she wouldn't let me drink anything with alcohol in it until I was seventeen. It was ridiculous. It seemed like everyone else's parents let their kids ease into having a butterbeer here and there. Usually not firewhiskey because it was so strong, but butterbeer was okay. There was hardly any alcohol in it. Even the Three Broomsticks had been okay with giving us butterbeer for a while now. But my mother wouldn't let me touch the champagne at her parties. Maybe I would look a bit silly with it, but I _felt_ even sillier carrying a glass of water around while everyone except Julian, Tess and I drank champagne.

I cut through the foyer to get to the kitchen and that's when I heard a knock on the door. Or at least I could have sworn I did. It was pretty noisy in my house. I glanced around. There were only a few people in the foyer, but over the noise of the party, they didn't seem to have noticed the sound. But then it came again and I was almost positive this time that I heard it.

I set my empty glass down on a table containing a vase of flowers and went to open the door. My mouth dropped open when I saw Oliver standing there holding a small potted poinsettia plant.

"Oliver?" I asked, gaping at him.

"Hi," he said quietly, looking at the ground as if he were reconsidering his decision to come here. Then, he looked up and held out the plant. "This is for you. Well, your family, I guess."

"Uh, thanks," I said slowly. I took the plant from him. "It's beautiful, Oliver, really. But…what are you doing here? How did you know where I live?"

A horrified expression crossed Oliver's face. "Oh, Merlin, I look like such a creep. I worried about that, but then decided-" He shook his head. "Never mind. This was a very bad idea." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder and half turned away. "I'm going to go. I—this was stupid. I'm sorry. I—"

"No, wait," I said quickly. "You don't have to go. I'm just a little surprised."

"Yeah, um," Oliver turned back to me and stuck his hands in his pockets. He let out a puff of air though his mouth before swallowing. "I found out where you lived from Tess. I just asked her and she told me."

"Ah," I replied with a smile. I hadn't actually admitted anything to Tess, but she knew I was spending a lot of time with Oliver and she had probably come to a conclusion that was along the same lines as the one the twins seemed to have come to.

"I guess truthfully I wanted to come liven up your party experience a bit and it gave me an excuse to leave my own party, so…." Oliver trailed off and looked at me. "Here I am," he shrugged.

"Do you want to come in?" I asked, tilting my head towards the party going on behind me. "I mean, we have plenty of food and my mother hired some guy to play the piano this year so there's live music…." I trailed off as I tried not to cringe. Here I was inviting Oliver Wood into my house. I was inviting him right into the part of my life that made me the most nervous, the part that I hated to let anyone see. I knew that people made judgements when they saw a house like mine. I don't like to admit it, but it's true. I didn't want anyone to assume I was spoiled or a brat or that I got everything I ever wanted. And I also knew how my mother could be and I didn't want to subject people to her criticism who didn't need to be subjected to it.

Maybe that's why I was so hesitant to let Fred and George really meet my mother. I knew for sure she had some criticism to dole out for them and I didn't want things to turn ugly. And as for Oliver…well, I had only really started talking to him two months ago. And while in those two months I had certainly grown fairly close to him, I definitely wasn't planning on bringing him into my home life so soon. But here he was, standing on my doorstep. And he had brought a plant. I couldn't turn him away.

"Sure, if you don't mind, that is," Oliver said, stepping into the foyer. I shut the door behind him before looking down at the plant.

"Thanks for bringing the poinsettia. My mother already has a centerpiece on the dining room table, but maybe this one can go on the kitchen table. I mean, none of the party guests will really see it because the kitchen is where all the caterers are, but I'll see it when I eat breakfast tomorrow morning. And every morning for the rest of the holiday, in fact. They're my second favorite flowers, actually..."

Oliver chuckled and I blushed as I realized I was rambling. "Second favorite?" he asked.

I blushed a bit more. "Second to daisies."

There was a pause as Oliver just looked at me, an amused smile on his face. "So...kitchen table?" I asked.

"Okay," he said quietly. "Lead the way."

I quickly headed for the kitchen, dodging the caterers when I got there, who were all too busy to notice me and Oliver as we crossed to the kitchen table and I arranged the plant in the middle.

"Looks like you've got an impressive turnout here," Oliver said as I adjusted some of the leaves on the plant absentmindedly.

I nodded. "All of my mother's work friends come every year. Plus their spouses and sometimes their children...but they've always usually been way older than Julian and I so it's not like we've ever had anyone else our own age to hang out with during these parties. Except Tess usually comes with her dad. She's around here somewhere, actually."

"Ah," Oliver said.

We fell into silence just then and I looked anywhere but at Oliver as the caterers bustled around us and I struggled to think of something, _anything_, to say that wasn't ridiculous and would fill the silence gap. I could feel Oliver staring at me and the pressure to say something was just getting intense.

"You hungry?" I finally asked, looking up at him. "We have tons of food."

Oliver nodded. "Yeah, I didn't really eat much at my own house before I left."

"How did you manage to leave your own house anyway?" I asked as we began to cut through the living room and paused in the corner between the door and the piano, where the man my mother had hired was playing a quiet tune. "Your parents just let you leave in the middle of their party?"

"I didn't exactly _ask_ my parents," Oliver said, grabbing a drink off the tray of a passing caterer.

"You just left?" I asked, smiling in amusement.

Oliver nodded. "And I took a plant with me." He tilted his head back towards the kitchen. "It seemed rude to show up empty handed and my mother has plenty of those lying around. She goes overboard with the decorations. She loves Christmas. I think it's mostly being together as a family that she loves, but…." He smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

I giggled and looked away as I took in the crowded room. I actually really loved our living room. It was a large room with high ceilings. A fireplace was on one end of the room and usually there was a couch and chairs arranged in front of it, but for the Christmas party, my mother usually moved the furniture to the outskirts of the room to open up more space. In the corner of the other side of the room from the fireplace was the piano and across from that was a corner with a few bookshelves and another armchair. Along one wall was a set of French doors that opened up to a deck.

"You have a lovely house," Oliver said, taking a sip of his drink.

"Thanks," I said, blushing and looking away. "My mother would love to hear you say that."

"Where is your mother?" Oliver asked.

"Mingling," I answered.

"And your dad?" he prodded.

"They're divorced, remember?"

Oliver blushed. "I know, but I—I'm sorry. I just didn't know if they still—"

"If they were still close? Or at least friends?" I asked with a half-laugh. "No. In fact, they barely speak."

"Sorry," Oliver muttered, blushing an even deeper shade of red and looking away as he took a large gulp of his drink.

I fought back a laugh at how nervous he seemed. "Don't worry about it," I told him. There was a pause. "Actually, Oliver," I sighed, "if you're going to meet my mother tonight, you should know…she's intense. She likes everything to be a certain way and she expects a lot from me and Julian. I…." I trailed off and blew a puff of air out of my mouth as I struggled to figure out how to continue. How could I explain everything I felt to him here in the middle of a Christmas party of my mother's friends? Besides, there was so _much_ to explain.

"I can tell, actually," he said. "You told me that you've never felt the need to be treated like an adult as you were growing up. You never wanted to be treated like you were older because you _were_ already treated that way, weren't you?"

"Still am," I sighed, looking away. "There's a lot of pressure with my mother. Lots of expectations." I shrugged.

Oliver studied my face for a moment before speaking. "My parents—my mother particularly—is on almost the other end of the spectrum. I love her and we're fairly close, but lately…we've been clashing. I mean, I'm turning eighteen in May. I'm graduating Hogwarts, I'm ready to move on and be an adult, but my mother still insists on treating me like I'm eight."

"How so?" I asked quietly.

Oliver let out a puff of air through his mouth and looked up at the ceiling. "Well, for one, she hates my love of Quidditch."

"That's not babying, Oliver, that's just common sense because it's actually straddling the line between love and obsession," I snorted.

Oliver smiled. "Shut it," he teased. "No, but my mother hates it because she's afraid I'll wind up killed."

"Have you ever gotten hurt in a match before?" I asked.

Oliver nodded. "My very first match at Hogwarts, I took a Bludger to the head two minutes in and woke up in the hospital wing a week later."

My mouth fell open. "Oliver!" I exclaimed playfully. "Well, there you go! That's why she's scared."

"Yeah, but every time she sees me, she just dotes on me, checking me for injuries and inquiring about any bruises or scrapes she sees. I mean, I guess it could be worse, but she's always been like that. And she doesn't want me to move out just yet. She always argues that there's plenty of comfortable space in our house so it doesn't make sense for me to go move into some cramped dingy flat. She also thinks I'll be starving if I move out because she never thinks I'm eating enough. Whenever I'm home she practically dumps the contents of our pantry down my throat."

"See, my mother was never like that," I whispered, smiling at him. "Honestly? She's almost cold. We're not warm and fuzzy towards each other. I can't remember the last time I even hugged her." I felt a lump starting to form in my throat. "She's just not like that. I think she used to be but my memories of that time are just growing fainter and fainter."

Oliver reached out and squeezed my hand. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I must sound like such an idiot complaining the way I am."

I shook my head. "No, I get it. I can see how you would clash. I know you want to spread your wings and I think that's good. But I also know that you shouldn't push your mother away completely. You are her child…_and_ her only one at that."

"Maybe you're right," Oliver said after a moment.

Before I could answer, Tess seemed to pop up out of nowhere. "Hi, Lilah, great party," she said breathlessly before turning to Oliver. "Hi Oliver. How are you?"

"Fine, thanks. How are you?"

"I'm great!" Tess said with a grin before turning to me. "Enjoying yourself?" she asked, widening her eyes and tilting her head towards Oliver.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that question?" I asked, playing dumb. "You're a guest at my house, you know." I smiled cheekily at her.

"I'm having a wonderful time," Tess said, "but you know what I think this party's missing? Some dancing."

"Dancing?" I asked dubiously, raising an eyebrow. No one had ever really danced at my mother's parties before. There was certainly room to, and there was certainly music playing for it, but no one had ever done it before. I had never noticed any need for dancing, either, but that could've been because there had never been anyone here I'd be remotely interested in dancing with. Until now, which, as I glanced at Oliver, was probably Tess' plan all along.

"Only if you're planning on dancing too," I shot back, giving Tess an amused look.

"Okay," she replied, searching the room.

"You could dance with Mr. Hamilton, my mother's boss," I giggled, pointing across the room.

Tess wrinkled her nose. "Or," she said, reaching out and pulling my brother seemingly out of nowhere, "I could dance with Julian."

I laughed as my brother gave Tess a look as if she had ten heads as he stuffed another cheese-covered cracker into his already full mouth.

"What?" he asked, the single word coming out muffled due to the food as he looked at Tess in disbelief.

"There's music being played and nobody is dancing," Tess said, latching onto his arm. "Come on, Juju," she pleaded.

"You used to call me Juju when I was, what, five?" he asked in disgust. "I'm thirteen now, you know."

"Ha, now who's babying you?" I asked.

"Come _on_," Tess insisted, dragging Julian away before he had time to protest any more.

"Have you been drinking?" I heard him ask her.

Her response was lost in both the noise of the crowd and my snort of laughter.

"Well, she was obvious," Oliver said with a smile, looking over at me.

"Just a bit," I answered with a shake of my head. "We don't have to listen to her, you know. She just wants to play matchmaker."

Oliver turned and set his empty drink glass on a table before turning back to me and holding out his hand. "I don't mind listening to her," he said with a smile—a very charming one, too, I might add.

I blinked at him for a second before looking down at his outstretched hand. Finally, I carefully placed my own hand in his and let him lead me towards the middle of the room. I felt myself turn red at the awareness that everyone's eyes were on us as Oliver slid his free hand around my waist and gently pulled me closer. I looked down as I rested my free hand on his shoulder.

"Nervous?" Oliver asked quietly as we slowly danced to the soft music coming from the piano in the corner.

"Why do you ask?" I whispered.

"You're beet red and stiff as a board," Oliver chuckled. "Relax a little."

"Never knew you were such a comfortable dancer," I commented. "And in front of a bunch of people at a party you were never invited to."

"No one has to know I wasn't invited," he shrugged. "And as for me being so comfortable….There's dancing at my parents' Christmas parties," Oliver said. "I've done this many times. Although never with a girl this pretty before."

I looked up and met his eyes in surprise. "When did you get so confident?" I asked with a laugh.

"It's not really confidence so much as pure honesty," Oliver said with a smile. "If it were confidence, I wouldn't be so nervous on the inside about your reaction."

I smiled and shook my head as I looked away again. He pulled me even closer and I felt my stomach jump. Even still, I slid my hand from his shoulder to the back of his neck as I pressed my chin to the spot on his shoulder where my hand had just been.

"You really think I look pretty?" I asked quietly.

"Not just tonight," Oliver whispered against my ear. "All the time."

I blushed. I was wearing a flowy red dress that came down to my knees and had a thin white ribbon around the waistline. I had curled my hair and pinned half of it up in the back with a glittering silver clip. I had been satisfied, but it hadn't seemed like my mother had been when she saw me.

"When I saw my mother earlier," I began in a whisper, just loud enough for Oliver to hear me, "she looked me over and wrinkled her nose a bit. When I asked her if I looked alright, she shrugged and said 'I suppose,' before walking away."

Oliver didn't respond and I pulled back slightly to try and gauge his reaction. Maybe I had said too much. When I met his eyes, he was looking at me with a mix of compassion and concern.

"You weren't kidding about her being cold, were you?" he asked. "In fact, I get the sense that you may have even watered it down."

I half-smiled. "She's difficult," I whispered.

"I think you look beautiful," Oliver answered, his eyes roaming over my face. We were so close and even though his hands were only touching one of my hands and my waist, I felt like I could feel electricity running through my entire body.

Oliver leaned closer and I started to slide my eyes closed, but then my mother herself appeared at my elbow, her eyebrows raised, her hand on her hip and a surprised but polite smile on her face.

"Who's this?" she asked as Oliver and I sprung apart.

"I, um—this is—he's a—this is Oliver," I sputtered, tucking a loose piece of hair behind my ear. "He's a friend from school. Oliver, this is my mother."

"I wasn't aware that any of your friends from school were coming tonight besides Tess," my mother said quietly, giving me a pointed look. The smile was still on her face, but that was only because Oliver was standing right there.

"That was my fault, Mrs. Fitzgerald," Oliver said, smiling and holding out his hand. "I wanted to see Lilah so I stopped by on short notice."

"Ah, I see," my mother said as she gave him a once over. Finally, she took his outstretched hand and shook it, still carefully assessing him. "And it's Ms. Matthews now. I go by my maiden name now. My husband and I are divorced."

"That's right…Lilah mentioned that, but I didn't know if—I just didn't think….I apologize," Oliver stuttered.

My mother continued to stare at him and I wished Oliver and I could disappear. I knew what was coming. She was about to interrogate him.

"Tell me, Oliver," she said, taking a sip of her drink, "what would you like to do once you're through with school? That is, of course, if you're still in school."

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. She was simultaneously trying to figure out what his life goals were while also figuring out if he was either a dropout or too old for me.

"I am still in school," Oliver answered. "I'm in my last year. And I'd like to go into professional Quidditch if things go well. I've played Quidditch for the past five and a half years and I love it, so—"

"A professional Quidditch player," my mother said, raising her eyebrows. I actually couldn't decipher her expression, though. I couldn't tell if she was a bad surprised or a good surprised. I supposed that all depended on whether or not Oliver ended up famous. If her daughter was dating a famous Quidditch player, it would make us look good. But if he was lousy, it wouldn't and she'd hate it.

"He's very good," I said. "He's captain and well on the way to leading the Gryffindor team to a victory this year."

"Really?" My mother gave Oliver an impressed look. "Well, I certainly hope you succeed."

"I do too," Oliver said, smiling politely.

"What about your parents?" Mum asked. "Are they supportive of you playing Quidditch?"

Oliver shrugged. "My mother I think would prefer it if I picked another profession, but ultimately, I know that if I'm happy, she's happy. And my dad's thrilled. He loves Quidditch and always says at least someone in our family has to make a living where we get to breathe fresh air regularly."

"What do they do? Your parents?" My mother asked curiously, peering at Oliver over the top of her drink.

"They're both Healers," Oliver answered.

"Ah, wonderful," my mother said. This answer clearly impressed her the most. I could see she was thrilled that I was associating myself with someone whose parents both worked in a job that made plenty of money and that didn't knit them _lumpy, hideous_ sweaters every Christmas.

"I think Oliver mentioned he was hungry, so we're going to go get something to eat." I jumped in before my mother could ask any more questions. The last thing I wanted was to stand here all night while my mother analyzed Oliver.

"Yes, yes of course. Go, help yourself." My mother smiled and shooed us away.

I grabbed Oliver's hand and dragged him towards the food that was laid out in the dining room. "Sorry, I know we had started heading for the food earlier, but we ended up taking a couple detours."

"Neither of which I minded," Oliver said as we both picked up plates and put some food on them.

"Really? You didn't mind my mother asking you all those questions?" I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

Oliver shook his head. "They were normal questions, I thought." He shrugged. "Conversational."

"She was analyzing you. You know that, right?" I asked. "She was trying to figure out if you were good enough. But luckily, you handled it well and I'm pretty sure she approved of your answers. I'm not so sure how she feels about you playing professional Quidditch one day, though."

Oliver chuckled. "Well, with all due respect, I don't really need her approval, do I?" he asked.

"If you ever want to see me again, you do," I snorted.

Oliver blinked. "She'd do that? Forbid you from seeing me because she doesn't like my job?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe. You started getting a sense of her from what I told you earlier, but she's very particular. But I'm not sure what she'll try once I'm of age and can make my own decisions no matter what. I mean, I am at liberty to befriend whoever I'd like as it is, but I don't know if she'd try to intervene or persuade me otherwise. She _still_ tries to convince me to drop the Weasleys sometimes."

"Really?" Oliver asked as we wandered back to the front foyer with our plates of food. It was the least crowded room, so we could talk in quieter voices and still hear each other.

I nodded and took a seat on the bottom step of the staircase as Oliver took a seat a few steps up. "Maybe she doesn't try to _convince _me...well, actually she does, but she disguises it as advising me not to stay friends with them. Or she'll just throw out comments about them. Like she'll comment on the Christmas sweater that Mrs. Weasley knits for me every year. Or she'll wrinkle her nose if I say I'm writing to them or going to their house." I shrugged.

"That's terrible," Oliver said sympathetically. "I'm sure my mother would do the same thing, though, if she didn't like who I was hanging out with. Not that I've ever had that problem, though."

"Because you don't have any friends?" I teased, mock-sympathetically. I reached out and patted his knee. "I'm sorry, Ollie. That must be tough."

"Don't call me Ollie," Oliver joked. "My mother calls me Ollie. She's called me that since I was little, which just proves my point about her even more. I wouldn't mind so much if it didn't _sound_ like a nickname a child would have." He paused. "And I do have friends, but my mother just hasn't had a problem with them."

"My mother shouldn't have a problem with the Weasleys, though," I answered.

Oliver nodded. "True."

"Did you want another drink, by the way?" I asked, realizing that Oliver had put his down in the living room.

He shook his head. "I'm fine. You can go get one if you want, though. I'll wait here."

I shook my head. "I'm only allowed to drink water at my mother's parties until I'm seventeen and I'm kind of sick of feeling like I'm five."

"She doesn't let you drink?" Oliver asked in surprise.

I shook my head. "Not even butterbeer."

"Wow," Oliver said with a smile. "You must've gone wild your first Hogsmeade visit. They're pretty lenient there."

"Not lenient enough to let me get drunk," I snorted as Oliver laughed. When he went back to eating the food on his plate, I watched him for a moment before smiling softly and going back to my own dinner. I couldn't stop thinking about how he had almost kissed me. And I also couldn't stop thinking about how every piece of me had desperately wanted him to. It was kind of scary, to be honest. I was sixteen. This was all uncharted territory. I had never had a boyfriend, kissed a boy or, before tonight, even danced with a boy (besides my dad, of course, who didn't really count because he was my dad). What if I messed something up?

I suppose if I was laying it all out on the table, I was falling for Oliver Wood and I was completely terrified.

* * *

Oliver stayed until the party ended and then insisted on helping to clean up. I had told him that usually at the end of the parties, my mother went upstairs to get ready for bed and that the caterers took care of the cleaning, but Julian and I always liked to help them. Not helping them would nag at the back of my mind for months if I didn't do it. It just didn't seem right. So, when every last guest was gone and my mother had said goodnight and headed upstairs, Oliver and I headed for the kitchen.

Julian was already there, standing at the sink and helping to dry some of the dishes. Oliver immediately grabbed a trash bag and headed back into the dining room to start getting rid of any trash left lying around. I followed him and started clearing a few leftover things off the table. The caterers had gotten all of the big dishes, but some napkins, plates and glasses remained.

"Did you have fun?" I asked Oliver, as he collected the crumpled up napkins and tossed them into the bag.

He nodded. "I mean, we spent the majority of the time sitting on your staircase talking and stuffing our faces, but I did have fun doing it."

"I love that staircase," I admitted with a smile as I picked up the stack of plates I had collected them and balanced them against my hip. "It makes me feel like royalty whenever I'm on it."

Oliver looked up at me and smiled deviously as if he wanted to ask me something, but wouldn't sure if he should.

"What?" I giggled.

"It's just…have you ever fallen down those stairs? They are beautiful, you're right, and I just feel like falling down them is kind of comical and a little ironic. You know? Falling down something that looks so graceful."

I laughed. "Don't worry, I've fallen down them. They may make me feel like royalty, but they don't make me graceful." I hesitated. "When I was younger and my dad still lived with us, he'd do the cleaning once a week since my mother always works. Julian and I would help and Dad would put on music….He'd blast it full volume and we'd dance around the house while we cleaned. Julian and I would roll our eyes at first and insist he was being so weird, but then he'd rope us into it and we'd all end up laughing and enjoying ourselves…." I smiled as I trailed off.

"Sounds like fun," Oliver said, returning the smile as he hesitated in picking up trash and stared at me.

"I'm not finished," I grinned. "My point of that story was that one day he hopped up on the banister and slid all the way down it. I don't know how he did it without falling off. Maybe he used a little bit of magic, but he did it. And then, of course, Julian and I were anxious to try and he just told us to go ahead. Merlin, my mother would have killed us all if she knew. But Julian and I did it anyway. We wanted to just slide down on our stomachs, gripping the banister like a sloth grips a tree branch, but Dad said he'd help us out if we did it upright. I can remember him twirling his wand around and smirking as he said that it was more fun to sit up and actually enjoy the ride instead of having to stare at the banister the whole time."

Oliver chuckled. "I'm guessing you haven't slid down the banister since the divorce?"

"No, it's not the same. Plus, I'd need my dad's help. I probably couldn't do it without the magic he used to help us."

"Probably a balancing spell," Oliver said.

I shrugged. "Probably." There was a pause. "I'm going to bring these back to the kitchen," I said, tilting my head towards the plates. When Oliver nodded, I went back to the kitchen and dumped the stack of plates on the counter beside the sink. The caterer washing the dishes smiled at me and I returned it before moving to stand beside Julian.

"Hey," I said quietly. "How was it tonight?"

"It was all right," Julian shrugged. He looked at me. "You had fun, though. You and Wood?" He raised his eyebrows.

I leaned backwards against the counter and crossed my arms. "I like him, Jules," I whispered. "I really do."

He nodded and glanced up at me. "I do too, so you have my approval if you want to date him."

"I don't know if that'll end up happening," I said, "but thanks for approving."

"He's going to ask you out," Julian said, looking at me knowingly. "He wouldn't have figured out where we lived and just shown up if he didn't like you."

I smiled, but didn't get the chance to say anything else because Oliver returned with the trash just then and started helping with putting all the dishes away. Once we were done cleaning and the caterers had left, Julian said goodnight and headed up to bed, leaving me and Oliver alone in the kitchen. The house was eerily silent in the aftermath of the party and I felt myself not knowing what to say for nearly the first time all night.

"Well, I'd better get going," Oliver asked. "I don't think I can delay the inevitable any more. I'm going to get an earful from my mother when I get home considering I just left without a word."

I smiled. "Yeah, maybe leave a note or something next time."

Oliver nodded. "But oddly, this is the most rebellious I've ever been and I kind of like the adrenaline rush."

"I'm sure you do," I giggled.

I walked him to the door and leaned against it as he walked out onto the front steps. He turned to face me and his expression said he had something on his mind. "Are you doing anything on New Year's Eve?" he asked curiously and I could tell that he had been nervous about asking and was doing it now before he lost the courage and missed his chance.

I shook my head. "No. My mother usually _goes_ to a party for that holiday. She used to go with Dad, but now that they're not together, she either leaves Julian and me with him or leaves us home alone. But then our dad usually comes over anyway and spends the night with us."

"Oh, so you do have plans, then?" Oliver asked, looking dejected.

I hesitated. "No. I'm sure Dad and Julian won't mind if I spend one New Years apart from them."

Oliver scrunched his face up in thought. "You know what? Invite them."

"Invite them where?" I asked with a smile. "You haven't even invited _me_ anywhere yet."

Oliver blushed. "I was going to invite you to my house on New Year's Eve. It's only fair, isn't it? But I'd still like to meet your dad and I know my mother will want to meet you once she calms down after my return tonight. So…you're all invited over on New Year's Eve. Just the six of us. We'll have dinner and just hang out."

I smiled. "You're not going to consult with your mother about your plans first?"

"She'll say yes," he answered confidently. "Like I said, she'll be dying to meet the girl I snuck out to see and spent the whole night with."

I smiled wider. "Okay. I'll talk to Julian and my Dad, but I'm sure they'd want to come."

"What about you?" Oliver asked with a shy smile. "Do _you_ want to come?"

I shrugged. "Not really, but you're really twisting my arm about it, so I guess I have no choice."

Oliver laughed and looked down as he dug the toe of his shoe into the ground. Finally, he looked back up at me. "Well, write me once you know for sure."

I nodded. "Okay."

Oliver smiled and turned to walk down the front steps. When he reached the walkway, he turned back around and walked backwards. "It seemed rude to Apparate right on your front steps, and Tess also warned me that Muggles live around here, so…." He sighed dramatically. "I'm going to have to _walk_ to a dark, secluded area just to go home."

I smiled sympathetically. "Sorry."

"You'd better be," he teased.

"Goodnight." I wiggled my fingers at him and started to shut the door, letting out a quiet laugh as I saw Oliver smile and turn to walk away. Once the door was shut, I closed my eyes and leaned against it, letting out a sigh as I slid down to the ground.

I spent Christmas Eve with Oliver and now I was going to spend New Year's Eve with him, too. And I honestly enjoyed spending time with him. He was very easy to talk to once you got past the Quidditch obsession barrier. And he was kind of adorable. _And_ I genuinely liked him. Oh, Merlin, my friends were going to have a field day when they found out.


	22. Chapter 22

"Tell me again. How did you meet this boy?" Dad asked, peering down at me as he straightened his tie in his bedroom mirror.

I flopped backwards onto the bed. Oliver had said not to bother with dressing up too much, but my dad was wearing a nice shirt and pants with a tie anyway. Julian was, too. I, on the other hand, had decided against a dress and worn jeans and a nice shirt.

"I know him from school," I answered with a sigh. "How else would I know him?" I asked. "I don't go many places besides school, home and Diagon Alley."

Dad rolled his eyes. "I asked you _how_ you met him, not _where_ you met him."

"He's Quidditch captain," I said. "And he was on the team when the twins tried out. I've known him for years."

"Yet you've never mentioned him until a week ago when you said that he invited the three of us to his house."

"Angelina and the twins invited him to come along with us on a Hogsmeade trip a few months ago," I explained. "He doesn't get out much. It's his NEWT year, so he studies a lot and works on his Quidditch game plans a lot. He wants to win the cup for Gryffindor this year. Very badly. Anyway, I really started talking to him when we went to Hogsmeade. And he's been helping me with my Potions work now."

"Why?" Dad asked, looking at me in the mirror.

"Because I thought maybe someone else would have better luck with it. I like Percy and all, but he's been busy studying for himself all the time too."

"Shouldn't Oliver be studying a lot too since it's his NEWT year as well?" Dad asked with a smirk.

"He does," I answered. "Didn't I just say that? But he still wanted to squeeze in time to help me because of how many times the twins and I have pointed out that he'll go crazy if he doesn't talk to people every now and again."

"That's not why," Dad snorted. "Not entirely anyway."

"It's because he likes me, right?" I asked with a roll of my eyes. "That's what Tess said, too."

It was weird. Part of me knew just as much as everyone else did that Oliver liked me. How could I not think that after Christmas Eve? But then there was also part of me that thought it was ridiculous. Why would he when I was so incredibly average?

Dad nodded. "It's obvious, Liles. If you want more proof, go get the calendar hanging in the kitchen and I'll circle Christmas Eve for you in bright red ink. It's another reason I'm glad I was invited tonight. This way I don't have to resort to hiding in the bushes with a pair of binoculars."

"I'm glad you don't have to do that, too," I said, widening my eyes and sitting up as Dad finished getting ready and turned towards me. Julian walked into the room, his hands in his pockets and looking handsome as ever except for his crooked tie that had practically become his trademark. Even at school, the thing was always off kilter.

"You look very handsome, Jules," Dad said with a grin.

"Except for—"

"The tie," Dad said. "I knew you'd pick up on that immediately."

I looked at him. "_You _fix it," I snorted. "If I do it, I'll be accused of babying him."

"I can hear you, you know," Julian muttered, reaching up to fix his tie himself.

"Much better," I told him, standing up and smoothing out my shirt.

"So, Jules," Dad began as we headed for the door. "You say you like this Oliver kid?"

Julian nodded. "He's cool. I thought he always seemed pretty quiet and I've only talked to him a handful of times, but he's a really good Quidditch player."

"He loves Quidditch just as much as you, if not more," I said. "I'm nervous to give you two the chance to actually talk tonight."

"Wait, wait, wait," Dad said, holding up a hand. "Jules, you can't make a quality assessment on him if you haven't spoken."

"We've probably said a few words to each other," Julian shrugged. "But like I said, he mostly kept to himself and he's four years older than me."

"What about on Christmas Eve?" Dad asked.

"Lilah was with him all night," Julian answered. He paused. "But he did stay and help us clean. He insisted, really, so that was nice of him. And…." He smiled at me fondly. "Lilah looked really happy all night. She never looks that happy at the Christmas parties."

I blushed and I felt Dad looking at me thoughtfully. "Hmm," he said. "Well, let's go, shall we? This way, I can make the final judgment on this kid."

"Will you stop referring to him as _this kid_?" I asked. "Or _this Oliver boy_?"

"Not until I know for sure whether he's good enough," Dad said formally.

"Mum likes him, so if he can meet her tough standards, he can meet yours," I said.

Dad cringed. "I'm not so sure about that," he said. "Your Mum loves some people, especially some of the ones she works with, that I'd personally like to throw a brick at."

"Well, you'll like Oliver," I said. "I can assure you."

"I hope I do," Dad answered with a smile, leaning over to kiss my forehead. "Now, come on. We don't want to be late."

* * *

"This is a very nice house," Julian said, his eyes wide as we walked up Oliver's front walkway and took in his house.

Julian was right. The house was very nice. It was big, for one, with a sprawling lawn in the front and a gate surrounding the perimeter. There was even a fountain planted halfway between the front gate and the front door, right in the middle of the walkway, which parted and reconnected on the other side of the fountain.

Christmas decorations were still up, too, and I could see what Oliver meant. There were a lot of them, but they didn't look tacky. There was a wreath on the door and poinsettias on either side of the front steps. I could see a tree through one of the front windows. A huge tree at that, beautifully lit up and decorated. Through the half circle shaped window on the front door, I could see a lighted garland wrapped around the stair banister.

The house was big, but homey looking. I felt welcome and I hadn't even gotten inside yet.

When we reached the front door, I knocked. Seconds later, we could hear the sound of footsteps approaching the door and then the sound of the lock turning and the door being pulled open.

A woman was standing there with a huge smile and the same warm brown eyes as Oliver. Actually, a lot of their features were the same. She also had shoulder length brown hair and a few freckles on her cheeks. She was really, really pretty and also really, really friendly looking.

"Come in, come in," she said, stepping aside so we could walk through the door.

"Wow," Julian breathed, looking around the spacious foyer complete with a beautiful chandelier hanging above our heads.

"Your house is beautiful," I said quietly, staring around as well.

"No fairy tale staircase, though," a voice said from off to my right. "Sorry." I looked up to see Oliver standing in the doorway of the next room, leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed. He was wearing a navy blue sweater over a collared shirt in addition to the smirk on his face. Merlin, he looked cute.

"It's okay, I think I'll manage," I assured him with a smile.

"It's so lovely to finally meet you," Oliver's mother said, reaching out and shaking all of our hands. "I'm guessing you're Lilah," she said to me.

I nodded. "I am. And this is my brother Julian and that's my dad." I gestured to the two of them. "My mother had a party tonight, but she says she's sorry she couldn't make it."

It was true. My mother really had said that, which was odd. I think she kind of liked Oliver for the most part, but she still wanted to figure him out for a little while longer. She was probably only sorry because she didn't get to see what his house looked like or meet his family. But the fact that she wanted to was a good sign. She wasn't like this with the Weasleys. She had already deemed them unworthy of her time.

"Oh, no need to worry," Oliver's mum said with a wave of her hand. "I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunities to meet." She smiled at me. "Ollie's told me so much about you."

I smiled at her use of the name Ollie as I glanced at Oliver, who was frowning and rolling his eyes. "Really?" I asked.

Mrs. Wood nodded. "He says he's been helping you with Potions and you've been helping him...what was it? Oh, yes...to get out more."

I giggled. "Yeah, Oliver's great, but he spends so much time doing homework or preparing for upcoming Quidditch matches. I just thought he might want to have fun once in a while."

"Nothing wrong with that," Mrs. Wood said cheerily, smiling fondly at Oliver before reaching out and smoothing out his collar. He flinched and rolled his eyes just as Julian nudged me.

"Looks like how you are with me," he said with a snort.

"It is not," I protested in a hushed whisper. But the truth was that he might've been right. It was exactly the kind of thing I always did to Julian.

"Can I take your coats?" Mrs. Wood asked, holding her hands out as we each slipped off our jackets and handed them to her. She hung them in a closet to the side of the foyer before leading us into the living room, which was where the Christmas tree was.

"I think your tree is taller than ours," I whispered to Oliver, looking up to admire it. It was definitely bigger than ours. The ceilings in this room were higher than ours so if Oliver's tree was any smaller, it would look a bit disproportionate.

Oliver smiled. "I'm nominated every year to put the star on the top and every year I'm afraid I'm going to fall off the ladder and break my arm or something."

"You wouldn't be able to play Quidditch for a bit," I told him. "The horror."

Oliver nodded seriously, but I could see the smile turning up the corners of his mouth. "See? You get me."

Oliver's dad entered the room a moment later. Apparently, he was the one cooking dinner tonight because Oliver's mother insisted she was nowhere near as good at it as he was. He denied this and she smiled and blushed. They really loved each other. It was obvious.

Oliver's dad offered us drinks and I was allowed to have a butterbeer, which wasn't such a big deal when I was on a Hogsmeade visit, but it _was_ a big deal when I was anywhere else considering my mother wouldn't let me drink the stuff yet.

We sat in the living room for a bit as we waited for dinner to be ready. After a while, I could see that Julian was getting fidgety and bored. And hungry. I could practically hear his stomach rumbling from where I was sitting.

"Why don't you take Julian upstairs and show him your new broom?" I whispered to Oliver. "I'm pretty sure we're losing him." Oliver had gotten a new broom for Christmas and I knew for a fact Julian would go crazy over it.

Oliver glanced over at my brother and smiled. "Okay." When there was a pause in the conversation, he addressed my brother. "Hey, Jules, rumor has it you'd be interested in seeing what I got for Christmas this year."

"What'd you get?" Julian asked curiously, excitement evident in his tone.

Oliver turned to his parents. "I'm going to take him upstairs and show him," he said with a smile.

His parents nodded. "Of course!" his mother exclaimed. "Go right ahead, but don't take too long. Dinner will be ready soon."

Oliver nodded and stood up. Julian and I followed him back into the foyer and up the stairs. Oliver took a right and led us to a door at the end of the hallway. He swung it open to reveal his bedroom and I was only a little bit surprised to see how neat it was. I was so used to being around Fred and George who were just messy enough without being disgusting. But Oliver was clearly very neat and organized.

"Over there," Oliver said, pointing to the corner of the room between his closet and his desk.

"Wow, is that the new Cleensweep?" Julian gasped. "The Cleensweep Eleven?"

"It is," Oliver nodded, sticking his hands in his pockets and smiling proudly. "I tried it out the second I opened it. I didn't want to come inside, but we were having family over for Christmas dinner, so I had no choice." He paused and looked at Julian. "I know you're about to ask, so go ahead. You can go pick it up."

"You aren't afraid he's going to accidentally snap it in half or smudge the handle or something?" I whispered, nudging him in the side as Julian made his way across the room and delicately picked up the Cleensweep.

"I'm terrified," Oliver answered. "I'm just containing myself because it's the polite thing to do."

I laughed as Oliver smiled. "Julian wouldn't dream of damaging it," I said. "He's going to be just like you in a few years."

"Not a bad thing," Oliver said with a grin.

"Fred and George are going to go crazy when they find out you got a new broom, Oliver," Julian said. He looked at me. "Don't they only have Cleensweep Sevens?" I nodded as Julian let out a laugh of disbelief. "This one's supposed to put those to shame. They're getting to be an old model now that the Eleven's out as well as the Nimbus 2001. And then there's the Firebolt. One of those would put _all_ of those brooms to shame."

"I would sell my left arm for a Firebolt," Oliver sighed dreamily.

"Believe me, so would I," Julian responded, continuing to examine the broomstick in his hands.

"I hoped to get one for Christmas," Oliver said, "but, I mean, I didn't want to ask for too much. I'd feel guilty asking for something so expensive. A Cleensweep Eleven's expensive enough as it is and besides, it's still a really good broom. I'm happy with it, truly, but Merlin, a Firebolt. Gryffindor would be incredible with even one of those on our team."

From there on out, it was all about Quidditch, just like I knew it would be. But it was worth it. I wanted my brother and Oliver to get along and be friends. If it meant having to tune out their shared Quidditch obsession, then it was worth it.

After a few minutes, we were called down to dinner, Oliver and Julian continuing their discussion down the stairs. They had moved on to talking about what their favorite Quidditch teams were. Julian liked the Holyhead Harpies, which was the team Ginny liked as well. Oliver liked Puddlemere United and he hoped to play for them once he left school. They debated about what teams were better all the way into the dining room.

"What's the matter, Liles?" Dad asked as we headed for our seats. "You look like you're losing your mind."

"I am," I said. "These two have been talking Quidditch for _ages_."

"You could've joined in," Oliver said, surprising me by pulling out my chair. I smiled and sat down. Oliver took the seat next to me and smiled back. "You may claim to be rubbish at playing, but I know you must enjoy the game somewhat. You like watching us practice."

"Yeah, but I'm nowhere near as involved in the professional teams as you are."

"Such a disgrace," Oliver teased, glancing at me and smiling as his parents brought the food from the kitchen and set it on the table.

"It smells delicious," I commented, taking a deep breath.

"Thank you, Lilah," Oliver's dad said with a grin. "I'm hoping it tastes delicious too or else I'll have slaved away in the kitchen for nothing."

Once we all had food on our plates, Oliver's mother smiled at me thoughtfully. "So, Lilah, did you and Oliver have a good time at your Christmas party last week?"

I smiled shyly. "We did. But I hope he wasn't in too much trouble for leaving without asking you. I didn't know he hadn't asked until he told me and I had already invited him inside, so it was really too late for me to turn him away."

Oliver's parents both laughed. "Well, as you can imagine," his mother began, "I wasn't all that happy. How was I supposed to know where he had gotten off to? But then he came home and he was _happy_. Very happy. My husband's first thought was that he'd been drinking, but Oliver claimed to only have had half a glass of champagne."

"I can back that up," I said, nodding.

"It's been a while since I've seen Ollie that happy," Mrs. Wood said, smiling fondly at her son. "It's true that he's been stressing way too much over school and Quidditch. I really wonder if he's taken on too much with being captain during his NEWT year. I didn't want him to do it at first. I wanted to let someone else captain the team, but Oliver insisted."

"Mum," he said with a sigh. "Being captain is important to me. And it'll look good when I try out for professional teams. I love doing it."

"Doesn't seem like you do all the time," his mother said. "Two summers ago, you spent the whole break devising a new Quidditch plan. You kept repeating that you were going to train harder and longer and…." She trailed off and sighed.

"I know," Oliver whispered. "I don't have a life. But that's where Lilah sort of comes in. Angelina invited me to Hogsmeade with them in October and at first I nearly said no. But I went and Lilah always went out of her way to include me. I was uncomfortable and I think she knew it. She talked to me and made me feel normal. And she's continued to talk to me ever since."

"I don't want you to be a hermit, Oliver," I snorted. "Since you're allergic to cats, you have no choice but to live in solitude. Unless you want lots of other animals instead of the cats. You can be a bird man or something."

"Great, sounds exciting," Oliver muttered, but he was smiling.

"I worry not just about all the time you invest in the sport," his mother continued, "but also about you getting hurt. I've seen some cases at work where a Quidditch player got hit the wrong way with a Bludger or fell off their broom. There are the usual broken bones, but there have been concussions, internal injuries...even some cases of brain damage. I can't take worrying that some day that could be you, Ollie." She looked at him sadly.

I turned to look at him, too. I had never thought of it that way, but his mother had a point. That must be terrifying. She had seen so much and there was no way for her to protect her child from sustaining any of those horrible injuries she had seen and described.

Oliver's expression softened and he looked almost guilty. "I know, Mum," he whispered. "I know. But it's what I love, okay? I wouldn't feel right doing anything else. Not right now, anyway. When I'm older and all my joints and muscles are aching, I'll reevaluate, okay?"

His mother actually let out a soft laugh. "At least I have some kind of hope to hold onto."

I reached out under the table and grabbed Oliver's hand. He looked over at me and I smiled. "Your mother's great," I said.

Oliver blushed and sent me a smile of his own. "I'm glad you think so. I suppose I'll keep her then."

I let out a giggle and turned back to my food.

Once dinner was over, Oliver actually offered to let Julian have a ride on his new broom. I was insanely impressed. I knew how much the broom meant to Oliver and letting someone else ride it probably made him incredibly nervous. His broom was practically like his child, so it was very sweet of him to let Julian ride it. I, on the other hand, offered to stay in and help clear the dishes, but Oliver's parents and my dad insisted that they could handle them and that I go out back with Oliver and Julian.

On our way out, Oliver quickly snagged two firewhiskeys from the kitchen and sneakily passed one to me with only a quick glance and a smile in my direction. "My parents actually most likely won't care all that much if they spot you," he assured me as Julian ran down the back deck steps ahead of us, the sound of the grass swishing filling the air. Luckily, all the snow we'd had a few weeks ago was nearly gone by now. But it would probably snow more before we knew it.

"You sure?" I asked Oliver, pausing with my hand on the bottle cap.

He nodded. "It's just one. Besides, it's New Years. You're allowed to celebrate a little." He paused. "Just as long as your dad won't mind."

I shook my head. "No, he probably won't. Just as long as I don't push it."

We sat down in the porch swing situated at one corner of the deck as Julian flew circles in the air, illuminated by the outdoor lights situated around the yard.

"Your yard's just as beautiful as your house," I said, shivering in the cold air, despite the fact that we had stopped to get our coats. Oliver seemed to notice and he put an arm around me, hesitantly at first, but when I didn't move away, he relaxed a bit.

"Thanks. And if you're still cold, then that'll warm you up pretty soon, too," he added, gesturing to the firewhiskey. He paused. "Oh, but that does remind me. He removed his arm from my shoulder (much to my dismay) and leaned forward. He started fiddling around with what I thought was a table, but after a moment I noticed there was a hole in the middle filled with logs. Oliver pointed his wand inside the hole and a second later, sparks flew out and ignited the logs. Within another few seconds, a pretty impressive fire was going.

"What is this?" I asked, smiling at the weird table contraption as Oliver sat back and put his arm around me again.

"Muggles have them," he said with a grin. "Cool, aren't they? My parents discovered them somehow…I think some patient at work hurt himself by falling on one when he was visiting his Muggle aunt and uncle."

"So your parents did what any sane person would do after that and went out and got one for themselves," I giggled.

Oliver laughed. "Well, we're smart enough to not _fall_ onto the fire," Oliver said.

"Falling has nothing to do with how smart you are," I argued. "It's usually just accidental."

Oliver shrugged. "In any case, I love having it. It comes in handy."

"I'll say," I said, shivering again. Although, I had to admit that I felt a lot warmer already.

"Having fun?" Oliver called up to Julian.

"Loads. I don't think I'll ever come down," Julian called back.

"Come down before school starts up again and we'll be okay," Oliver answered.

It was quiet for a moment before I spoke again. "Why do you love Quidditch so much?" I asked, gazing at Oliver's profile as the firelight reflected off of it.

Oliver didn't answer right away. "Why do you ask?" he finally said.

"There has to be a reason," I answered. "It's more than just a hobby for you. You love it and it's what you want to do for the rest of your life. You eat, breathe and sleep Quidditch. I guess I'm just…trying to figure out how you operate. What makes you tick. That's all."

Oliver swallowed and looked over at me. "My grandfather on my mother's side," he began. "He and I were extremely close. My grandparents babysat me a lot when I was younger because of my parents' busy schedules and I would spend so much time with my grandfather. He really loved Quidditch and he's the one who got me into it. We'd follow teams together and predict who was going to win matches. When I was ten, he took me to my first Quidditch World Cup. It was one of the best days of my life." He shook his head and stared into the fire.

"So then what?" I asked quietly.

"I told my grandfather I wanted to play professionally and he frequently told me that he'd be in the front row for every match, no matter where we played or what kind of weather. He told me he'd be there. But he died a year after he took me to the World Cup." He shrugged one shoulder. "Maybe it's silly. But I just want to make him proud. I want to be _good_ so he'll be proud of me."

"Oh, Oliver," I whispered. "It's not silly. And I'm sure he would be proud of you. How could he not be?"

"We're going to lose the cup again this year," he muttered. "The Gryffindor team is so good, but we haven't won the cup since Charlie Weasley's last year. That leads me to believe that it's my fault we haven't won and that I'm a lousy captain."

"You're not," I insisted. "You're very good. Everyone respects you. Sure, they think you're a little too obsessed and a little batty, but they all like you. Even my brother already adores you. And so do I for that matter."

Oliver blushed and looked away, silence falling between us for a moment. "Tell me something about you now," he said with a smirk. "You owe me after what I just told you."

I scoffed. "I do not!"

"You do," Oliver insisted.

I hesitated. I considered talking about my parents' divorce, but I hadn't even told the twins that story. How mad would they be if I told Oliver first after I had been their best friend for nearly four and a half years?

"What's wrong?" Oliver asked.

"I just...I don't usually talk about the hard stuff with people. Fred and George haven't even _met_ my mother yet. Well, not exactly properly at least. I just know the meeting's going to go badly. And as for the divorce, well, the twins don't know the details about that either. I don't like talking about it. They've been my friends for four and a half years and I worry about how they'll feel if I tell you first."

"Do you _want_ to tell me?" Oliver asked. "If you don't want to share that part of your life, then don't. Just start with the simple stuff. That's how it should be anyway, right? But...if you want to tell me you should do it. Don't hold it in because you're afraid of hurting the twins' feelings."

"I have to care about their feelings, Oliver. I _do_ care. They're my friends."

"I know." He sighed. "I just think that if you want to share, you should. If you don't, then don't. But whatever you do, do it for yourself."

I was quiet as I thought that over. He was right of course. It made a ton of sense. And maybe I was ready to talk about it with both Oliver and the twins. But I actually didn't want to start tonight. I wasn't in the mood. It would just ruin the night.

"I will tell you, but not tonight," I finally said. "Sad stories ruin a good mood."

"I agree," Oliver said, taking a sip of his drink.

We watched Julian use Oliver's broom for nearly another hour and a half, while Oliver and I talked. We left the difficult stuff alone for now and stuck to discovering the simple stuff about each other that we hadn't found out already. We already knew each others favorite colors—green for me, red for him, our favorite foods—Fudge Flies for both of us, and our favorite class—Transfiguration and Astronomy, so we instead progressed into werider and more random topics like our favorite seasons, our favorite article of clothing in our closets, and our favorite letters of the alphabet (fall and summer; my first ever Weasley Christmas sweater, his Puddlemere United t-shirt; L and O, understandably). Every so often, I would keep trying to get Julian to come down but he didn't want to and Oliver was fine with letting him keep going. He even told Julian where he kept a makeshift Quaffle so that he could actually practice throwing it around. That was the only time Julian got off the broom, only to get right back on after he had retrieved the ball.

"Thanks for letting him do this," I said, glancing at Oliver. "He doesn't have his own broom and my mother won't let us practice at home anyway, so he never gets the opportunity."

"That's just not right," Oliver said, smiling and shaking his head as I giggled. "But you're welcome."

I smiled and rested my head on his shoulder as I pulled my legs up onto the swing and leaned closer into Oliver's side. "So your family isn't the type to go out and party on New Years Eve?"

Oliver shook his head. "We leave the partying for Christmas Eve and stay in on New Years. Maybe one day I will go to a party, though. Live a little, right?"

I smiled and shrugged. "It's whatever you're comfortable with. I've always stayed in on New Year's Eve, too. It can be fun. I mean, I'm having a wonderful time tonight."

"So am I," Oliver whispered, absentmindedly rubbing his thumb back and forth over my upper arm. I felt my stomach flood with an odd mix of nerves and pure happiness as my heartbeat sped up. He was driving me mad just by doing something so simple.

Just then, Dad appeared at the door. "Jules, why don't you come inside? It's nearly midnight and I need your company. I also need you to help me count down from ten. I don't know how."

Oliver and I both snorted with laughter as Julian landed the broom and slowly made his way towards dad. "Fine," he muttered. He looked at Oliver. "Where can I put this? Keep in mind I'm really hoping you'll say 'At your house, Julian, of course'."

Oliver laughed. "Sorry, but no. You can leave it against the house. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself."

Julian smiled and ducked under dad's arm to get back inside. Dad looked at Oliver and me and winked before pointing a finger at us. "Behave. I'm going to leave the sliding door open a bit so I can listen for anything going wrong." He paused and smiled cheerily. "And so you can hear the radio, of course, so you won't miss it when midnight gets here."

"Thanks," I said with a roll of my eyes.

When my dad finally disappeared from the doorway, I turned back to the fire in front of us and took the last sip of my drink. I had been trying to drink it slow, but now it was finally gone. Oliver noticed and took the bottle from me, placing it on the ground by his feet, right beside his.

"Honestly, I can't thank you enough for how nice you've been to Julian tonight," I finally said.

"Really, Lilah, don't mention it," Oliver said earnestly, shaking his head. "Julian's a great kid. He's sweet. And if you think he adores me, well…he adores you even more."

"How would you know that?" I asked with a scoff. "Besides, I don't think so. He's always saying how I'm treating him like a child. But I can't help it and I'm afraid one day he's going to really resent me for it. If he doesn't already, that is."

"Merlin, Lilah, he's far from resenting you. He really looks up to you. It's written all over his face. And I've noticed a few times at school…well, for instance, he wouldn't stop bugging you when you were sick. I think he's just as protective of you as you are of him, but it's harder to see because he's younger and you _act_ protective enough for the both of you."

I snorted. "Thanks."

"It's not a bad thing," Oliver said. "It's sweet. It makes me like you even more, actually."

I looked up at him as, in the background, the radio announcer began counting down from ten.

_Ten_, _nine._

The New Year was seconds away and all I could think about at the moment was about how I wanted to kiss the adorable, smart, Quidditch-obsessed boy sitting in front of me.

_Eight, seven._

A few months ago, I would've never thought I'd feel that way. I barely knew him a few months ago and now here we were. Sitting side by side on a swing on his back deck, his arm around my shoulders and our faces inches apart.

_Six, five._

My heart was beating rapidly. I was more terrified than I had ever been in my entire life. If I kissed Oliver, things would change. I was scared, sure, but wasn't it Fred and George who were always taking risks? My own best friends took risks all the time. They were never scared. I usually played it safe. But maybe I didn't want to this time.

_Four, three._

Speaking of Fred and George, I could only imagine what they'd say when I dropped the bombshell of my break on them in a few days. Would they be thrilled or upset? Had they even been serious about setting me up with Oliver?

_Two._

But at that moment…I didn't care.

_One._

The clock struck midnight, the sound of fireworks boomed in the distance and I leaned forward and kissed Oliver Wood.


	23. Chapter 23

It took Oliver a second to respond to what I did, but then I suddenly felt his hand drop from my shoulder to my waist as he pulled me closer. His other hand found my cheek and his thumb brushed along my skin. My nose felt more squished than I had expected it to—maybe I hadn't tilted my head enough—but I hardly noticed. I wasn't about to pull away despite my squished nose and the fact that a part of me was worried I was doing this wrong.

I only did pull away when I seemed to come to my senses. I blushed a deep red as I rapidly stood up and began to turn away. "Sorry," I stuttered as I suddenly realized how stupid I had been. "That was uncalled for. I just don't know what—I shouldn't have—I'm sorry. It probably wasn't even any good, but nonetheless, I shouldn't—"

"Lilah, wait," Oliver said, standing up and grabbing my wrist to prevent me from turning away to go back inside.

"What?" I whispered, a lump forming in my throat. Why had I kissed him? Despite all his signs, a part of me wasn't quite sure if he liked me. What if I was reading everything wrong? Or blowing everything out of proportion simply because _I_ liked _him_? Now I had probably gone and ruined everything.

"No, I'm really glad you did that," Oliver whispered. "If you hadn't…." He swallowed and shook his head, "I would've kissed _you_ first."

I looked up in surprise. "Yeah?"

Oliver nodded as he studied my face. "I almost did it at your Christmas party."

I blinked. He had a point. I had thought that's what he had been about to do, but then I thought perhaps I was going crazy.

"And if you want my opinion," he continued, "I thought it was a _very _good kiss. I'm not sure if it's best to admit this, but I've only kissed one other girl and it was horrible. I think it was my fault, though, so if one of us is a bad kisser, it's me."

"I didn't think so," I answered, my voice still in a whisper. I also wasn't meeting his eyes anymore. "But I don't have _anyone_ else to compare it to. That was my first kiss."

"Well, I'm honored," Oliver said quietly, reaching out and gently tilting my head up by my chin, forcing me to look at him. When I did, I saw him smiling warmly at me. He didn't look horrified by the kiss at all. Either he was a really good actor or he was sincere. But my gut told me he was serious. He liked me. He truly liked me. My insides had suddenly sprouted wings and were aching to fly out of my body.

It was only when Oliver placed my hand on his shoulder and slid his arm around my waist that I realized that the radio was playing Auld Lang Syne.

"This song is so beautiful," I sighed, sliding my eyes closed and taking in Oliver's hand in mine and his other resting on my lower back as we slowly danced in place, the fire still burning behind us. "And please don't say it's not as beautiful as me or I'll punch you."

Oliver laughed. "What a way to ruin a moment, Liles. But no, I wasn't going to say that. I was going to say, well, it kind of makes me feel sad. It makes me think about how the past year is gone and we can't get it back. I mean, I'm all for moving forward and stuff like that, but when you spend three hundred and sixty five days with the year 1993, you can get pretty attached."

I laughed. "But a year from now you'll be sad that it'll be 1995 because you'll have become too attached to the year you didn't want to get attached to a year previously because you were too busy mourning the loss of the year before that." I paused. "I hope that made sense."

"It did," Oliver smiled. "But it is a very vicious cycle. Luckily, I'm not that sad this New Year's though. As of right now, I'm enjoying myself quite a bit." He smiled wider and brought our intertwined hands up so he could playfully poke my nose with his index finger.

"_I'm _certainly not," a voice said from behind us.

I broke apart from Oliver and turned to see Julian standing in the open doorway. "Sorry, Jules," I said, flushing bright red.

"By the way, Dad and I saw the whole thing," Julian said. "Well, we saw it all coming. We had to look away just in time."

"Thankfully," I muttered as Oliver laughed and squeezed my hand.

Julian stepped outside and marched over to Oliver, his jaw set and his chest puffed out. It looked kind of silly considering Julian was still a bit shorter than Oliver, despite the fact that it seemed he'd been growing pretty rapidly in the last few years.

"If you hurt my sister in any way," he began, "that broom's getting snapped in half." He pointed to Oliver's new Cleansweep, still propped against the house.

I covered my mouth with my free hand as I stifled a laugh at both Julian's attempt at intimidation and the actual grimace that flickered across Oliver's face. But then, he smiled and leaned closer to me.

"See what I mean?" he whispered. "He loves you. He threatened to snap a broomstick in half for you."

I smiled wider. "For his sake, maybe you should pretend you're really intimidated."

"I think I am," Oliver said. "He might as well have just said he's going to snap my neck."

"Don't be dramatic," I snorted with a roll of my eyes.

Oliver looked back at my brother. "You have my word, okay?" he said seriously, a small smile turning up his mouth as he stuck out his hand.

Julian shook it and nodded before turning to me. "I think you should be coming inside now. We're leaving in a few minutes."

"Yes, sir," I said, saluting him. Julian rolled his eyes and turned on his heel, marching back the way he had come.

Once he was gone, Oliver and I both burst into giggles.

"Don't laugh," I said, turning and burying my face in Oliver's shoulder as he covered his mouth with his hand.

"Your brother is spectacular," Oliver whispered as his laughter slowed.

"I know," I whispered back, grinning.

We said our goodbyes shortly after Oliver and I had gone back inside. Oliver gave my hand a squeeze at the door before letting go so I could follow my dad and brother out the door.

"I certainly hope we'll see you all again soon," Oliver's mother said with a smile.

"I'm sure you will," Dad answered. I could tell he was giving me a pointed smirk, but I didn't look back at him.

"Thank you again," I managed to say. "The food was delicious."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it."

I looked at Oliver, standing just behind his mother's shoulder, and grinned. "I'll see you back at school, if not sooner," I said.

He nodded. "Hopefully sooner."

"Okay, that's enough flirting, you two," Dad said. "It's time to get my baby girl home, read her a bedtime story, turn on her nightlight and tuck her in."

"Dad, please." I groaned as Oliver and his parents all laughed.

Dad smiled and waved before turning and heading down the front walk. I had no choice but to give Oliver and his family one last wave and follow him.

* * *

"So, Lilah, we have all been discussing you." Fred gestured to himself, George, Angelina, Lee, Alicia and Katie. We were all sitting in our usual compartment on the Hogwarts Express. Tess was there too, looking at me knowingly. I had told her everything that had happened with Oliver, but I hadn't told any of the others. I thought it would be best if I told them in person and all together. I had also politely and apologetically asked Oliver if he minded sitting in a different compartment so I could talk to my friends without him being there.

"Yeah?" I asked, feigning stupidity. "Why?"

"We feel as if," Fred began, "you've been missing for the past two weeks. We hardly spoke the whole holiday and we didn't even get to see you once."

"It's kind of short. The holiday I mean. Two weeks may seem like plenty of time, but..." I trailed off and shrugged.

"Well, how did you spend it?" Angelina asked. She was sitting beside Fred, their intertwined hands resting on her lap as she rubbed her thumb over the back of his hand.

I took a deep breath. "Well, I obviously had my mother's Christmas party on Christmas Eve."

"And someone showed up and surprised her," Tess said with a grin as she nudged me.

"Who?" Alicia asked eagerly, sitting up straight in her seat.

"Oliver," I said with a blush.

"They spent the entire night together," Tess said, just as enthusiastic sounding as Alicia. "And, thanks to my clever intervention, they even ended up dancing together. _And_ Lilah's mother loved him. _And_ they spent New Year's Eve together."

"Tess," I said, cutting her off and giving her a look signaling for her to slow it down.

"Hold on..." Fred held up a hand. "Oliver showed up at the party...uninvited?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I didn't know he was coming."

"And you spent New Year's together?" George added.

"At his house," I said. "With my dad and Julian."

"_And_," Tess chimed in with a squeal, "they kissed. Lilah actually kissed him first! She just went for it!" She sighed. "So brave, Liles."

I smiled shyly and looked at my other friends, who were all staring at me incredulously. "Someone please say something," I whispered.

"So..." Angelina began slowly. "You and Oliver are a thing now?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so."

Angelina, Katie and Alicia all grinned and let our tiny excited squeals of their own.

"That's great, Lilah, I'm so happy for you. Both you and Oliver, really," Katie said.

"Yeah, it looks like Fred and George finally got what they wanted," Lee chimed in, nudging Fred, who was still staring at me open mouthed.

"Yeah," I said, smirking at the twins, "isn't this what you wanted? You wanted me to date Oliver so he'd loosen up, get a life, and be distracted from being so hard on you at practice?"

Fred opened and closed his mouth a few times. "Yeah, but I never thought it would actually happen!" he finally exclaimed.

"Excuse me?" I asked, blinking at him a few times. So I had been right on New Year's Eve when the panicked thought of the twins not being serious had floated through my head.

"I didn't think you'd end up being boyfriend and girlfriend!" Fred elaborated. "I just—I thought he'd go on a few dates with you or something and that would be it. He'd realize what he'd been missing out on and then go seriously date someone else. Not you. I just thought maybe you could get the ball rolling."

"Excuse me?" I said again, letting out a curt laugh. How could he say such a thing? I was one of his best friends! And here he was, shocked over the fact that someone _had _seriously fallen for me. Did he really think I was that that romantically unlikeable?

"Yeah, what are you getting at, Fred?" Tess added, a frown turning down the corners of her mouth—a rarity for her. "You'd better turn this around really quick."

"You just—you can't date Oliver Wood," Fred said, scrunching up his nose. "He's my friend. He's _Oliver_. And he can't date you. You're my friend."

"I like him, Fred," I whispered, my voice almost pleading. I wanted him to be okay with this. I was okay with him being with Angelina after all.

"I worry that I was wrong," Fred said, chewing on his lip. "I worry that he won't let a girlfriend distract him from Quidditch and that he'll continue to obsess over it every moment of every day and that he'll neglect to pay you any attention."

My expression softened as a lump formed in my throat. That was Fred for you. He could be blunt and he could come across sounding rude, but that's only because he didn't always think his thoughts through enough. He had good intentions at heart, but didn't always think before he spoke. It wasn't that didn't think I wasn't good enough for Oliver. He thought Oliver might not be good enough for _me_.

"Fred, I'll be fine," I told him. "If I'm not happy, it's up to me and Oliver to work it out. But right now I am happy, okay? I promise."

Fred looked at George. "Is it just me that feels like this?" he asked.

George shrugged and I could tell he was actually thinking over what he wanted to say, which is how he differed from Fred.

"I am a bit surprised," he finally said, "but only because I honestly didn't think _Lilah_ would fall for Wood. And it is weird because it's Wood, you know? But if Lilah's happy, I'm happy."

Fred sighed and didn't say anything else. I could tell something else was bothering him and I also thought I knew what it might be, but I wasn't going to say anything now. I'd have to wait to talk to him and George alone because I knew that this was an issue that was bothering the both of them, despite the fact that George was disguising it a little better.

I had to keep my mouth shut the whole rest of the train ride back to school and for nearly the entire rest of the day considering I never got to see the twins alone. We walked back to the common room as a group and when we arrived, we saw Oliver was already there and he had cornered Harry. Probably to figure out if he had gotten a new broom over the holiday. Since Harry's Nimbus 2000 had been destroyed by the Whomping Willow during the first match, Harry had been borrowing one of the school's brooms, which worked nowhere near as well as his Nimbus.

"Have you ordered a new broom yet?" I heard Oliver ask as we got closer, proving my suspicions correct.

"No," Harry muttered.

"What? You'd better get a move on, Harry. You can't ride that old Shooting Star against Ravenclaw!"

"He got a Firebolt for Christmas," Ron said.

I froze and blinked a few times before glancing at my brother, who had just been heading over to join Ron, Harry and Oliver as well. Julian's eyes had gone round as saucers.

"What?" he asked.

"A real Firebolt?" Oliver continued, his eyes just as wide.

"You two are absolutely insane," I said, shaking my head at the looks on their faces. They were staring at Harry as if they couldn't believe they were in the presence of the owner of a real Firebolt. Actually, that is probably how they felt.

"Don't get excited," Harry grumbled. "I don't have it anymore. McGonagall confiscated it."

"Why?" Oliver asked.

"Who even sent it to you?" Julian asked, collapsing into an empty chair. "A Firebolt…." he trailed off. "It'll take me ages to even be able to pay for a twig from the tail of that broom."

"Hermione seemed to think that Sirius Black sent it," Ron explained. "And apparently McGonagall agreed, so she confiscated it and is having it stripped down to check for jinxes. Neither one of us," he gestured between himself and Harry, "are talking to Hermione right now."

"But the match against Ravenclaw is coming up! Will Harry have the broom back by then?" Julian asked. He looked at Oliver. "It's exactly as you said! You said Gryffindor would be incredible with even one Firebolt on the team and now you have one!"

"Yeah, but Harry just needs it back first," Ron said. "And we don't know how long it'll take. McGonagall didn't tell us. So either she doesn't know or she just didn't say."

"But what if Sirius Black really did send it?" I asked. "It's probably for the best that it's being checked."

"Sirius Black is on the run," Oliver said dismissively. "The whole country is out looking for him. How could he just walk into Quality Quidditch Supplies and buy a broomstick? It doesn't make sense, Lilah."

"Well, thanks to Hermione, McGonagall has it now," Ron said sourly.

"I'll talk to her, Harry," Oliver said, nodding decisively. "I'll make her see reason….A Firebolt. A real Firebolt on our team. She wants Gryffindor to win as much as we do. I'll make her see sense. A Firebolt…."

"Oliver, you're sounding a bit insane again," I said. "I swear, you've got to calm down."

"A Firebolt, Lilah," he whispered, turning to look at me with wide eyes. "On our team."

"Yes, very good," I said slowly, pulling him to his feet. "Now, come on, let's get you away from talking about Quidditch before you officially lose the last of your marbles."

"Sorry," Oliver muttered as I led him to the couch and we sat down. He rubbed his hands over his face. "It's just…wow."

I smiled. "It's a broomstick," I said quietly. "And if it was sent to Harry by Sirius Black, and if it was in fact jinxed…how would you feel if Harry had another incident like his first year where he lost all control of the broom? How would you feel if the broom bucked him off and he got injured?"

"We'd lose," Oliver answered.

"Oliver, please tell me that's a joke," I demanded.

He smiled slightly. "It was."

"A bad one," I pointed out. "I know you want to win the cup at the end of this year, but you can't go getting yourself worked up over it, okay?"

"You know why I do," he whispered.

I nodded. "But you work yourself up _too_ much," I told him. "It's no good for anyone if you make yourself sick over a sport." When Oliver opened his mouth to protest, I held up a hand. "I know, it's not just a _sport._ It's your life. Got it."

"Sorry," Oliver whispered, resting his elbows on his knees and looking at me. "I may have just got a little carried away."

"It's okay," I whispered back, sliding my arms around one of his and resting my head on his shoulder. He leaned forward and kissed my forehead.

"Did you tell them?" Oliver finally asked. "Your friends, I mean. About us."

I nodded. "They took it pretty well." I decided not to mention everything that Fred had said. There wasn't any need to create tension between him and Oliver. It was honestly the last thing I wanted.

"Then why is Fred glaring at me?" Oliver asked. I looked up to see him staring over my head. I turned and saw the twins standing near the dormitory stairs. Fred was, in fact, giving the two of us a look that did resemble a glare. When he met my eyes, he shook his head and headed up the stairs, George at his heels.

I sighed. "I've been waiting to catch them alone to talk to them. I think they might be angry that you've met my mother. They really want to get the chance to know her properly, but I've been hesitant because I know she doesn't really like them. But Tess spilled the beans that you've met her and that she likes you."

"I thought the jury was still out," Oliver said with a raised eyebrow.

"It is. But she's interested in figuring you out. With the Weasleys, she doesn't want to give them the time of day. So I think Fred and George are kind of upset about it. Which, maybe they should be."

"It's not your fault," Oliver said. "You can't control how your mother feels. Besides, I showed up uninvited to your house. You didn't invite me there."

I shrugged. "Still….I think I'm going to go talk to them."

Oliver nodded and I leaned forward to kiss him before standing up and making my way up the stairs to the fifth year boys' dorm. I knocked twice. "Fred? George? It's me. Can I come in?"

"Why?" Fred's voice called back.

"I want to talk to you. Just let me in, please."

There was no response, so I sighed and pushed the door open. Fred was on his bed, lying on his back, while George was sitting upright on his own bed, facing his brother. They both looked incredibly solemn.

"I know what's bothering you and I'm sorry," I whispered, taking a seat at the end of Fred's bed, down by his feet.

"How could you do that to us, Lilah?" Fred asked. He wouldn't look at me, choosing to look at the ceiling instead.

"_I_ didn't really do anything," I said. "It just worked out the way it did and I'm sorry about that. But everything was out of my control. Oliver just turned up at my house! I didn't know he was coming! What did you want me to do, turn him away?"

"Yes," Fred snorted.

I let out a bitter laugh. "You're ridiculous."

"_I'm_ ridiculous?" Fred asked, sitting up. "You _know_ George and I want to meet your mother. You know how we feel about that whole thing! And yet Oliver waltzes into your house and you let him just come right in and witness the life you're afraid to let us—two of your best friends—see! If we knew we could do that, George and I would've shown up unannounced, too!"

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I couldn't turn him away. I—"

"Are you ashamed of us, Lilah? Is that it?" Fred asked. "Oliver's fine with his big house and rich family, but no, you can't bear to let your mother get to know us with our big, poor family and our lopsided house and our lumpy Christmas sweaters!" He picked up one of the said sweaters that had been discarded on his bed and angrily threw it at me. I caught it and flung it back at him.

"What the _hell_ is wrong with you?" I asked furiously, standing up and clenching my fists. "I am _not_ ashamed to have you as my friends! At all!"

"Then why can't we meet your mother? Why does _Wood_ get to meet her first? And she loves him, does she? She didn't wipe her hand on her skirt after shaking hands with him? She doesn't look at him in disgust?"

I let out a laugh of disbelief and threw my hands up. "Don't you see? _That's_ why I can't bear to let you meet her. I don't want her to get the chance to treat you like dirt! She's..." I trailed off and took a deep breath. "She's a little hesitant about Oliver because she knows he wants to play professional Quidditch and she's unsure of what to think of that. Normally, she'd hate the idea of that profession, but if he becomes famous, that'll be a whole different story. But for the most part, yes, I think she does really like him. Yes, his family is rich and yes they have a lovely house. And yes, my mother doesn't like that your family is big and poor and she hates the Christmas sweaters. And if you want my opinion it's terrible and wrong for her to think that and it's terrible and wrong for her to not give you a chance!"

"But _you_ won't give us a chance either!" Fred exclaimed. "Sure, maybe she won't come to us willingly, but you won't let us come to her either! You won't let us try to win her over."

I closed my eyes and swallowed as I sat back down on Fred's bed. "Fine. This summer, I promise you, you can come over and meet her. But keep in mind that it may not go well. She may be incredibly rude and a fight may break out because Merlin knows that I'm going to defend you two—"

"All of us," Fred said.

"What?" My eyes flew open and I stared at him.

"I want her to meet my whole family," Fred said. "I want her to get to know us."

"It's about time, don't you think?" George piped up with a lopsided smirk, speaking for the first time since I'd entered the room.

I let out a puff of air as I deliberated this. It was going to be difficult, but George was right. It was about time. "My house or yours?" I finally asked.

Fred and George looked at each other and grinned. "Yours," George said. "It was our house last time and besides, we haven't been to your house before, as you've already pointed out."

I nodded. "Okay, but I mean it. It may not go over so well."

The twins nodded. "Don't worry, Liles. We're big boys. We can handle it."

I smiled. "I don't doubt that." There was a pause. "I love the Christmas sweaters, just so you know."

"Me too," Fred said, gingerly picking up the one he had thrown at me. "I'm sorry for throwing it at you."

I smiled. "I'm sorry for throwing it back."

Fred's mouth twitched into a smile too. "So, you're not going to ditch us for Wood now, are you?" he asked. "He's not your new favorite? You're not going to give us the boot because he fits in with you better?" He forced out a laugh, but I knew he was serious, especially as the memory of his boggart came to mind.

"You're stuck with me," I told him. "Effectively setting me up with Oliver isn't going to get rid of me." I shrugged. "Sorry."

"Great," Fred muttered.

I stood up again and looked down at them nervously. "We're okay now?" I asked.

They nodded. "We're fine," Fred said. "As long as you hold up on your promise and let us come over this summer. We won't forget."

I nodded. "I promise."

* * *

**A/N: I'm really glad everyone liked the last chapter! I'm kind of loving Oliver more and more every second. **

**And to Savage Kill, to answer your question, yes I've planned on this being a Lilah/Fred story, but we're just taking a little detour through Oliverville at the moment. :)**


	24. Chapter 24

The next day, when I saw Oliver at lunch, he looked positively annoyed. He plunked down beside me and started dumping food on his plate with a little more force than necessary.

"Something wrong?" I asked, smiling in amusement and fighting back a laugh as I watched him.

"I went to talk to McGonagall about getting Harry's Firebolt back," Oliver answered, "and she got a bit impatient with me. Said I needed to get my priorities straight only because I said I didn't care if the broom tossed Harry off, just as long as he caught the Snitch first." He glanced at me and noticed my expression. "I was kidding, of course."

"Mhm," I said flatly, pursing my lips and giving him a look.

"You know, Harry having a jinxed broom may actually increase our chances of _losing_," Fred said, overhearing the conversation. "Did you ever think of that?"

"Yeah," Oliver said, "I did, but the Firebolt is currently the fastest broomstick around, which might give Harry a better chance of catching the Snitch before any jinx could kick in."

"Not if the Snitch doesn't show up before that happens," George pointed out.

Oliver sighed. "No, you're all totally right," he said. "I'm just overreacting. As usual."

"I think McGonagall's going to try her best to get the broom back by the time the match rolls around," Alicia said reasonably. "She does want a Gryffindor victory after all. But she does want to make sure Harry stays safe. It won't do if he can't play because he hurt himself on a jinxed broom."

"Very true," Oliver said, nodding. "It's just that if we lose this game, we've lost the cup."

"We know," Fred told him, his tone actually serious for once. "But Firebolt or no Firebolt, I think we have a fair shot. We have a great captain after all."

I shot Fred a smile at his encouragement and he smiled back. Oliver actually looked much more relaxed.

"You okay now?" I asked, patting him on the back. "Calmed down enough?"

He nodded and smiled at me. "How's your day going so far? A whole lot less stressful than mine I hope."

I shrugged. "Not by much. None of the professors will shut up about the OWLs."

"I definitely get it," Oliver nodded. "I remember how it was and this year it's the same for the NEWTs—maybe even worse, actually."

I gave him a sympathetic smile and reached for his hand under the table, interlocking our fingers. He gave my hand a squeeze and kissed me on the cheek.

A week later, the Ravenclaw Quidditch team played Slytherin and lost, although it was only by a few points. According to Oliver, this was a good thing, because if Gryffindor beat Ravenclaw in their next match, Gryffindor would move to second place. While I did agree that was a good thing because I wanted Gryffindor to win the cup, it wasn't a good thing because Oliver increased the practices in length and by number. They were practicing five days a week now. Oliver had wanted to do seven, but Angelina, Katie and Alicia had protested, claiming they needed time for homework. Fred and George had also protested, claiming they needed time to work on inventions. Oliver had rolled his eyes and agreed that he needed to study too, so practices were left at five times a week, which wasn't great because it cut down on the time I got to spend with him.

I still went to watch the practices, but it wasn't the same as actually spending time with Oliver. But even when we did that, we usually just studied together, either in the library or in the common room.

"I promise when this is all over, I'll take you on a genuine date," Oliver said to me one night towards the end of January. "When Quidditch is over or when school's over…I promise, okay?"

I looked up from my Charms book and nodded, looking at him with a soft smile on my face. "I'd like that," I whispered, reaching out and resting my hand on his cheek, tracing my thumb lightly across the dark circles under his eye. "When's the last time you slept?"

He shrugged. "Last night."

"For how long?"

"An hour or two?"

"Oliver," I sighed wearily. "How are you going to function? At practice, during your matches…in everyday life?"

He shrugged again. "I'm far from the most important player," he said. "I don't do much. I can get away with being tired."

"Are you serious? Oliver, a Keeper is important. If they weren't necessary to the team, the position wouldn't exist. Your job is just as important as anyone else's and if you can't function properly, the team will suffer. I mean, what would you say if Harry hadn't been sleeping? Or Angie? Or the twins? Or Alicia or Katie? You'd freak out."

Oliver looked at me and smiled. "You're right," he said, and I could hear the exhaustion in his voice. He swallowed and set his books down before rubbing his hands over his face. "I'm so tired."

"Then sleep," I advised.

"You make it sound so easy," he laughed. "Come on, I know you somewhat have an idea of what it's like."

I nodded. "True. I just care about you is all."

Oliver smiled. "I appreciate it." He leaned over and kissed me, threading his fingers through my hair as he did so.

"I'm definitely going to fall asleep if you keep that up," I sighed, pulling away slightly.

"What, this?" Oliver asked, slowly running his fingers through my hair again.

I nodded as my eyes suddenly seemed to get so much heavier. "Stop, I have to study," I said drowsily.

"What if we both call it quits for the night?" Oliver whispered. He didn't stop playing with my hair. "Because if you fall asleep, I'm only going to get jealous."

"I'm not going to fall asleep," I said, my eyes still closed as I rested my head on Oliver's shoulder. "I have to study. I told you."

"You _are_ going to fall asleep," Oliver insisted, putting his arms around me and kissing my head. "And I say go for it. We've both done enough for tonight. Maybe you were right earlier. If we're tired, we should sleep."

"Mhm," I agreed sleepily, hearing him, but not really processing what he was saying.

A few seconds later, I was out like a light.

* * *

It turned out that Harry did get his broom back, clear of any jinxes, before the Ravenclaw match. Oliver calmed down, but only slightly. He still worried incessantly that they'd lose and be out of the running for the cup.

The day Harry got the broom back, almost everyone swarmed around him the second he entered the common room with it. Everyone wanted to look at it, touch it, or even just be in the same vicinity.

"You're not interested in being able to ogle at Harry's new broom, Hermione?" I asked, taking a seat next to the bushy haired witch. She was sitting at a corner table, books spread everywhere and her eyes tired. She looked awful, actually.

"No, I expect I'll get a chance to look more closely another time. Maybe when he and Ron aren't mad at me for telling McGonagall about it. Or maybe when I have less homework. In any case, it doesn't matter to me. I could really care less about broomsticks."

I shrugged. "It is a good one, but I know what you mean. It's basically a branch that can fly, and yet it's got them all drooling." I gestured to the crowd around Harry, consisting of most of the males of Gryffindor tower and even a few of the girls. "I think Oliver's looking at it more affectionately than he's ever looked at me."

Hermione snorted, but didn't look up from her textbook.

"Why _do_ you have so much homework anyway?" I asked curiously. "It looks like you have more than me."

"I doubt that," Hermione said briskly with a small laugh. "You're an OWL student. There's no way I could have more."

"But-"

"I'm going to the library," Hermione suddenly said, standing up and piling her things in her arms. The pile almost came up to her chin. "It's far too noisy in here for me to concentrate." And just like that, she was gone, leaving me dumbstruck. But then a second later, Oliver was sitting down beside me.

"Harry said he would think about letting me have a go on his Firebolt," he said. "After he tries it first, of course. But he also promised Ron a turn too...And he said maybe he'd let Julian try it after me."

I laughed. "You're all ridiculous." I watched Harry, Ron and my brother head upstairs to their dorms with the Firebolt before turning back to Oliver. "I was telling Hermione before she left that I think you like Harry's broom more than you like me."

Oliver smiled and shook his head. "Not true."

"Really?" I asked quietly, leaning closer. "You're sure about that?"

"Completely," Oliver breathed before closing the gap and kissing me. I let out a sigh of contentment and rested my hand on the side of his neck. It was as if every sound in the room had been muted. Nothing else existed for the moment except me and Oliver.

Until…."Get a room!"

I pulled away from Oliver and looked up to see Fred and George standing beside the table, wrinkling their noses.

"Must you ruin everything?" I asked, glaring at them.

"Yes, when it involves one of our best friends kissing one of our other friends," George said. "Besides, there are _children_ here." He gestured to a group of first years sitting on the couch, who weren't even paying attention.

"Then they can look the other way," I retaliated. "That goes for you two as well. I'm perfectly at liberty to kiss whoever I'd like without you being disgusted. And I'd just like to point out that you, Fred, are dating one of my best friends. You don't hear me complaining, do you?"

"No," he shrugged. "But that's probably only because Angelina and I are such a perfect couple that we disgust no one."

I snorted. "Please. You're delusional."

"Or just arrogant," Oliver added with a smirk.

"Both," I said with a nod.

"Definitely both," Oliver said as we both laughed.

"Shut up," the twins muttered, their ears turning red.

"Ah, not as fun when you're the ones being ganged up on, is it?" I teased, giggling as I reached out and lightly punched Fred's arm.

Fred opened his mouth to respond, but before he could, there was a yell from upstairs. A second later, Ron was tearing back into the common room, what looked like his bedsheets in his hand, and Harry and Julian hot on his heels.

The common room was staring at them in silence, but Ron didn't seem to care. He looked around the room wildly before settling on our table. He marched over, his expression a mix of panic and anger. "Where's Hermione?" he asked. "She was sitting right over here earlier!"

"She went off to the library to finish studying," I said, my eyes wide at how distraught Ron seemed. "She said it was too noisy in here. Why?" I looked at my brother, who was just as wide eyed as Ron. "Julian, what's going on?" It was then that I noticed the sheets in Ron's hand were stained with something red. Something that looked a lot like blood.

"What is that?" I cried, standing up and pointing. The common room was still silent and I could almost see everyone's eyes shift to look at the sheets in Ron's hands.

"Blood!" Ron exclaimed, waving the sheets in my face. He looked hysterical, but then again, I was beginning to escalate to that point, too. My brother and his two friends had run into the room in a panic (Ron more so than the others, but that's beside the point) and Ron was brandishing blood stained sheets at me and looking for Hermione. No matter what, none of this was a good sign.

"What does Hermione have to do with it, though?" I asked, fighting to remain calm.

Ron lifted his other hand, his fingers enclosed into a fist. I didn't see anything there until he shouted, "There were cat hairs! On my bed!"

"Crookshanks," I said nodding as I then noticed the ginger hairs poking out from between Ron's fingers. At least we were getting somewhere now. I gave each of the three boys in front of me a once over. None of them had any scratch or bite marks and none of them were bleeding from what I could see. But a part of me knew that Crookshanks hadn't touched Harry, Ron or Julian. There was a fair amount of blood on those sheets. Way more than what would come out of a tiny bite or scratch. And if any of the boys had been attacked that badly, they'd be screaming and running for the hospital wing.

"Who did Crookshanks attack?" Fred asked in confusion, clearly on the same page I was.

"Scabbers!" Ron cried. "He _ate_ Scabbers! I had him in my bed because he's been looking really under the weather lately and Crookshanks is always trying to attack him anyway. And now he succeeded! Hermione _knows_ this, but she never tries to keep her cat away from him!"

"Ron," I said, "calm down for a second. Maybe—"

"There's no way around it!" he said. "Scabbers is gone, there was cat hair on my bed and blood all over the sheets! Crookshanks killed my rat."

There was silence in the room once again. All eyes were on us. I looked around the room before meeting Fred's eyes. "Kitchen break," I murmured.

Fred nodded. "Everyone go back to what you were doing. The lovely study distraction brought to you by my dear brother is over. Carry on." He waved his hand dismissively before putting a hand on Ron's arm and guiding him towards the portrait hole, George falling in to flank Ron's other side. I gestured for Harry and Julian to follow with a tilt of my head before taking Oliver's hand and pulling him along with us.

Twenty minutes later, after depositing the stained sheets in the laundry room, we were all seated in a corner of the kitchens with hot chocolate and way more food than we needed piled in front of us. Ron, however, was barely touching any of it. It was a rarity for him and that's how I knew how upset he was.

"Come on, Ron, you were always saying how boring Scabbers was," said Fred bracingly. "And he's been off-color for ages, like you said. He was wasting away. It was probably better for him to snuff it quickly - one swallow - he probably didn't feel a thing."

"Fred!" I said indignantly.

"All he did was eat and sleep, Ron, you said it yourself," said George.

"He bit Goyle for us once!" Ron said miserably. "Remember, Harry?"

"Yeah, that's true," said Harry.

"His finest hour," said Fred, unable to keep a straight face. "Let the scar on Goyle's finger stand as a lasting tribute to his memory. Oh, come on, Ron, get yourself down to Hogsmeade and buy a new rat, what's the point of moaning?"

"Yeah, wouldn't you normally jump at the chance to have something new of your own?" George asked. "You're always saying how you hate being given everyone's hand me downs."

"Scabbers was a family rat," Ron said. "Twelve whole years."

"And those pants that you're wearing are family pants," Fred said, pointing. "Ten whole years. Ever since Bill was your age. But you probably wouldn't be complaining if Crookshanks tore those to shreds."

Despite the fact that I usually asked the twins to cut Ron a break with the teasing, this time I couldn't help but smile at Fred's comment. But even so, I felt the need to stick up for Ron.

"Cut him some slack," I told the twins quietly, spinning my mug of hot chocolate in my hands. "Scabbers has been in your family for a while and Ron's the one who's been taking care of him for the past few years. And even if Scabbers was useless, it doesn't mean he should be swallowed whole."

Ron smiled gratefully up at me as the twins both shrugged.

"I guess so," Fred finally muttered. "But still, Ron, maybe now you can get a new, younger rat now. One that Crookshanks actually likes. Or maybe you can start saving for an owl!"

"That would be cool," Julian said. "I want an owl of my own, but my mother is still insistent on me sharing with Lilah for now."

"It's because she doesn't want two owls flying around our neighborhood all the time," I told him sympathetically. "But I really don't mind sharing Casper with you. In fact, you could consider him just as much yours as he is mine."

Julian shrugged one shoulder, but gave me a grateful half-smile all the same.

"Here, eat something, Ron," I said, tossing an apple at him. He caught it and turned it over in his hands a few times.

"He must be really devastated," Oliver whispered in my ear as he intertwined our fingers under the table.

I nodded. "Which is why I feel bad for him. I tried to steer clear of Scabbers myself because I'm not much of a rat person, but…it was Ron's _pet_. Like I said, Scabbers has been his responsibility these past few years. It must be hard." I looked up to see Oliver watching me, a soft smile on his face. "What?" I asked.

"It's just…you know exactly what to say when to say it. You always seem to know just what someone else is feeling and know what to say to make them feel better." He shook his head as he brought our intertwined hands up to his lips and kissed the back of my hand. "It's cute."

I blushed. "Yeah?"

Oliver nodded. "Mhm."

"Oi, you know there are others in the room, don't you?" George's voice called out to us. I sighed as a grin spread over my face.

"I'm aware, George, yes, but thanks for reminding us."

"You don't see me and Angelina acting like that," Fred muttered.

The rest of us groaned. "Oh, please," I said. "Every free moment you two have to spend together is spent locked at the lips. I don't even _want _to know what you do when you manage to find an empty broom cupboard."

"If it bothers you, why don't you say something?" Fred asked indignantly.

"Because you really like her and she really likes you," I answered. "She never shuts up about you. How happy you make her, how good of a kisser you are…it kind of does get annoying, but she's one of my best friends and it's my job to listen. But in a way I kind of like it because she really is so happy, Fred. So, when the two of you are hogging the couch and I feel like I'm going to vomit, I go to the library or to my dorm so I don't have to feel uncomfortable, but I can let you two be happy."

Fred stared at me. "The way you think sometimes," he finally said, shaking his head a bit. "Compared to me and George at least, it's kind of…selfless."

"Merlin, Fred, no," I said with a scoff. "It's not. Nobody else makes comments either. It's just you and George that comment about me and Oliver. But that's fine because you're my friends and you're the way you are. I would be worried if you didn't tease us and tell us we were being disgusting at least once a day."

"Just looking out for you and your dignity, Liles. Someone has to after all, considering you're the one always looking out for everyone else."

I smiled. "Thanks, Fred. I appreciate it."

He smiled back and reached out to pat my shoulder. "Don't mention it."

* * *

Quidditch practice the next night was the first time Harry was able to use his Firebolt since he'd gotten it. Madame Hooch was overseeing the practice, just like she had been for the past few practices. Despite the vague excuses she and McGonagall gave everyone, we all knew it was so we'd have an adult to keep an eye on Harry in case Sirius Black wanted to jump out from the stands and attack him.

The match against Ravenclaw was the next day and Wood was a nervous wreck. He wasn't showing it as badly as he usually did, but I knew he was a mess on the inside. On the plus side, he had been getting more sleep than usual, but only because I'd been forcing him to as well as trying to help him get a study schedule together. I had even borrowed the color coded schedule Hermione had drawn up for herself, which had made Oliver's eyes nearly fall out of his head.

"How is she managing all of this?" he breathed. "I mean, look at all she has to do!"

"It works for her," I said. "It keeps her organized."

As doubtful as Oliver was, making some sort of schedule had helped him. It wasn't as organized or detailed as Hermione's, but it was something.

Anyway, Oliver had decided to let Lee and I watch from the actual pitch tonight instead of from the stands. He was even going to let me release the Bludgers from the box of supplies. I hadn't done that since I had snuck them out in my first year.

"Harry, I've just found out who Ravenclaw is playing as Seeker," Oliver said after Madame Hooch had settled herself in the stands. "It's Cho Chang. She's a fourth year, and she's pretty good... I really hoped she wouldn't be fit. She's had some problems with injuries. On the other hand, she rides a Comet Two Sixty, which is going to look like a joke next to the Firebolt."

I rolled my eyes. "You really hoped that she wouldn't be well enough?" I asked.

"I didn't say I hoped she was never well _again_, Liles," Oliver sighed. "Just not in time for the match. Like I said, she's _good_. If she had to be replaced, our chances of winning would increase."

"You're going to do fine, Oliver," I said. "Cho or no Cho. Okay?"

Oliver shrugged before turning to the team. "All right, let's get started."

Everyone flew into the air except Oliver, who waited beside me until Harry was ready so that he could let the Snitch out. We stood on the ground, watching the other team members fly around a bit and letting Harry get used to his new broom.

I had to admit, the broom was pretty and it was _fast. _It also made really sharp turns. At one point, Harry turned it so sharply that Alicia screamed. Then, he went into a perfectly controlled dive, brushing the grassy field with his toes before rising thirty, forty, fifty feet into the air again.

"Harry, I'm letting the Snitch out!" Oliver finally called, a grin on his face as he took in the impressiveness of the Firebolt in action. He knelt down and opened the compartment in the equipment chest the held the Snitch. The tiny golden ball flew out immediately and in a few seconds I had lost it. I had no idea where it was. But then ten seconds after that, Harry had caught it tightly in his hand.

The team cheered madly while Lee and I clapped. Harry let the Snitch go again, gave it a minute's head start, raced after it, weaving in and out of the others. He spotted it a second time, zoomed forward, and caught it again.

It was the best practice I had been to in a long time. The team performed brilliantly, and by the time they were finished, Oliver didn't have a single criticism to make, which, as George pointed out, was a first.

"I can't see what's going to stop us tomorrow!" said Oliver excitedly as he landed beside me and threw an arm around me. His hand dangled over my shoulder and I reached up and laced my fingers through his. It was getting dark now and the sky was turning a beautiful dusky blue color, the one where you could see the transition from a pale blue to dark blue. But it was also cold and I snuggled into his touch as he continued. "Not unless - Harry, you've sorted out your dementor problem, haven't you?"

"Yeah," said Harry, "I have."

"The dementors won't turn up again, Oliver. Dumbledore'd go ballistic," said Fred confidently.

"Well, let's hope not," Oliver answered, swallowing. "Anyway, good work, everyone. Let's get back to the tower...turn in early…."

"I'm staying out for a bit. Ron wants a go on the Firebolt," Harry told Oliver, who nodded. He removed his arm from around me and took my hand, grasping his Cleensweep Eleven in his other hand.

"Good practice," I said as we led the way to the changing rooms.

He nodded. "Everyone did a really good job today. I just hope it's enough."

I smiled and ran my thumb along his, letting him know that I understood without having to say a word.

* * *

The next day, the weather was extremely clear, the exact opposite of how the weather had been at the Hufflepuff match. That already did enough to set my nerves at ease as I took my spot in the stands with Julian, Tess, Harry, Hermione and Ron.

The two teams walked onto the field to loud cheers and applause. I could see Oliver walking in the front of the Gryffindors. Fred and George followed with Katie and Angelina behind them. Alicia and Harry walked last.

I gazed over at the Ravenclaw team. Their Seeker, Cho Chang, was the only girl on their team. She was small, but Oliver had claimed that she was a fantastic player. She was, too. I could remember from the other matches I'd seen her play in. But also, as Oliver had said, she had an older broom model, which might give the Gryffindors more of an advantage today.

When Madame Hooch's whistle blew, the two teams kicked into the air. Oliver went straight for the Gryffindor goal posts while Harry flew higher so he'd have a better vantage point for seeing the Snitch. Everyone else hovered around in the middle, waiting for Madame Hooch to release the balls. She did, and the game begun.

"They're off!" I heard Lee exclaim through the microphone provided for his commentary, "and the big excitement this match is the Firebolt that Harry Potter is flying for Gryffindor. According to Which Broomstick, the Firebolt's going to be the broom of choice for the national teams at this year's World Championship -"

"Jordan, would you mind telling us what's going on in the match?" interrupted Professor McGonagall's voice.

"Right you are, Professor—just giving a bit of background information—the Firebolt, incidentally, has a built-in auto-brake and –"

"Jordan!"

"Okay, okay, Gryffindor in possession, Katie Bell of Gryffindor, heading for a goal..."

I took my focus off of Katie for a second to watch Cho and Harry. Harry was trying to circle the pitch, but Cho kept cutting across him, distracting him and forcing him to change direction.

"Show her your acceleration, Harry!" I heard Fred yell as he zoomed past my section of the stands in pursuit of a Bludger that was aiming for Alicia.

Seconds later, Katie scored the first goal and the Gryffindor end of the field went wild. I turned and high-fived Julian as I let out a squeal of excitement.

Then, Harry flew into a dive. He had clearly seen the Snitch. I gripped the railing in front of me and leaned forward. Cho had seen what he was doing and tore after him. But it looked like Harry still had the advantage over her.

"He's going to get it!" Ron exclaimed.

But then, when Harry was only about ten feet away from the little golden ball, a Bludger hit by one of the Ravenclaw Beaters came pelting out of nowhere. Harry veered off course, avoiding it by an inch, and that was all it took for the Snitch to vanish.

The Ravenclaw end of the stands let out a cheer as Ron and Julian both swore. I nudged Julian and gave him a look, but he shrugged. I rolled my eyes and turned back to the game in time to see George venting his anger by hitting the second Bludger directly at the offending Beater, who was forced to roll right over in midair to avoid it. I laughed and I saw George smirking at the result of his hit.

Thirty five minutes later, Gryffindor was still leading—eighty to fifty, but the Snitch hadn't been caught yet. And even though Ravenclaw was down thirty points, if Cho caught the Snitch before Harry, Ravenclaw would win.

"Look!" Julian pointed towards the Ravenclaw goal posts. The Snitch was hovering near the base of the middle one, gleaming in the sunlight, the wings at each side nearly invisible as they flapped rapidly.

I jumped up from my seat again and gripped the railing as Harry accelerated, also having seen the Snitch. His jaw was set and his eyes were fixed on the speck of gold in front of him, but just then, Cho cut him off and forced him to stop and veer off to the right.

"Harry, this is no time to be a gentleman!" Oliver roared. "Knock her off her broom if you have to!"

I rolled my eyes and snorted. I knew it was just Oliver's panic and drive to win talking, but honestly. I'm not sure that was the right thing to yell when your girlfriend was sitting practically right in front of you.

The Snitch didn't make another appearance until ten minutes later when it hovered in the middle of the pitch, high up in the air. Harry leaned forward and pushed the Firebolt to go as fast as it would go. Cho did the same, but she was already behind and her broom was no match for Harry's.

But suddenly, Cho screamed, halted her broom in mid-air and pointed downwards. Everyone averted their eyes from the two Seekers to the ground, where three hooded figures were looking up at the ongoing match. And then, out of nowhere, Harry pulled out his wand and bellowed, "Expecto Patronum!"

A silver shape that wasn't quite coherent came from Harry's wand. Balancing on his broom, he lifted his other hand and stretched it out, managing to quickly close it around the Snitch before gripping his broom once more.

There was a split second of shocked, confused silence before Madam Hooch's whistle sounded. Harry glided to the ground as the rest of the team landed beside him and started hugging him. The Gryffindors in the stands were going crazy. I hugged Julian and even Ron and Hermione, before hugging Tess, too, who I knew was just as excited about seeing Gryffindor win, despite the fact that it wasn't her house. After that, we immediately began making our way to the pitch to congratulate the team. I couldn't wait to see them all, but especially Oliver. He'd been agonizing over this match for months because if they lost it meant they completely lost their chance for the cup at the end of the year.

As soon as my feet reached the grass of the pitch, I took off running. I kept my eyes trained on Oliver the whole time. Finally, when I was a few yards away, he turned around, his eyes bright, and I flung myself into his arms.

"You did it!" I said excitedly as he spun me around. "I'm so proud of you!"

Oliver set me down and immediately took my face in his hands and kissed me. He pulled away and let out a joyous laugh before pulling me into a tight hug. "We won," he laughed into my shoulder. "We're still in the running for the cup."

"I know," I whispered, reaching up and putting my hand on the back of his head, stroking his hair. "I know."

A second later, I was pulled away from Oliver and into a hug by both twins at once. I gave them each a kiss on the cheek and congratulated them before hugging Angie, Katie, Alicia and Harry.

"Fantastic job, Harry," I whispered. "That Firebolt really is something."

"It's by far the best gift I've ever gotten," he replied with a grin.

It also turned out that the dementors Cho had seen weren't even real dementors. It was just Malfoy and a few of his Slytherin friends dressed up like dementors. McGonagall was furious. She took fifty points away from Slytherin and promised them that she'd be talking to Dumbledore. Even still, real dementors or not, Harry had produced a Patronus charm, which was incredible and almost unheard of for someone his age. He had won them the match and it felt like everything was right with the world.

I hopped up onto Oliver's back and he gave me a piggy back ride to the changing rooms, where I waited outside with Julian, Ron, Hermione and Lee. When the team finally filed out, Fred leaned forward to whisper in my ear. "We're having a party in the common room, but we need food, don't you think?" He grinned cheekily at me and winked.

I nodded. "Yeah, I'll come with you if you want." I caught up to Oliver and let him know where I was going and that I'd be back soon. "Wonderful job today," I whispered before leaning up to kiss his cheek. He grinned and headed off for the common room with the others while I went in the other direction with the twins.

But we didn't go to the kitchens like I had assumed we were. Instead, the twins began walking towards the one eyed witch passageway that led to Honeydukes.

"I thought we were going to the kitchens!" I exclaimed. "Isn't that so much easier?"

"Sure, but who needs the easy way?" Fred shrugged. "We won't get caught as long as we use the passageway. And besides, all the best food is in Hogsmeade. We can get butterbeer and firewhiskey there. And think of all the sweets Honeydukes has. The kitchens only have some chocolate frogs on hand."

I sighed. "You do have a point. But how will we get into the Three Broomsticks to get the drinks? The passageway only leads to Honeydukes."

Fred grinned. "George and I went exploring without you once. The Honeydukes owners keep a stash of butterbeer and firewhiskey for their own use down in the celler."

"Leave it to you two to find it," I sighed, shaking my head.

"You still know the way by heart?" Fred asked with a smile.

"Why bother remembering when I have you two?" I retaliated with a smirk, but nevertheless taking the lead and hurrying towards the one eyed witch statue. We hurried through the passageway as fast as we could and gathered as much food and drink as we could carry, leaving some money in the register as usual. Then, we hurried back to the common room before anyone could begin to wonder where we had gotten off to.

"How did you do that?" squealed Angelina, the second we returned to the common room and George started throwing Peppermint Toads into the crowd.

"With a little help from Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs," Fred muttered in my ear. I grinned. I was glad he wasn't about to let her in on the secret passageways. I wanted that to always stay between us. I wasn't even planning on telling Oliver.

As Fred passed a butterbeer to Angelina, leaning in to kiss her as he did so, I grabbed two firewhiskeys and made my way over to Oliver, who was talking animatedly to Lee about the match.

"Hey, captain," I said, handing him one of the ice cold bottles.

"Where'd you get this from?" Oliver asked in surprise.

I smiled coyly. "It's a secret. Sorry. But I _can_ assure you that it's from a trustworthy source. It's not poisoned or anything."

"I wasn't thinking that, but thanks for reassuring me," he said with a smile as he removed the cap and took a sip. He gestured to my own bottle. "I've made you an addict, haven't I?" he asked. "Ever since I snuck you one on New Year's Eve, you can't keep your hands off them."

"This is the only one I've had since New Year's, so calm yourself." I swatted him in the arm and silence fell between us for a second as we each took a sip of our drinks. "So," I said, mock-seriously. "I have a bone to pick with you."

"Yeah?" Oliver asked.

I nodded. "I believe you told Harry to not be a gentleman today and to knock Cho Chang off her broom if he had to."

Oliver gaped at me. "I told her the _match _was no time to be a gentleman! Sometimes you have to play rough in Quidditch! Don't think for a second that she would've hesitated to knock Harry off of _his_ broom!" He wiggled his finger in my face.

"So, while you're on the Quidditch pitch all chivalry goes out the window? But any other time it's fair game?" I asked with a laugh.

Oliver nodded. "Pretty much."

"So let's just say I had been put in another house and let's just say I was on the Quidditch team…." I began.

"Don't be difficult," Oliver whispered, sliding an arm around my waist and pulling me closer.

I looked up and studied his warm brown eyes and equally warm smile that never failed to melt my insides. When he kissed me a few seconds later, his lips tasted like firewhiskey and it was all I could do not to drop the bottle of my own drink right onto the rug.

The Gryffindor party ended only when Professor McGonagall turned up at one in the morning, to insist that everyone go to bed. I didn't even feel tired, but I proved myself wrong when I fell back onto my bed and was asleep within seconds. And it only felt like another few seconds later when I awoke to the sound of a distant scream.


	25. Chapter 25

"What was that?" I gasped, sitting up and looking around wildly. Nobody else in the dorm was awake to answer my question, so I grabbed my pillow and hurled it at Angelina.

"What's the matter?" she asked groggily.

"Someone screamed," I answered.

"No one screamed," Angelina muttered, rolling over and burying her head in her own pillow. "You're dreaming, Lilah, go back to bed."

"No, I swear, I heard something," I insisted. But the truth was that I wasn't positive. It could've been a dream for all I knew. It _had_ sounded far away, but that meant nothing. Not necessarily anyway.

As I was thinking it over, a door slammed from somewhere in the tower and footsteps could be heard going down the staircase. There was also the sound of muffled boys' voices.

Now Angelina had sat up, wide awake. She looked at me and frowned. "Something's wrong."

"I _told_ you," I answered.

We woke Katie and Alicia up and headed back into the common room where the fire was just about completely died down. The room was dim and still littered with trash from the party, but Harry, Ron, Dean, Seamus, Neville and Julian were standing in the middle of the room. Ron looked hysterical and the others appeared to be trying to calm him down.

Before I could start asking them questions, more people started coming back into the common room. I looked around at all the tired, confused people entering the room before making my way to the group of third years near the couch.

"Are you sure you weren't dreaming, Ron?" Seamus was asking.

"I'm telling you, I saw him!" he exclaimed.

"What happened?" I asked once I reached them.

Julian looked at me and I could see the worry and panic etched on his face despite the fact that he was trying to disguise it. He swallowed. "Ron says that he woke up to see Sirius Black standing over him with a knife. The curtains around his bed are all ripped, too, but…." He trailed off and shrugged.

I felt my stomach drop and my heart rate speed up. "What?"

"I woke up and he was there! So I screamed and he ran," Ron exclaimed. "He probably was trying to find Harry, but got the wrong bed."

My face paled. If Ron was right and hadn't been dreaming, then Sirius Black had succeeded in getting into the dormitory. He had been here. He had been in my little brother's room, standing above Fred and George's little brother with a knife, trying to attack one of their best friends.

"Ron, it could've been a dream," I said bracingly. "Did you drink any butterbeer? Or firewhiskey?"

"No, I didn't! And no it wasn't a dream!" Ron yelled.

I shushed him as everyone in the room began to look towards us.

"Excellent, are we carrying on?" said Fred as he came down the boys' staircase with George. He met my eyes then and his joyful smile faded into a look of horror. I wondered what my face looked like for him to see that something terribly bad had happened.

"Everyone back upstairs!" Percy yelled, hurrying into the common room and pinning his Head Boy badge to his pajamas as he spoke. While he did so, Fred and George made their way towards me.

"What's going on?" Fred asked. He looked at Angelina, standing beside me and took in her equally as terrified face. Slipping an arm around her, he kissed her forehead and looked at the rest of us. "What happened?" he asked.

"Back to bed, back to bed," Percy said, appearing beside us and trying to usher us back towards the stairs. "Party's over. Time to sleep."

"Perce - Sirius Black!" said Ron faintly. "In our dormitory! With a knife! Woke me up!"

The common room went very still. Everyone had heard what he said.

"What?" the twins spluttered.

"Nonsense!" said Percy, looking startled. "You had too much to eat, Ron—had a nightmare -"

"I'm telling you -"

"Now, really, enough is enough!" Professor McGonagall was back. She slammed the portrait behind her as she entered the common room and stared furiously around.

"I am delighted that Gryffindor won the match, but this is getting ridiculous! Percy, I expected better of you!"

"I certainly didn't authorize this, Professor!" said Percy, puffing himself up indignantly. "I was just telling them all to get back to bed! My brother Ron here had a nightmare -"

"It wasn't a nightmare!" Ron yelled. "I woke up and Sirius Black was standing over me holding a knife!"

Professor McGonagall stared at him. "Don't be ridiculous. How could he possibly have gotten through the portrait hole?"

"Ask him!" said Ron, pointing a shaking finger at the back of Sir Cadogan's picture.

Glaring suspiciously at Ron, Professor McGonagall pushed the portrait back open and went outside. The whole common room listened with bated breath. "Sir Cadogan, did you just let a man enter Gryffindor Tower?"

"Certainly!" cried Sir Cadogan.

There was a stunned silence, both inside and outside the common room. I felt like I was going to throw up.

"You—you did?" said Professor McGonagall. "But the password!"

"He had 'em!" said Sir Cadogan proudly. "Had the whole week's! Read 'em off a little piece of paper!"

Professor McGonagall pulled herself back through the portrait hole to face the stunned crowd. She was white as chalk.

"Which person," she said, her voice shaking, "which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"

There was utter silence, broken by the smallest of terrified squeaks. Neville, trembling from head to toe, slowly raised a hand into the air.

* * *

No one in Gryffindor tower slept that night. The castle was being searched again and everyone wanted to stay up, not only due to pure fear, but also to hear whether or not Sirius Black had been caught.

I sunk into an armchair and pulled my knees to my chest, burying my head in my arms and trying to make myself as small as possible. I wouldn't want to admit it to anyone, but I was trembling with fear. I knew Sirius Black wasn't in the common room anymore and probably not even in the castle. If he was, he'd be caught. But just the fact that he had _been _here. He had escaped Azkaban and managed to get into not only Hogwarts, but the Gryffindor dormitories. How long until one of us ended up dead?

It wasn't long until Oliver found me and knelt in front of the armchair I was in. "Lilah?" I heard him whisper, putting a hand on my arm. "You okay?"

I looked up at him, my eyes tired. "He was here, Oliver," I whispered. "Here. In our dormitory."

"I know," he whispered back, reaching up and tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. "But he's gone now and the castle's being searched."

"What if he comes back?" I asked. "What if he keeps coming back until he gets Harry? What if something happens to my brother in the process? Or someone else in their dorm?"

Oliver stood up and gestured for me to scoot over. I did as much as I could and he sat next to me, pulling my legs across his lap. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed my temple. "I don't know," he answered finally. "I don't know what'll happen, but I'm sure the security will be tightened even more now, so the chances of him getting back in will be slimmer."

I nodded. He was right, of course. I just hoped the precautions would work.

* * *

The next day, the teachers were very busy adding the extra security. Professor Flitwick was trying to teach the front doors how to recognize a picture of Sirius Black while Filch and Mrs. Norris wandered the castle, trying to patch up any cracks and holes in the walls as if Black could turn himself into smoke.

Also, the Fat Lady was back. Her portrait was restored, but she was still terribly frightened and only agreed to come back if she had some extra security, so two security trolls had been hired to patrol the area in front of her portrait. They creeped me out to be honest, and I always did my best to hurry past them on my way into the common room.

Neville, the poor thing, had gotten into a lot of trouble. Professor McGonagall had given him a detention and banned him from Hogsmeade trips for the rest of the year. She had also forbidden anyone from giving him the passwords when they changed, so there were a lot of times where he'd have to miserably wait outside in the hallway for someone to come along and let him in.

To make things worse on him, his grandmother sent him a Howler two days later. The red envelope fell to the table and a second later started smoking. We all knew what that meant.

"Run for it, Neville," Ron advised.

Neville didn't need to be told twice. With the Slytherins laughing from their table, he grabbed the letter and ran from the room. The Howler must have exploded in the entrance hall, because seconds after he left, his grandmother's magnified voice filled the air, letting Neville know what a disgrace he was to the family. I felt sorry for him, I truly did. He didn't do what he did on purpose. It was simply an accident. Knowing him, the list of passwords had simply fallen from his pocket or bag without him knowing. I doubted he'd purposely leave them lying on a table somewhere.

Another Hogsmeade trip was also coming up at the end of February. I had been hoping there would be one closer to Valentine's Day, so I could spend it with Oliver, but there hadn't been. Instead, the two of us had spent the day studying, which was still kind of nice because at least we were still together. We snuck down to the kitchens for a change of scenery and studied while filling up on all the leftovers the house elves brought us while we quizzed each other on information sure to come up on exams. For every question we got right, we'd reward each other with Every Flavor Beans. We'd toss them at each other's open mouths and see who was better at catching them. I totally am, by the way, but Oliver will disagree.

A week before the Hogsmeade trip, the mail arrived at breakfast, which was nothing new. That happened every day. But then, Ron, who still had a subscription to the Daily Prophet, opened the newspaper up to read it and I saw Julian glance at the picture on the front page and almost choke.

"Chew, Jules, chew," I said clapping him on the back.

"Lilah…." He pointed over Ron's arm to the picture. "Look."

"I can't see from here, Jules," I said with a sigh.

Ron scanned the front page as well as the picture and the accompanying caption. "Yeah, what are you talking about, Julian? It's just an article about some big book publishing company starting some new program with the pediatric department of St. Mungo's to help get children interested in reading."

I paused with a spoonful of cereal halfway to my mouth. "What?" I shared a look with Julian before turning back to Ron. "Can I see that?"

He gave me a confused look before passing me the paper. I took it and stared down at the picture as my mouth fell open. The picture was of Mr. Hamilton and my mother standing with a few Healers in what I assumed was the lobby of St. Mungo's.

I held the paper out to Julian and we scanned the article quickly. We knew our mother had been planning something; she had hinted towards it around Christmastime and she had been working even more than normal. But we hadn't known what it was and truthfully I had forgotten until now.

The article claimed that the publishing company my mother worked for had partnered with the pediatrics department of St. Mungo's to start up a program called Reading and Healing. The goal was to get a bunch of books into the waiting rooms, exam rooms, and patient's hospital rooms so that they'd have something to read while they were in there. It not only could make them feel better and give them an escape during a check-up or worse, an actual hospital stay, but it would give the younger children exposure to books and literature. They were also working on a way to let children simply coming in for check-ups be able to take a book home. My mother had been quoted saying that they were still working out some kinks, but the program should still be ready to go shortly. She also said donations were always welcome as well as volunteers to read to children at the hospital.

"She never even said a word about this," I said, once Julian and I had finished reading.

"It's because she doesn't care," Julian said matter-of-factly, shaking his head. "She's only doing it for the recognition."

I nodded as my stomach twisted unpleasantly. It was probably true and it was sad. I thought the whole idea was great, but my mother probably just wanted to be in the newspaper.

"What are you two muttering about?" Ron asked impatiently.

I tossed the paper back to him. "That's our mother on the front page," I said.

"It is?" Ron exclaimed, holding the paper up to his nose to better examine it. "I didn't even recognize her."

"Yeah, well, you only officially met her once," I said. "And believe me, it's for a good reason."

"Ah, but this summer we're meeting her, isn't that right?" Fred and George seemed to appear out of nowhere and took seats on my other side.

I sighed at the reminder, knowing the twins weren't going to let me out of my promise. "Yeah, I suppose."

"Why are you talking about her now anyway?" George asked, sticking a piece of bacon into his mouth.

I gestured for Ron to hand me the paper again. When he did, I passed it to the twins. I watched their eyes move back and forth as they quickly read the article.

"Wow," George finally said, making an impressed face.

"I hope I don't end up in St. Mungo's anytime soon," Fred said, tossing the paper back onto the table. "Being forced to read on top of everything would only make me more ill."

"You're _hilarious_," I said. "Maybe it's your lack of interest in reading that led you to not understand big words like _pediatric_. It means _children_. And no matter how much I beg to differ, St. Mungo's wouldn't consider you a child and, therefore, wouldn't admit you to that ward."

"Lilah," Fred groaned. "I think you're amazing, I really do, but sometimes you really know how to kill a joke."

"Are you talking about the new reading program at St. Mungo's?" Hermione arrived at the table and took a seat across from Harry. She looked exhausted and I assumed she had been in the library up until now. I think she got even less sleep than Oliver and I seemed to. And she still had managed to read the newspaper this morning.

I nodded. "Yeah, we were. Fred hates it."

"I think it's a brilliant idea!" Hermione exclaimed.

"I do too," I admitted, "but…." I let a puff of air out of my mouth. "My mother was one of the people who helped put it in motion."

"_Really_?" Hermione gasped.

I nodded again and spoke up before Hermione could go on. "But you don't know my mother. She's most likely not doing it to help. I'm willing to bet she's doing it for her own recognition." I pointed to the article and shrugged. "And that's what I don't like. I suppose now that it's all pretty much up and running, she'll want me and Julian to go read to the kids."

"Will you do it?" George asked.

I nodded. "Probably. But because I want to. I could care less about being in the paper. Unlike my mother." I sighed and stared down at the front page, where my mother's beaming face looked back at me. Scoffing with annoyance, I covered the picture with my glass of pumpkin juice and continued eating.

* * *

"There's a Hogsmeade trip next weekend," Oliver said brightly that evening as he took a seat next to me on the couch. I was staring unblinkingly at my Potions book. I think my brain was turning to mush, actually.

"Yeah?" I asked after a few seconds, staring at the words _crushed unicorn horn_, but not really registering them.

Oliver nodded. "And I think I'm going to go. I haven't been since the one on your birthday."

I nodded. "Good," I replied absentmindedly.

Oliver finally looked at me and fought back a laugh. He waved his hand in front of my face. "Snap out of it, Liles."

I finally blinked and slowly turned to look at him as I let out a sigh. "I'm going crazy," I whispered.

Oliver chuckled and peered down at my Potions book. "Reviewing percentages again?"

I nodded. "I still don't understand them and they're going to come up on my OWLs, which are only four months away, you know."

"I know," Oliver said. "My NEWTs also happen to be four months away. And I also think I'm going crazy, so you aren't alone."

"But you still want to go to Hogsmeade next weekend?" I asked, tilting my head. "I was actually thinking of skipping it."

"No, don't!" Oliver exclaimed. "I need to get out of this castle and do something other than study."

I smiled. "Really? Am I having that big of an effect on you? You actually _want _to have a life now?"

Oliver nodded and smiled at me, the corners of his eyes crinkling in the process and I felt my insides melting again. At this rate, I wouldn't even make it to June. All my organs were going to be liquified by then.

"I want you to go to Hogsmeade with me next weekend," Oliver stated.

"But my OWLs," I whispered.

"Forget your OWLs," Oliver said. "Fail them all, leave school and run away with me after I graduate."

"Very funny," I laughed, swatting him in the arm.

"No, but really," he said. "_You _are the one who's pushing away a social life now. And I can't let you do that."

I smiled. "Okay," I whispered before leaning in and gently kissing him. "Thank you."

* * *

"Does this count as our first real date?" I asked, as Oliver took my hand and led me to Honeydukes.

Oliver nodded. "I'd say so. We're alone, we're out of the castle, and I'm planning on buying you lunch at the Three Broomsticks later. Surprisingly, we were able to do this sooner than I thought. I figured I'd have to wait until school was over to do it, but I'm at the point where I just needed to get away from studying and thinking about Quidditch. My brain can only take so much."

I smiled as he held open the candy shop's door for me and allowed me to duck inside first before following me.

I took a deep breath and inhaled the sweet smell of the shop. If I could, I would've stood in here all day, breathing in the smell of all the different candies. It was my favorite place to visit in Hogsmeade for a few reasons. One was the smell. Another was all the actual candy. And the third was that it always reminded me of the time I snuck in with Fred and George before we were allowed to even set foot in the village. Despite how apprehensive I had been about the trip at first, it was probably some of the most fun I'd ever had.

Oliver insisted on buying me a bag of Fudge Flies while we were in the shop. I told him I could get them myself, but he held the bag out of my reach and made a mad dash to the counter with it. I chased after him, laughing, and hopped on his back as he joined the end of the check-out line.

"My mother raised me to be a gentleman, you know," he whispered, turning his head and looking up at me as I wrapped my arms loosely around his neck and rested my chin on his shoulder.

"Except when it comes to Quidditch, though, right?" I asked.

Oliver laughed. "No, she'd kill me if she knew what I said to Harry about Cho." He paused. "Please don't tell her. Ever."

I smiled. "I swear I won't." I paused. "But for the record…she and your father raised an incredible son. They should be proud." I leaned forward and kissed his cheek as he smiled and blushed.

"I'm buying you your Fudge Flies and I don't want to hear another word about it," he said sternly as I slid off his back.

I laughed. "Okay, okay," I finally sighed. "Thank you."

We finally got to the front of the line and Oliver handed over the money. We then went to Zonko's where we saw Fred, George, Katie and Angelina looking at something in the middle of one of the aisles.

"Whoopee cushions? Really?" I asked, as Oliver and I appeared beside them.

The others looked up and smiled. "Yes, Lilah, whoopee cushions," Fred answered. "An age old prank for both Muggles and wizards."

"Which is why they're just that…a bit _old_, don't you think?" I asked. "I mean, haven't they run their course by now?"

Fred and George looked deeply offended.

"Lilah, you're killing us," George said. "That is not true in the least."

"Just my opinion," I said, staring at the whoopee cushions. "Honestly, the stuff you two come up with is way more creative than these."

"But these are a very simple, very funny _classic_," George argued.

I shrugged and grinned. "Sorry, George," I said before pulling on Oliver's hand and walking to the other end of the aisle, where we stopped to examine some trick wands.

"What did you mean when you were talking about the stuff Fred and George have come up with?" Oliver asked as I picked up a trick wand with my free hand. According to the packaging, it was supposed to turn into a rubber fish.

I looked up at him as I set the wand down. "They've been coming up with their own joke products," I said. "They want to open their own shop one day."

"Really?" Oliver asked, looking surprised.

"Does that shock you?" I asked, turning towards him.

"No," he answered. "It's just that's going to take a lot of luck. I wish them the best though, honestly. They'd be great at it." He looked as if he was going to say something else, but then he looked at something over my shoulder for a moment too long before looking back at me.

"What are you—" I began, but before I got to finish my sentence or even finish turning around, there was a loud sound in my ear—a loud _whoopee cushion _sound. I yelped and whipped all the way around to see Fred standing there, laughing hysterically with a flattened whoopee cushion between his palms. Katie, Angelina and George were laughing too. Even Oliver was laughing.

"You're insufferable, Fred Weasley," I muttered, despite the fact that I had started to laugh as well.

Fred reached out and ruffled my hair. "See? Whoopee cushions are still funny. Just proved you wrong, Lilah." He paused. "And it's good to see you laugh. You haven't been doing it as much as you used to. Probably as a result of all that studying. I told you it would make you sick." He winked and patted me on the shoulder and walked away to rejoin our other friends.

I sighed and turned back to Oliver before taking his hand again and leading him from the shop.

We went to the Three Broomsticks then and sat in a booth by the window. We ordered our food and I smiled gratefully when it was finally set down in front of me. I was starving.

"Aren't you going to eat?" I asked Oliver, swallowing a mouthful of soup, which was incredible, especially on this cold winter day. Oliver had mostly been pushing his food around and picking at it for the past few minutes, while I on the other hand, felt like I was gobbling mine down.

Oliver looked up at me thoughtfully. "You're okay, aren't you, Lilah?" he asked.

"Of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be?" I asked.

"It's just…Fred said you haven't been laughing as much as you used to. And you have seemed off. I'm just worried."

I smiled and reached over to rest my hand on top of his. "I'm fine," I assured him. "I'm just…trying to study and keep my grades up. It isn't easy. I'm tired. But I'm fine, I promise."

"Does this have anything to do with seeing your mother in the paper?" he finally asked tentatively.

I blinked in surprise. Oliver hadn't mentioned that he had seen the article and I hadn't brought it up to him. I just hadn't wanted to talk about it much.

"No, not really," I answered slowly. I paused. "You saw that?"

"Well, yeah," Oliver said, shaking his head. "A lot of people read that paper, Liles. And the story was on the front page. Plus, my parents mentioned it. My mum works down in the pediatric ward a lot. She likes it there the best, but she's also able to work in nearly every other area of the hospital, so she's usually called to help with other things…." He trailed off. "She was saying they'd really like to move it into other wards too so that everyone will have access to books while they're there. It'll give them something to do to pass the time and make their stay at least a little more fun."

"Your parents talked to you about it?" I asked.

He nodded. "I thought your Mum would do the same. No?" He looked surprised.

I shook my head. "She didn't mention a thing." I paused. "Why did you think that article would be part of the reason why I was upset?"

Oliver shrugged. "I know you're not all that close with your mother. I thought maybe something in the article had upset you."

"No, not really. It's just….I don't think she's involved in this to be nice. I think she just wants to make herself look good and it's sad."

"What do _you_ think of it?" Oliver asked.

"I think it's lovely," I answered.

Oliver nodded. "Me too. My parents and I are donating a lot of our old books and I think I'm going to volunteer a bit over the summer."

"I probably will too. I'd actually like to do it, but even if I didn't my mother would make me anyway. Julian too." I shrugged and stirred my soup around a bit. A moment later, Oliver reached across the table and gently took the wrist of the hand holding my spoon. I let the spoon go and Oliver slid his hand down to meet mine, rubbing his thumb back and forth over my fingers. I stared down at our hands as I felt a lump forming in my throat and tears in my eyes.

"Lilah," Oliver whispered.

"Sorry," I muttered, swiping at my eyes with my free hand. "I'm fine."

"No, you're not. What's wrong?"

I sighed. "I just don't want anyone to think I'm like her. I don't want anyone to make assumptions about me before they get to know me. And I don't want my mother to push anyone I care about away."

"I'm not going anywhere," Oliver told me. "And I don't think the Weasleys are either. It's going to take more than someone like your mother to frighten them away."

I smiled. "That's very true," I agreed, looking up to meet his eyes.

"The friends you have now," he continued, "met you here. At school. They met you before they saw anything about your life that you're afraid of being judged by. They got to know you before they saw your house or met your mother. And they liked you."

"Fred and George might not after this sumer when they finally meet my Mum," I muttered.

"Of course they will," Oliver said with a scoff. "Like I said, she can't scare them away."

I smiled again as I nodded. "On a different note, how are things going with finding your own place?"

Oliver shrugged. "Not much progress. I'd really just like to save up a little bit more. All I can get now are places that look haunted or delapitaded. Maybe after my birthday comes, I'll finally have enough….But even then, I won't have enough to keep paying rent without a job or a roommate. I may just have to wait until I'm actually on a Quidditch team and earning money regularly."

"You'll get there," I told him with a smile. I paused. "I'm going to miss you when you leave school."

"It's not for another four months," Oliver chuckled.

"I know," I shrugged, "but it'll go by fast and then you'll be trying out for Quidditch teams and then you're going to actually make it onto a team and what happens then?"

"What do you mean what happens then?" Oliver asked, looking at me confusedly. "Nothing happens."

"I just…don't want you to forget about me," I whispered.

Oliver squeezed my hand a little tighter. "Hey…I could never forget about you, Lie."

"You sure?" I asked with a tiny smile.

"Positive," he nodded.

"Do you promise?" I teased, smiling wider and batting my eyelashes.

Oliver laughed. "I promise. I swear on my life."

I grinned back. "Okay. I feel reassured now."

Oliver chuckled again and tossed his crumpled up napkin at me before leaning back in his seat and looking at me with a thoughtful smile.

"What?" I asked with a giggle.

"I love your smile," he said. "It lights up your entire face."

"It's nothing compared to yours," I told him. "I swear, a smile like yours should be outlawed. It could kill a girl."

"Yeah?" he asked, flashing me the exact smile I had just been talking about.

I laughed. "Honestly, you should be careful where you aim that thing. It's lethal."

"You're still here," he pointed out.

"Not for long," I argued. "My insides are slowly melting as we speak. Little by little, every time you smile at me."

"Charming image," Oliver said, fighting back a laugh.

I smiled softly at him in response. He was still holding my hand and he continued to brush his thumb along my fingers. A moment later, I leaned over the table and kissed him, leaving the remainder of my soup to get cold.


	26. Chapter 26

Before anyone knew it, it was mid-April, and the Easter holiday arrived. It didn't feel like a break, though. Everyone, no matter what year, had been given a ton of homework to do in preparation for the quickly approaching exams.

In addition, the Quidditch finals between Gryffindor and Slytherin were the Saturday after the holiday ended and Oliver was a wreck.

"How's he been?" Fred asked me the first night of break while we were sitting in the common room. The twins, Angelina, Alicia, Katie, Lee and I were grouped in front of the fire. Oliver had secluded himself in the corner of the room and he looked totally terrified. I had debated going to sit with him but instinct told me it would be better to leave him alone for now. If I sat with him, he'd either tune me out or snap at me out of stress.

"Tense," I said in response to Fred's question, tearing my gaze away from Oliver. I turned to look at Fred. "I told you even I couldn't distract him from Quidditch."

"But you've been such a great influence on him already!" Angelina exclaimed, looking up from her spot on the floor, where she was leaning against Fred's legs.

I raised my eyebrows. "How so?" I asked.

Angelina looked at me for a moment. "It may not seem it but he's a lot less stressed. Now he's really only bad just before a match and this is a big one coming up, so I'm not surprised he's holed himself up in the corner. But now at least he's smiling and laughing more often. You've made him really happy, Liles."

"And he was the one who begged you to go to Hogsmeade in February," Lee added with a grin. "That may have been a first. It's a historical moment, actually. In a few generations, Professor Binns is going to be droning on about the day Oliver Wood not only wanted to go into Hogsmeade, but convinced someone else to go with him."

I laughed. "That's certainly an achievement."

"You should see the way he smiles at you," Katie added with a sigh. "I wish a boy would smile at me the way Oliver smiles at you." She paused. "Or even just looks at me the way Oliver looks at you."

"He's completely smitten," Angelina said with a smile, reaching over to nudge my knee. I blushed.

Fred and George pretended to gag. "Honestly, this is the most disgusting conversation ever," Fred complained.

"Why does my relationship with Oliver disgust you so much?" I teased leaning over and lightly punching Fred's arm.

"It's weird," Fred whined.

"You and Ange dating is weird," I argued.

"Hey!" Angelina protested.

I giggled before glancing back to look at Oliver, who looked absolutely pathetic. I felt sorry for him and wished I could help, but I know what winning the Quidditch cup meant to him. And I knew he wanted to keep his grades up so he could get a job if professional Quidditch fell through. He was smart and well prepared, but I worried that he stressed himself out too much.

On my way to bed later, I stopped by Oliver's table and gently started rubbing his shoulders. "You okay?" I asked.

Oliver sighed and let his head roll back as he closed his eyes. "I'm a little better now," he said. "That feels amazing."

"You're going to kill yourself prematurely," I stated. "You have a lot on your plate right now and you work yourself up too much about it all."

"I know," Oliver groaned. He paused. "The finals are in two weeks. My NEWTs are in two months."

"It's all going to pay off, though." I assured him as I slid my hands over his shoulders and down his chest. I rested my chin on his shoulder and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "You'll win the match and pass all your NEWTs."

"I hope so," Oliver whispered.

"You're going to get some rest tonight, aren't you?" I asked.

Oliver nodded. "I'm hoping to."

"Promise me you will," I told him. "You're worrying me."

He nodded. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. I just don't want you to overwork yourself." I turned his head towards me with a finger and kissed him gently. "Goodnight," I said before standing up and patting his shoulder.

"Goodnight," he murmured quietly.

I gave him a half smile before turning and heading up to my dorm.

* * *

Oliver held Quidditch practice every day over the Easter holidays, despite the fact that the amount of homework everyone had hadn't lessoned. And afterwards, he'd want to do homework and study, but he'd also make sure I was caught up on Potions. He hadn't dropped the ball on tutoring me, even though I insisted that he could.

"Slytherin is leading the tournament by exactly two hundred points," he reminded the team for about the hundredth time during the practice the Wednesday before the match. "This means that we need to win the match by more than that amount to win the Cup. It also means that the burden of winning unfortunately falls largely on Harry, because capturing the Snitch is worth one hundred and fifty points. So you must catch it only if we're more than fifty points up. Only if we're more than fifty points up, Harry, or we win the match but lose the Cup. You've got that, haven't you? You must catch the Snitch only if we're -"

"I know, Oliver!" Harry practically yelled. "More than fifty points up."

Oliver nodded tensely, his jaw set. "Good, good," he muttered.

The whole of Gryffindor House was obsessed with the coming match. Gryffindor hadn't won the Quidditch Cup since Charlie had been seeker. Never, in anyone's memory, had a match approached in such a highly charged atmosphere. By the time the holidays were over, tension between the two teams and their houses was at the breaking point. A number of small scuffles broke out in the corridors, culminating in a nasty incident in which a Gryffindor fourth year and a Slytherin sixth year ended up in the hospital wing with leeks sprouting out of their ears.

Fred and George had been going all out with their pranks. The best one had been when they borrowed the Marauder's Map back from Harry for one night to sneak itching powder in the Slytherin team's underwear. I hadn't been able to stop laughing after watching that one play out the next morning.

Even I found myself getting a bit testy with the Slytherins. Normally, I'd want to stay out of it, but the Slytherins trying to sabotage the Gryffindor team meant that they were trying to sabotage my friends and my boyfriend. One day, I spotted Marcus Flint trying to trip Fred in Potions. So I had shamelessly hit him with a curse that made his hair grow rapidly. It was trailing past his feet in the time it took for Professor Snape to give me a detention. But I didn't even care. I didn't have to worry about my mother finding out either, because I didn't have to anyone at home to write to and mention it and nobody else was going to tell her.

I noticed that Harry was having a particularly hard time, though. He couldn't walk to class without Slytherins sticking out their legs and trying to trip him. Oliver had actually given instructions that Harry should be accompanied everywhere he went, in case the Slytherins tried to put him out of action. It seemed like all of Gryffindor was willing to take on that challenge. Wherever he went, he was always surrounded by a large entourage.

"He's been late for class every day this week," Julian pointed out at dinner as Harry walked into the great hall, flanked by the usual large group of people. They all dispersed once Harry got to our section of the table to let him sit down with us.

"Good thing you aren't claustrophobic, Harry," Fred pointed out with a wry smile.

"We need him protected," Oliver said seriously. "He's the most important player and people are going to try to take him out."

"They could try to take any of you out," I said.

"They'll go for him first and the hardest," Oliver insisted. "We can't lose our Seeker." He pounded his fist against the table.

"We can't lose our Beaters either. Or the Chasers," I said before lowering my voice to a whisper. "Or the Keeper. I'm rather fond of him, you know." I reached out and took his hand, giving it a comforting squeeze.

I could practically see all of Oliver's muscles relax at my touch. He sighed and rubbed his free hand over his face before pinching the bridge of his nose and scrunching his eyes shut. "I'm sorry," he muttered.

"Is this going to get worse once you're a professional?" I asked.

Oliver actually smiled at me as he opened his eyes. "No, I'm hoping it'll get better," he said. "I won't start off as captain, obviously. Our wins and losses won't be as heavily on my shoulders. And if I'm a professional, it'll have meant I've made it. As long as I work hard enough to maintain my position, I'll be fine."

I nodded and squeezed his hand again.

* * *

The night before the match, the common room was crowded, but no one was studying. Everyone seemed to be anxiously passing away the time until the next morning. Even Hermione wasn't studying.

"I can't work, I can't concentrate," she said, wringing her hands together. "I'm too nervous."

Despite the nerves and anxiety, there was also a great deal of excitement in the air. The common room was noisier than usual since no one was studying anyway. Fred and George were dealing with the pressure by being louder and more exuberant than ever. Oliver was crouched over a model of a Quidditch field in the corner, prodding little figures across it with his wand and muttering to himself. Lee, Angelina, Alicia, and Katie were laughing at Fred's and George's jokes. Julian was sitting with Neville, Dean and Seamus, while Harry was sitting with Ron and Hermione.

I had been in the library, attempting to get some work done, but it had been useless. I was too nervous myself and I wanted to be in the common room with everyone else the night before such a big match. I wanted to be with my friends. I wanted to be with the team. I wanted to be with Oliver.

Upon first entering the room, I noticed Oliver huddling over the Quidditch pitch model and decided to leave him alone for a bit. So, I joined the twins, Angelina, Katie, Alicia and Lee in the other corner of the room. But then Angelina and Fred started kissing and the rest of us were left to sit there, clear our throats awkwardly and look at each other as we tried to think of something to say to each other.

"Lovely weather we're having, eh?" George suddenly asked, gesturing to the window where the starry sky could be seen through the glass.

I snorted. "As long as it holds up for the match, we're okay. We don't need a repeat of the match against Hufflepuff."

Suddenly, Oliver stood up and yelled, "Team! Bed!"

"It's only eight thirty!" Fred whined, detaching his lips from Angelina's and craning his neck to turn and look at Oliver, who glared at him as he marched over to our table.

"We need a good night's sleep tonight," he said. "We can't afford to be tired or we'll be off our game."

"True," I said, nodding and looking at Fred.

"You're boring, Lilah," Fred said, making a face at me. "Instead of trying to convince your boyfriend to stay up and snog you senseless, you're letting him boss us into going to bed at eight thirty."

"I want you to win tomorrow," I said firmly. "It'll make everyone happy." I met Oliver's eyes and I could see that he knew I understood what it meant to him and that while I did want the team to be happy as a whole, I was dying for the team to win for him. For his last year. So he could feel like he was making his grandfather proud.

"Fine, fine," Fred grumbled, removing his arm from around Angelina's shoulders and getting to his feet. He grabbed her hand and pulled her up too, before kissing her again. "Goodnight," he said, "and see you bright and early tomorrow."

She smiled. "Can't wait."

Fred grinned and kissed her cheek before turning and heading for the dormitory stairs, patting my shoulder on his way by.

George followed closely after him, giving me a smile, and Lee brought up the rear, oddly enough stifling a yawn. It must have been all the homework and studying. It was making everyone tired, even if they didn't like to admit it.

"You coming, Lie?" Katie asked as she, Angie, and Alicia headed up the stairs.

I nodded. "Be there in a minute."

The girls nodded and disappeared up the stairs while I turned back to Oliver, my stomach churning. I was so nervous for him.

"You're sure you don't want to stay up and snog me senseless?" I teased. "I know it must be such a hard decision. Get a good night's sleep so you can achieve one of your lifelong dreams or stay up and snog me? You must be wishing I'd shut up now so you can go to bed." I smiled to let him know I was still teasing.

"Don't be like that," Oliver said with a smile. "You know I'd love to stay up all night with you, but…"

"No, I know. Really, I do," I answered, shoving him gently towards the stairs. "Go, sleep. I'm the one always hounding you to get more rest as it is."

"I didn't say I was opposed to kissing you goodnight at _all_," Oliver said, grabbing my wrists and pulling me closer.

I smiled. "Good. I was hoping you'd say that."

Oliver smiled as his eyes roamed over my face for a moment. And then he stepped forward, moving a hand gently to my waist as he kissed me.

That was the thing about Oliver—he was always so gentle when he kissed me as if he thought I was made of crystal. Most of the time, I didn't mind one bit. I loved it, actually. But tonight, I made the split second decision to deepen it. I slid my hand to the back of Oliver's neck and stood on my tiptoes as if I were trying to get even closer to him, which was impossible. Part of me thought Oliver would stop me, claiming he couldn't get distracted. But he didn't. Instead, both of his hands slid around to my back. I could feel his fingertips digging into my spine and I arched my back instinctively.

After a moment, he did pull away though. He shook his head as if he were trying to get water out of his ears. "Trying to distract me, Fitzgerald?" He teased, narrowing his eyes at me.

I smiled. "No, just trying to give you some last minute encouragement before tomorrow," I said sweetly, batting my eyelashes as I toyed with the hair at the back of his neck and smoothed out a wrinkle in the front of his sweater with the palm of my other hand.

"Well, thanks," he chuckled. "But I really should get to bed."

"You'll be okay," I whispered, noticing the anxiety clouding his eyes.

He nodded. "I hope so."

I leaned up and gave him a quick kiss before pulling away. "I'll see you tomorrow and I'll be able to tell you again, but…good luck."

"Thanks," Oliver managed to rasp out, giving me a feeble smile before slowly walking backwards towards the boys' staircase, slipping his hand from mine as he did so.

I waited until he was gone before sighing and jogging up the stairs to my own dorm, where, oddly, the other girls were already sleep. I half expected them to still be awake and talking amongst themselves as we all usually did most nights. But not tonight. I smiled, knowing they knew as well as I did what tomorrow meant to Oliver. But I also knew it meant a lot to them as well, as much as they teased Oliver for his obsession. I grinned even wider as I got into my own bed and surveyed the still figures of my friends, out like lights at a quarter to nine in the evening. Oliver would be proud.

* * *

The next morning, Oliver spent the whole of breakfast urging the team to eat, while touching nothing himself. That was ridiculous and wasn't going to fly with me. No pun intended, of course.

"Oliver, if you don't take a bite of your eggs right now, I'm going to force feed them to you. I'm sure Fred and George will be more than willing to hold you down and force you to open your mouth."

"We'll do it, Wood," Fred said, nodding vigorously. "We will."

Oliver didn't even crack a smile. Instead, he shook his head, his lips pursed as if he were afraid of throwing up the nonexistent contents of his stomach.

"Please," I begged in a whisper.

Oliver took the tiniest bite I had ever seen of a piece of toast before setting it down and standing up rapidly. "Let's go," he said to the team. "We've got to get an idea of the weather conditions."

"Sunny," I said, pointing to the window.

"We can't tell anything from in here," he said dismissively, waving his hand around. "Come on, team."

I stood up, too, and quickly gave everyone a hug, wishing them good luck as I did so. When I finally got to Oliver, I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "You'll be fine," I whispered. "Good luck."

Oliver let out that grunt-whine noise that I had grown to associate with his nerves before turning and leading the team from the room.

"Oh, Merlin," I groaned, sinking back down onto the bench of the Gryffindor table. My heart ached for Oliver. He was a mess. Again, I wished there was something I could do to get him to relax completely, but it didn't seem like even I could do that. Especially not for a match as important as this one.

On the way down the pitch, I met up with Tess and she and I sat with Julian, Ron and Hermione in the Gryffindor section of the stands. Five minutes later, the Gryffindor team walked out onto the field to a tidal wave of noise. Three quarters of the crowd was wearing scarlet rosettes, waving scarlet flags with the Gryffindor lion upon them, or brandishing banners. Julian had managed to grab enough flags for all of us and we waved them and cheered as the team walked out.

"And here are the Gryffindors!" yelled Lee, who was commentating as usual. "Potter, Bell, Johnson, Spinnet, Weasley, Weasley, and Wood. Widely acknowledged as the best team Hogwarts has seen in a good few years."

Lee's comments were drowned by a tide of "boos" from the Slytherin end.

"Oh, piss off," I muttered, sending the Slytherin end of the stands a look.

"And here come the Slytherin team, led by Captain Flint," Lee continued.

"Captains, shake hands!" said Madam Hooch.

Flint and Wood approached each other and grasped each other's hand very tightly; it looked as though each was trying to break the other's fingers. I winced.

"I swear, if that ogre breaks Oliver's hand…."

"You'll what?" Julian snorted. "Flint could easily crush you with his pinky finger."

I scowled, despite the fact that what Julian said was true.

"Mount your brooms!" said Madam Hooch. "Three... two... one..."

The sound of her whistle was lost in the roar from the crowd as fourteen brooms rose into the air.

"And it's Gryffindor in possession," Lee said. "Alicia Spinner of Gryffindor with the Quaffle, heading straight for the Slytherin goal posts, looking good, Alicia! No - Quaffle intercepted by Warrington, Warrington of Slytherin tearing up the field— nice Bludger work there by George Weasley, Warrington drops the Quaffle, it's caught by Johnson, Gryffindor back in possession, come on, Angelina - nice swerve around Montague. She scores! Ten-zero Gryffindor!"

Angelina punched the air as she soared around the end of the field. I cheered my friends' name and waved my flag around. But then in the next second, Angelina was nearly thrown from her broom as Marcus Flint went smashing into her. I screamed and covered my mouth with my hand.

"Sorry!" said Flint as the crowd below booed. "Sorry, didn't see her!"

A moment later, Fred chucked his entire Beater's club at the back of Flint's head. Flint's nose smashed into the handle of his broom and began to bleed.

"Take that," I muttered furiously, clutching my Gryffindor flag tightly.

"That's my girlfriend, you foul git!" Fred roared.

"That will do!" shrieked Madam Hooch, zooming between then. "Penalty shot to Gryffindor for an unprovoked attack on their Chaser! Penalty shot to Slytherin for deliberate damage to their Chaser!"

"Come off it!" yelled Fred, but Madam Hooch blew her whistle and Alicia flew forward to take the penalty.

"Come on, Alicia!" yelled Lee into the silence that had descended on the crowd. "Yes! She's beaten the keeper! Twenty-zero to Gryffindor!"

Flint, still bleeding freely, flew forward to take the Slytherin penalty. Oliver was hovering in front of the Gryffindor goal posts, his jaw clenched. I felt my stomach tighten with nerves.

"'Course, Wood's a superb Keeper!" Lee told the crowd as Flint waited for Madam Hooch's whistle. "Superb! Very difficult to pass - very difficult indeed - Yes! I don't believe it! He's saved it!"

I let out a sigh of relief as the crowd around me cheered.

"Gryffindor in possession and it's Katie Bell, Katie Bell for Gryffindor with the Quaffle, she's streaking up the field—that was deliberate!"

Montague, a Slytherin Chaser, had swerved in front of Katie, and instead of seizing the Quaffle had grabbed her head. Katie cart wheeled in the air, managed to stay on her broom, but dropped the Quaffle.

Madam Hooch's whistle rang out again as she soared over to Montague and began shouting at him. A minute later, Katie had put another penalty past the Slytherin Seeker.

A few minutes later, though, Flint had scored. There was an eruption of cheers from the Slytherin end, and Lee swore so badly that Professor McGonagall tried to tug the magical megaphone away from him.

"Sorry, Professor, sorry! Won't happen again! So, Gryffindor in the lead, thirty points to ten, and Gryffindor in possession…."

It was turning into the dirtiest game I had ever seen. The Slytherins were clearly angry that Gryffindor was winning and the team was rapidly resorting to any means to take the Quaffle. A Slytherin Beater hit Alicia with his club and tried to say he'd thought she was a Bludger. George elbowed Bole in the face in retaliation. Madam Hooch awarded both teams penalties, and Oliver pulled off another spectacular save, making the score forty-ten to Gryffindor.

Katie scored next. Fifty-ten. Fred and George were swooping around her, clubs raised, in case any of the Slytherins were thinking of revenge. A very good and noble idea, in my opinion, but then it took their concentration off the Bludgers. Within the next few seconds, the Slytherin Beaters took advantage of Fred's and George's absence to aim both Bludgers at Oliver. They caught him in the stomach, one after the other, and he rolled over in the air, clutching his broom, completely winded.

"Oliver!" I screamed, panic rising in my stomach. He had managed to stay on his broom, but he looked like he had just gotten the breath knocked out of him. However, it only made him set his jaw tighter in determination.

Madam Hooch was beside herself with fury.

"You do not attack the Keeper unless the Quaffle is within the scoring area!" she shrieked at Bole and Derrick. "Gryffindor penalty!"

Angelina scored. Sixty-ten. Moments later, Fred pelted a Bludger at Warrington, knocking the Quaffle out of his hands. Alicia seized it and put it through the Slytherin goal - seventy-ten.

Now Gryffindor was sixty points in the lead, and if Harry caught the Snitch at this point, the Cup was theirs.

"There it is!" Julian suddenly yelled. "The Snitch!"

He was right. The golden ball was about twenty feet above Harry's head. And he had seen it. He put on a huge burst of speed. Malfoy was right on his tail. He was so close, he could've reached out and touched Harry's Firebolt. Which was exactly what he did. He leaned forward and grabbed hold of the broom's tail, pulling it back.

"He just wanted to slow Harry down so he'd lose the Snitch!" Julian roared. "What a dirty rotten cheat!"

"Penalty! Penalty to Gryffindor!" Madame Hooch screeched. "I've never seen such tactics."

"You cheating scum!" Lee was howling into the megaphone, dancing out of Professor McGonagall's reach.

Alicia took Gryffindor's penalty, but she was so angry she missed by several feet. The Gryffindor team was losing concentration and the Slytherins, delighted by Malfoy's foul on Harry, were playing even better.

"Slytherin in possession, Slytherin heading for goal - Montague scores -" Lee groaned. "Seventy- twenty to Gryffindor..."

Oliver looked positively livid that he had allowed the Quaffle past him. "It's okay!" I screamed, hoping he'd somehow hear me over the noise of the crowd.

"Angelina Johnson gets the Quaffle for Gryffindor," Lee said. "Come on, Angelina, come on!"

Every single Slytherin player apart from Malfoy was streaking up the pitch toward Angelina, including the Slytherin Keeper. They were all going to block her. Suddenly, Harry wheeled the Firebolt around, bent so low he was lying flat along the handle, and kicked it forward. Like a cannonball, he shot toward the Slytherins. They scattered as the Firebolt zoomed toward them. Now Angelina's way was clear.

"She scores! Gryffindor leads by eighty points to twenty!" Lee yelled.

Harry, who had almost pelted headlong into the stands, skidded to a halt in midair and turned his broom back around.

"No, no, no!" Julian yelled from beside me, pointing at Malfoy, who had sped into a dive. He had seen the Snitch and now Harry was on the other side of the pitch. But luckily, Harry had noticed Malfoy too and was speeding towards him. He began to gain on Malfoy. With every second, he seemed to be flattening himself closer and closer to the broom handle. He was suddenly at Malfoy's ankles, and then he was level with him. He took both hands off the broom, knocked Malfoy's arm out of the way and grabbed the Snitch. He pulled out of the dive, his hand in the air and the crowd exploded in cheers.

I screamed with absolute joy and turned to Julian, throwing my arms around him and pulling him into a tight hug. "We won!" I cried. "We won!"

The Gryffindor team had all flown towards Harry and mobbed him as they all seemed to gently float back to earth on their broom. I grabbed Julian's and Tess' hands and yanked them towards the grass of the pitch. But once we got down there, I took off at a run again, heading straight for Oliver, much like I had at the match against Ravenclaw. When he came into view, he had Harry in a death grip of a hug and it looked as if he were actually crying. But I didn't care. I was practically in tears myself.

"Oliver!" I shrieked when I had gotten closer. He spun to face me and I flung myself into his arms, throwing my legs around his waist and cupping his cheeks in my hands. He spun me around, laughing despite the tears on his face as I leaned down and kissed him forcefully. He backed me into one of the goalposts we were standing near and pinned me there as he leaned up to kiss me again.

"You did it!" I laughed, wiping his tears away. "We won!"

Oliver beamed at me as he slowly lowered me to the ground while still keeping me pinned to the goal post. "We won!" he repeated.

I smiled. "I've never seen you smile this wide," I told him, reaching up and rubbing my thumb across the corner of his mouth.

Oliver grinned down at me. "We won!" he said again, letting out a breathy laugh.

"Is that all you're going to be able to say now?" I asked, letting out a giggle myself.

He laughed again and leaned down to kiss me again. He pulled away just barely and I kept my eyes closed as he rested his forehead against mine. "No, there's actually another thing," he said.

"What's that?"

Oliver swallowed and a serious look flitted across his face for the first time since the match ended. When he spoke, his voice was nothing more than a murmur. "Lilah, I'm...falling in love with you."

* * *

**A/N: I totally forgot to bring this up last chapter, but I just wanted to give a huge shout out to CrowningAster, who was amazing enough to make the new cover for this story! She did a wonderful job and it looks incredible. She's also an amazing writer to boot! So if you have a free moment, you should totally go check out her stories.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	27. Chapter 27

Oliver loved me. He was in love with me. He _loved _me. Well...technically he had said he was falling in love with me, but that was the same thing, right?

The sentiment kept floating through my head for the rest of the day. I was euphoric enough over the match's outcome, but now I had just found out that Oliver loved me.

The second he said it, I knew I felt the same way about him. The words had been on the edge of my tongue for a little while now, threatening to come out during the quiet moments in the library when I watched his forehead crinkle in concentration; during meals when he chewed on the end of his fork absentmindedly; at night in the common room when he was curled up in a chair with his Charms book. But I had always held it back and pushed it away, afraid to say anything and move too fast. Afraid to have him look at me as if I had ten heads. Afraid that he didn't have time for love with everything else he was dealing with.

But after he said it to me, I could finally say it back. In fact, my response had been to smile, gently reach up to smooth down his windblown hair, and whisper, "It turns out that I love you too, you strange, Quidditch obsessed boy."

The days following the match were the happiest I had ever seen Oliver. A ton of pressure had been lifted from his chest and the difference was incredible. He was beaming for days straight and even though he still spent a lot of time studying, he no longer had to spend ages devising game plans, so he was finding time to do other things now. We'd take kitchen breaks (sometimes with the twins and Angelina, sometimes without) and he'd even play chess with Julian some nights. The extra time spent together, as well as the fact that we had got all our feelings out in the open, had brought us even closer.

April quickly turned into May. For Oliver's birthday, his parents surprised him with tickets to the Quidditch World Cup that would be taking place in the summer. It was kind of a big deal to everyone, especially to Oliver. It also turned out that his parents had gotten an extra ticket and he had invited me to come with him. I had immediately said yes.

Julian, however, was insanely jealous. He constantly expressed his disbelief that I, someone who 'barely cared' about Quidditch, was going to the World Cup, while he was going to be stuck home, dreaming about how wonderful it would be. Usually, I just smiled apologetically at him and told him I'd buy him a souvenir. I really did feel badly, but I didn't know what else to do.

As exams drifted closer, though, everyone began to finally come down from their high off the Gryffindor win and began to get tense again. Percy, who was also taking his NEWTs this year, would actually snap at anyone who spoke above a whisper in the common room.

Even Fred and George had finally begun to study a bit. They still weren't concerned with passing every exam, but rather, just the ones they were each good at. But they did still want to pass those, so therefore, they actually decided to crack open their books.

With exams drawing closer, there wasn't much time to do much with my friends or even really speak to them. We mainly sat together in the common room, studying, speaking only to discuss something school related. I was itching for it all to be over so I could get back to spending adequate time with them. The only thing I was sad about was that Oliver was leaving after this year.

My brother's fourteenth birthday was in the first week of June, and Fred and George were more than happy to discard their books for the time being and help me sneak some sweets out of Honeydukes for him. He asked how we managed to get them, of course, but I wouldn't spill. I just told him to enjoy it.

Finally, _finally_, the day of my last exam arrived. It was History of Magic, the most boring one, but I was confident that I had passed. By the end of it, my back was aching and so were my fingers. My head was pounding, too, but despite it all, I felt free.

Oliver's last exam finished later than mine, so I went down to the lake with my other friends to wait. We sat in a row on a higher section of land that dropped off into the water—perfect for dangling our feet in—and sat in silence for a bit.

"So…sixth years," Katie finally sighed.

"Sixth years," I repeated, staring out at the shimmering water sprawled in front of me.

"I hate that we only have two years left," Katie continued. "I don't want us to go our separate ways."

"We'll never do that," I insisted.

"Never," Alicia said, shaking her head fiercely. "After all, we have to keep up our tradition of singing to each other on our birthdays!"

"I couldn't bear it if I ever woke up on October twenty-fifth and _didn't_ hear you three wailing in my ear," Angelina said, looking at me, Katie and Alicia with a smile.

I giggled. "Let's not talk about leaving just yet," I said. "But I'm sure we'll all be around. It'll just be a matter of being really busy and not seeing each other daily. We'll be able to sing on each other's birthdays for sure."

"We'd better be," Alicia said.

"How are the joke products coming along?" I asked the twins. The last I heard, they were working on perfecting the Ton-Tongue Toffees and were in the process of creating the right potion for the Skiving Snackboxes—the name of the line of sweets that make you ill.

"Good," Fred answered happily. "We're planning on actually getting order forms going pretty soon. We have a few basic products going already and we're also pretty much done with the Ton-Tongue Toffees. We'd just like to test it on a few others to see if they'll have the same reaction."

"As who?" I asked. "You?"

The twins nodded. "We have to test all our own products ourselves. I've already told you we're doing that, Lie," Fred said. "If we're not willing to test it ourselves, especially while they're still in production, we can't expect future customers to try them."

I smiled. "So considerate."

"Sarcasm?" George asked, narrowing his eyes at me.

"No," I answered earnestly. "I'm serious."

"I really wish you two had put more time into your exams though," Angelina frowned. "What happens if this joke shop plan falls through and you've failed all your OWLs? You'll have nothing to fall back on. You have no plan B."

"You've been saying this for months now, Ange," Fred said, frowning back. "And you sound like our mother."

"They don't have a plan B," I said, "because they're confident they can get a joke shop up and running," I said. "There is no plan B for them. There's nothing else they'd want to do so they have no choice but to make the joke shop work."

Fred and George looked impressed. "Wow, Liles, that was spot on," Fred said.

"Give me some credit. I've known you for almost five years."

"So has Angelina," Fred teased, nudging his girlfriend in the side. "And she still thinks we're interested in a plan B."

Angelina scowled. "I'm just looking out for you. Sometimes you can't _make_ things work, no matter how much you want or need to."

"You're putting a damper on the mood, Ange," George joked, but I could see the irritation on his face, despite the lightheartedness of what he had said. I had to admit, though, Angelina's concerns were valid and very sweet. She had every right to worry. But at the same time, it couldn't hurt to have a little faith in the twins, could it?

* * *

"So…" I began, unsure of what exactly to ask first. I was sitting in the hospital wing, on the bed that was situated next to the one containing a broken-legged Ron. Julian was beside me and Fred and George were sitting on the bed on Ron's other side.

"Buckbeak was supposed to be executed today," Ron said, dully, staring up at the ceiling. "Julian, Harry, Hermione and I went down to see Hagrid before it happened. And then we left and Scabbers bit me and the Grim showed up…."

"Who turned out to be Sirius Black?" Fred asked.

Ron nodded as he continued to rehash the basic facts of the story he had just finished telling us moments ago. "He pulled me into this secret passageway under the Whomping Willow that leads to the Shrieking Shack and that's how I hurt my leg. When we got there, he turned back into himself. Harry, Hermione and Julian came to get me and then Lupin showed up and then _Snape _showed up…."

"And they told you that the person that betrayed Harry's parents and killed those people twelve years ago wasn't Sirius Black, but Scabbers." I stared at Ron with a raised eyebrow. I believed him, of course. As crazy as the story sounded, I knew Ron himself wasn't crazy and besides, Julian had immediately backed him up.

"Scabbers has been a man named Peter Pettigrew this whole time," Ron whispered, looking disgusted. "You should've seen him. He was…."

"Icky," Julian finished dully.

I giggled, despite the fact that it really wasn't all that funny. Just the way Julian had said it was.

"I let him sleep in my bed!" Ron groaned.

Fred and George immediately started fighting back laughter. I could see their mouths twitching up into smiles and quiet snorts of laughter coming out despite their best attempts to stop it.

"And then Harry blasted Snape backwards and knocked him out and then we left the Shrieking Shack to turn Pettigrew over to the Dementors, but he got away and it was a full moon and Professor Lupin is a—is a—"

"A werewolf," I sighed in disbelief. I hadn't even picked up on it, even though now maybe it seemed obvious. How he would be feeling under the weather around the same time every month—the time of the full moon—and how the time Snape filled in for him, he assigned everyone, no matter what year, an essay on werewolves. How had I not caught it? It seemed the only person who _had_ actually figured it out, though, according to Ron, was Hermione. Of course.

"But then Harry ran off to find Sirius, who the dementors were chasing after and Hermione went with him and they all passed out," Ron continued. "Julian waited with me, though, which I am so glad for because I was not about to be left alone outside the Whomping Willow. And then Snape came out of the passageway and took us all back up here. And Sirius was taken somewhere to await the dementors. And Harry and Hermione disappeared. Dumbledore came in and was saying all this weird rubbish to Hermione about three turns doing the trick or something and then she got Harry up and they…just vanished!"

"They didn't just _vanish_, Ron," Julian said. He looked at me. "I couldn't really see because their backs were to us, but she had this chain around her neck and she put it over Harry's, too. And then she was fiddling with whatever was on the chain. _Then_ they...well, yeah, then they did vanish."

I looked up at Fred and George, who were frowning in concentration. "Do you think Hermione had a time-turner?" Fred asked. "Dad's talked about them…they keep a supply at the Ministry."

I snorted. "Which is why it would be ridiculous for Hermione to have one," I said. "She's a teenage girl. They don't just hand those out to people. There's a reason they're kept hidden in the Ministry. Messing with time is tricky. Besides, what would she use it for?"

"To go back in time with Harry," Ron stated.

I rolled my eyes. "Still wouldn't add up," I said. "How would anyone possibly know to give it to Hermione for this specific reason?"

"The fact is that they went somewhere and had to vanish into thin air to get there," Ron said.

I shook my head, still unsure of what could've happened. But then I turned to my brother. "I can't believe you were in on this little adventure too," I said. "Do you know what could've happened to you? Professor Lupin's great and all, but werewolves aren't the same during the full moon. Even if they're taking a Wolfsbane Potion…they're dangerous."

"Well, I'm fine, Lilah, okay?" Julian snapped. "You don't have to worry. I'm not a baby."

"Jules," Fred said firmly. His tone caused my brother to look at him in slight surprise. Fred was giving him a serious look, which was a rarity. So I knew that Julian would at least listen to whatever Fred had to say. Because the twins were practically never serious, so when they were it was usually over something important. Plus, Julian really liked Fred and George. He looked up to them like big brothers. He joked around with them and played Quidditch with them when we hung out at the Burrow. He had connected well with Charlie, too, of course, but since Charlie wasn't around anymore, Julian usually liked to spend time with the twins when he wasn't with Ron, Harry, Hermione or the other boys from his year.

"What?" Julian asked quietly, already looking ashamed of himself.

"Lilah loves you," Fred said. "And her worry about what happened tonight has nothing to do with treating you like a baby. Running around with a werewolf on the loose is dangerous no matter how old you are."

"But you don't baby Ron!" Julian exclaimed. "You haven't told him off for what happened! In fact, I'm surprised you didn't all high five and say, '_Wicked_' after he finished the story."

"Julian!" I scolded.

"Just shut _up_ for a minute, Lilah!" he exclaimed.

"Hey," Fred said, his jaw clenched as his expression and tone actually bordered anger. "_Don't_ talk to your sister like that," he said. He swallowed and seemed to calm down a bit before speaking. "I'm not going to tell Ron what happened tonight was cool because it wasn't. Lilah's right. It was dangerous. I'm sure Ron knows that as much as _you_ know that. I'm not lecturing him because, well…the way I see it, you didn't have a choice in the matter. Everything probably happened really fast. Ron got pulled into the Whomping Willow passageway and the rest of you went after him."

"I'm glad you went to help your friend, Jules," I whispered. "And I don't blame you. I agree with what Fred said. I know you didn't exactly choose to be involved in all of that. It's just…you're my little brother. I love you."

"Well, you suffocate me," he whispered, refusing to look at me. "Didn't you see Oliver's mum on New Year's Eve? She was fixing his collar every five seconds and worrying about him playing Quidditch and stressing himself out too much. I'm sure he hates it too."

I swallowed. "He does, but he knows it's because she loves him. He gets why she's like that. And maybe you should try to understand why I'm like that."

"Because of Mum?" he asked, looking at me. "Because since she's not around, you feel like you have to be my unofficial mother?"

"She barely participated in raising you!" I exclaimed. "It was me and Dad for years. And when they divorced, you were only eight. You were a child. And Mum was around even less. I had to be there for you. And I still have to because to me, you are little…and I think you deserve to be treated like a child while you still are one. Not like me. You don't want that, Jules, trust me."

Julian didn't answer and there was silence in the room. I was sure none of us had expected a discussion of the night's events would turn into a discussion about my family issues.

"Well, you know what, Liles?" Julian finally said, a hint of anger still showing through his mostly exhausted sounding voice. "You can't give me anything I missed out on as a kid. You can't give me years of playing makeshift Quidditch on my very own broom in my own backyard. You can't give me Christmas Days spent thundering down the stairs and tearing open gifts. I'm past the point of getting excited over little things like that and I missed out because we weren't allowed to do any of that. We weren't allowed to be messy and unorganized and loud…Neither one of us were allowed to be children and you babying me isn't going to fix that! You babying me isn't going to give me any of that back! If anything, spending time at the Burrow gave me some of that! I'm _allowed_ to practice Quidditch there!"

"You were so happy the first time they let you play," I whispered. "You didn't _look_ past the point of getting excited over little things like riding a broom."

"I was excited, but it was different. It still wasn't the same as getting my own broom for Christmas and being able to ride it in my own yard like everyone else gets to do! But that's also one thing. There's a whole list of other things I never got to do as a kid, but now I am growing up. I'm fourteen. And you're going to have to just accept the fact that I'm growing up and that I no longer need or want to be treated like I'm eight. I don't need or want anyone making up for things I missed out on. I'm over all of it. You say I'm still a child, but I'm not! I'm a teenager! In three years, I'll be of age. You need to stop trying to make up for what Mum's done in all the wrong ways. Just let me live a little and make some mistakes without you berating me for everything I do!" With that, he got up and stormed out of the hospital wing.

"He's just tired," Ron said, nodding. "It's been a long night."

I snorted bitterly. "I appreciate that, Ron, but no…." I sighed and buried my face in my hands. "I'm pushing him away and forcing him to hate me. I can't help myself! He's my little brother! I'd probably be the same way even if we had a proper childhood."

"We get it," George said. "We're the same way with Ron and Ginny. "We care, we get worried. We just express it differently than you do and I don't think Julian picks up on the little ways we do show it. For instance, the way we bolted up here the moment we heard Ron was in the hospital wing. I don't see Percy's great ugly arse up here."

"He still cares, too, though," I said with a tiny smile. "He just probably hasn't heard what happened yet. We only found out because Julian came to get us." I paused. "And it's only natural that you'd run up here to see Ron. Most people would. Maybe Julian's right. Maybe what I do is considered babying."

"It's not," George argued. "You worry, but you're very expressive about it. Julian will understand one day and he could never hate you. You're his sister. Look at it this way…everyone thinks we hate Percy." He gestured to himself and Fred. "_We've_ even considered the fact that we might really hate our Big Head Boy of a brother. But truthfully…we don't. If _he_ had gotten his leg nearly bitten off by Sirius Black, Fred and I would've still ran up here just as fast as we did for Ron."

"So you may think Julian hates you, but he doesn't," Fred concluded. "I think it's just hard for him because he does want to move past not getting a lot of things normal children have. You were both always expected to be adults. And now that he is growing up he doesn't want to be treated like a kid to make up for it. He just wants to move on and hopefully get to experience a lot of the good stuff that comes with growing up. Like falling in love, leaving school, getting a job, starting a family…."

I nodded. "I guess that makes sense."

"He loves you," George assured me.

I nodded again as I rubbed a hand over my face. "That's what Oliver said, too."

"Well, he's right," Fred whispered. "Honestly, how could you think otherwise? Julian's your brother. And you two have always been close. You've had to stick together. You were all each other had for a while, right?"

"Mm," I said quietly, staring out the window. He was right, of course. I just hoped that, even though Julian was angry with me for the time being, he wouldn't stay mad for long.

* * *

"Promise you'll write all the time and we'll see each other whenever we can."

Oliver and I were standing on the platform at King's Cross saying goodbye to yet another school year and to each other for at least a little while.

Oliver nodded. "Of course."

"I want to hear all about your tryouts. Every single one for every single Quidditch team you try out for," I said. "Even though we both know you really only care about one. And then when Puddlemere United begs you to be on their team and you accept, we're going to celebrate. My treat."

Oliver smiled. "But maybe no team will want me and I'll end up homeless."

I shook my head. "That's not going to happen, Olls."

I saw him swallow as he shrugged again. "Have to prepare myself for the worst, though."

"There is no worst. Not really," I said. "The worst is that you won't be able to play Quidditch, which is terrible, yes, but you have amazing marks in every class. You could do anything else you wanted. But that's only if every team turns you down, which will not happen because you're an outstanding player. It's like you're perfect or something." I smiled.

Oliver snorted. "Far from it. For example I feel like spending time with you took a backseat on a lot of occasions. That's a pretty big mistake right there."

"We spent time together," I said. "We just usually spent it sitting side by side…studying. Or talking about schoolwork."

"Well now I'm hoping we'll have more time to spend together doing anything but that," Oliver said with a grin and a laugh.

I nodded. "I hope so."

"Oi, Lilah!" Fred's voice called from behind me. "I know you're too wound up in saying goodbye to lover boy to notice, but my mother's here. And if you had a shred of politeness and respect, you'd turn around and come say hello."

"Go," Oliver urged as I rolled my eyes and sighed. He kissed my forehead, then my lips. "I'll write you later."

I nodded and kissed him again. "Bye," I whispered. "I love you."

"I love you too," he answered, giving my hand a squeeze and picking up the handle of his trunk.

I slid my hand slowly out of his before turning and walking towards the Weasleys.

"It's like you think you'll never see each other again," Fred muttered as I neared him. "Honestly, could you two _be_ any sappier?"

"Of course," I hissed back. "Would you like me to turn it up a notch?"

Fred pretended to gag as I made a beeline for Mrs. Weasley and hugged her. "It's good to see you," I whispered. "And thank you for the Christmas sweater. As usual."

"Don't mention it, dear," she said warmly, pulling away and looking me over. "How are you doing? How did your exams go? Think you did okay?"

I shrugged. "Hopefully."

"Oh, come on, Fitzy," Fred scoffed. "You aced them all and you know it. We all know it."

I blushed and looked away. "You _don't_ know that, Fred."

"I do," he replied. "Even Potions. I'll still bet you passed."

"She better have," Julian piped up. "Or Mum'll kill her."

"True," I sighed dejectedly. I had had a nervous pit of anxiety in my stomach ever since I had taken my Potions exam. I had no idea how well I had done. I had felt okay enough, but who knew?

Mrs. Weasley smiled at me almost sadly. "Well, don't feel too badly if you don't pass," she said. "You're a wonderful girl inside and out."

"Why can't you tell Fred and I things like that?" George complained. "Honestly, it's as if you like Lilah better than you like us."

"It's because she thinks Lilah follows the rules," Fred said. "But, Mum, were you aware that Lilah has had two detentions in her entire Hogwarts career? Hm? Her record is soiled. Not as squeaky clean as you'd think."

"Two detentions compared to your two _hundred_, most likely," Mrs. Weasley said with a sigh and a roll of her eyes.

"Lilah, Julian!" A familiar voice sounded from behind me and I looked at Fred and George. My mother was here. I turned to face her to see her standing a good distance away. As if she didn't want to get too close. "Come on!" she called, gesturing impatiently for me and Julian to come to her. "We need to get going."

"Mum…." I looked back at the Weasleys—Mrs. Weasley, Percy, Fred, George, Ron and Ginny, all grouped together and staring at my mother. "You remember the Weasleys, don't you?" I finally asked.

"Yes, of course. It's lovely to see you all again. Now, come on, Lilah, let's get a move on." Mum spoke rather quickly and barely sent the Weasleys a glance as she talked.

"Wait, I haven't officially invited them to dinner yet," I said, fighting a scowl. That was it. Despite all my apprehensions about having the Weasleys over for dinner, it was infuriating me that my mother was still treating them as if she couldn't be bothered. At least if I sprung the dinner thing on her and did it in front of them, she couldn't refuse. If I asked her in private, she'd figure some way to worm out of it.

"What?" Mum asked, her eyebrows practically shooting up to her hairline as her eyes opened wide.

I turned back to Mrs. Weasley and smiled pleasantly. "You were kind enough to have my family over for dinner when the twins and I first became friends," I said, "and you've had us back many times since. You've let me spend many summer days at your house and you've always extended the invitation to every member of my family." I glanced back at my mother. "I've always wished we could do the same for you. My dad's flat is too small, though, unfortunately, and with my mother's busy schedule it was hard to plan something….But I think we're long overdue to have _your _family over now. So I was thinking maybe this Saturday you'd all like to come over for dinner. Julian and I will be with our Dad next Saturday, so that won't work."

Mrs. Weasley beamed. "Oh, we'd love that, Lilah dear!" she said. "But you don't need to repay us for anything! We love having you!" She looked back at my mother. "Honestly, you should be proud of your children. They've always been nothing but polite and respectful."

Mum pursed her lips. "Is that so? Well, I'm not so sure they're like that all the time," she said, shooting me a look. I knew I was in trouble.

"So, this Saturday, say around seven?" I asked, plastering a smile on my face.

Mrs. Weasley nodded. "Yes, of course. But we don't have to rush. If this Saturday is too soon...well, we have all summer, dear."

"No, this Saturday is fine," I said hurriedly.

Mrs. Weasley smiled. "Okay, then. I'll check with Arthur, but I'm sure he'll be more than happy to come." She paused. "Mind you, he's going to be very curious about your neighborhood." She smiled at me. "You know how he is with Muggles. Loves them."

I smiled before glancing at Fred and George, who were grinning at me. I just hoped that in the miraculous chance that my mother didn't push them away, they wouldn't leave my house after dinner ready to run for the hills completely of their own accord.


	28. Chapter 28

My mother lectured me the entire way home. She wasn't happy that I had invited the Weasleys over without asking her first, which normally I would've understood, but it was necessary if I wanted them to come over at all.

"Maybe I should call it off altogether," she threatened, "and not even allow this to happen."

"Fred and George have been begging me to let them come over," I said. "They want to meet you. They all do. They've been a big part of my life for the past few years and they feel like they're missing out on a huge chunk of my life. Every time they invite you over, you find a way to get out of it. Please, just meet them once and get it over with. You'll probably never have to do it again which will work out perfectly for both of us!"

"For both of us?" My mother's eyebrows shot up.

"I know you think they're gross, Mum," I sighed. "It's obvious you don't like them. You've been avoiding them and always make comments when I spend time with them. You even told me flat out that I'd better think about who I associate myself with at school. _And_ you told Julian the same thing when he became friends with Ron. Yet you like Oliver and you loved that Julian became friends with the Boy Who Lived. I just...don't like it."

"Unfortunately, Lilah," my mother began, a look of surprise flitting over her features for just a moment, "it's not up to you to tell me how I should be behaving. I'm your parent, so it's up to _me_ to tell _you_. And for the record, I _don't_ like how you've been behaving. It's been going on for years now. Ever since the day you turned eleven and decided to sneak out of the house against my wishes. Then you go around arguing with me about everything! And making friends with these Weasleys...and telling me what you don't like about _my_ choices." She shook her head. "And I'm still waiting for your grades to go up significantly in Potions. I'll admit, they've been the best they've ever been since Oliver started helping you, but they're still not decent. You've scraped by for five years now. If you want a good job when you leave school, you need good grades. Or else you'll be stuck with no way to help support your family."

I stared at her as if she had slapped me. "First of all," I fumed, the shock wearing off and suddenly feeling so angry that I actually felt like I would explode any second. "My only low grade is in Potions. I do just fine in every other class. Secondly, I'll be fine when I leave school."

"I worry about you," my mother said. "A lot. I want all of your options to be open. I want you to be the best you can be and I want you to be happy. Look at Oliver! What if he doesn't end up the big famous Quidditch player he's expecting to be? And then he's going to have to retire earlier than normal because you need to be quick and young and athletic to play Quidditch!"

"I will be fine," I repeated forcefully. "And so will Oliver. I know your only biggest problem with him is that you're worried that he won't be rich and famous but I don't care! Besides, he has amazing grades. He works very hard because he knows he might need a back-up plan. If Quidditch doesn't work out, he wants to be a Healer like his parents."

"Really?" My mother said, looking both surprised and interested by that tidbit of information. She was quiet for a moment. "Maybe he's even better for you than I thought. I already thought he seemed pretty impressive when I met him on Christmas Eve. He was polite, respectful…he brought over that lovely plant. And he certainly _seemed_ intelligent. His parents certainly must be. And he knows what he wants to do with his life. That's half the battle, isn't it? Knowing what you want? And it's more than I can say for you."

Suddenly feeling exhausted in every sense of the word and having no energy to argue any more, I turned away and stared out the window as tears filled my eyes. Merlin, my mother sure knew how to make me feel as if there were something terribly wrong with me. What if she was right? What if having such terrible Potions grades limited me once I did decide on a career? I knew to be both a Healer and an Auror, you needed to have very impressive grades in all subjects. But neither of those careers really appealed to me. I wasn't sure about going into the Ministry either and I couldn't play Quidditch. I just didn't know what to do. And maybe that was abnormal. Oliver knew what he wanted to do with his life and so did Angelina, back-up plans and all. Katie and Alicia also had ideas of what they'd like to do and Lee was set on being a sports announcer. Tess wanted to be an artist, and even the twins knew what they wanted. It was just me and I couldn't pinpoint why that was. Perhaps it was simply because I was boring and way too average. I didn't have anything special to offer.

When we finally got home, I jumped out of the car and immediately made a move to get my things out of the trunk of the car. I grabbed Julian's trunk as well and passed it to him. Then we caught up with my mother, who was already letting herself in the front door. Julian and I followed her in and two steps into the house, we heard a voice call out from the kitchen, "Joanna? Is that you?"

"It's us!" she called back, grinning widely.

Julian and I looked at each other in alarm. "Who the hell is in our house?" I asked.

"Lilah! Watch your language," Mum scolded. But then she smiled and fixed her hair in the mirror hanging on the wall before turning to me and Julian. "I have a surprise for you." She paused. "I've actually been…seeing someone."

My mouth fell open as I promptly dropped my trunk on my foot. I hadn't even gotten the chance to set it down yet and now I was being hit with this news.

"Lilah, be careful, you'll wreck the floors," Mum said irritably. Of course that's what she worried about. The floors. Never mind my now aching foot.

I ignored her. "You've been what?" Julian and I asked at the same time.

My Mum smiled and nodded. "It's been a long time since your father and I split," she explained as I heard footsteps moving through the kitchen towards the foyer. I assumed they belonged to whoever this guy was that my mother was seeing. Any second, he'd enter the room.

"Yeah, so?" I asked, feeling utterly astounded. She hadn't even told us about this until now! I hadn't heard one peep.

"Well, I'd like to move on," she said. "And I've finally found someone I'd like to do so with." She turned slightly towards the door that lead to the kitchen. I followed her gaze as the mystery man appeared in the doorway.

He was tall and probably around her age. A part of me had to admit that he was good looking. Dark hair, blue eyes, tall and a very large smile. He was dressed casually—nowhere near as formally as my mother usually dressed. I rarely ever saw her in jeans—but he wasn't dressed badly. I don't know what I expected. Maybe something to one of each of the two possible extremes. A man just as formal and uptight as my mother, or a man who was so comically her opposite that I'd go crazy at the hypocrisy.

"This is Sam." Mum beamed at him before turning back to us. "Sam Mackenzie."

"Nice to meet you," Sam said with his wide smile, holding his hand out to me. I just gaped at him.

"Shake his hand, Lilah," Mum said.

Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I slowly reached out and shook Sam's hand. "Nice to meet you," I finally said. Although I still wasn't sure if it was all that nice.

Sam shook Julian's hand next and I smirked at how my brother looked just as bothered and shocked by this as I was.

"Your mother's told me a lot about you two," Sam said, still beaming.

"Unfortunately, we can't say the same about you," I replied, raising an eyebrow at my mother.

"Now, Lilah," Mum began.

"In fact, we've heard _nothing_ about you."

"Lilah," Mum said again.

"Well it's true!"

"It's okay, Joanna," Sam said. He looked back at me. "Your mother didn't know how to tell you. She wanted to tell you in person, but she didn't want to wait until she saw you today..."

"She could've mentioned it in a letter," I said. "We wouldn't have cared if she did. I'd have _rather_ her done that than wait until now." I paused. "How long have you been seeing each other anyway?"

"Since the beginning of March," Mum answered.

I stared at her. "Three months."

"Two and three quarters, technically," Mum said with a smile and an airy laugh as she glanced at Sam.

Julian and I didn't smile back. We weren't amused in the least. My mother was acting like a lovesick teenager.

"I just wish you'd have told us," I said.

"You didn't ask," Mum said with another airy smile and laugh as she fixed her hair.

"Was I supposed to?" I asked, giving her a look.

"Lilah," she began, pursing her lips, but then Sam touched her arm and shook his head. "It's okay, Joanna. I would honestly be shocked if she wasn't acting this way."

I shook my head. "I just...I need a moment. Excuse me." With that, I heaved my trunk up a few inches and began walking towards the stairs.

"Let me get that," Sam offered, taking a step towards me.

"I've got it," I replied through gritted teeth.

Sam stopped, but then he paused and waved his wand. I pursed my lips and refused to look at him as my and Julian's trunks flew up the stairs and went, I assumed, into our bedrooms. How he knew where they were, I didn't know and I'm not sure I wanted to. I hated the idea of this guy making himself cozy in my house for the past three-excuse me—two and three quarter months.

"Lilah, I hope you know I expect you to be nothing but nice to Sam," Mum said. "So far, I'm not quite sure you have been. _Julian_ hasn't said a word."

I snorted. I knew Julian hasn't spoken only because he was fighting to hold his tongue. He was better at it than me. Nothing new. But I also didn't think I had acted in any way unreasonable towards the current circumstances. Excuse me for not fawning over this man I've just met and never heard of until now and who's been seeing my mother for nearly twelve weeks without my knowledge.

"Come on, Jules," I said quietly. "We'd better go put our things away."

He nodded and began to follow me up the stairs. My mother always made us put our things away the moment we got home. We cleaned out our trunks, threw out things we didn't need, and put away all of our clothes and school things until it was time to go back on September first.

This time, though, Julian didn't go straight for his room like he usually did. Instead, he followed me into my room and fell back onto my bed as I began hanging up my clothes in the closet.

"What do you think?" he finally asked, staring at the ceiling.

"I told her everything I was thinking," I said, reaching down into my trunk and pulling out a slightly wrinkled shirt. I shook it out and slid it onto a hanger. "I don't care if she had to write us a letter. I just wished we had known. She could've even told us in the car on the way home from the station! But no, we just had to walk in to our own house to find some man in the kitchen."

"She looks like she likes him, though," Julian shrugged. "She seemed a little different."

"Maybe a little more smiley," I said, "but she's still herself." I snorted. "Telling me to be nice and then comparing me to you because you hadn't said a word. I know you and I are on the same page. Aren't we?" I glanced at him as I folded up the latest Weasley sweater I had received.

Julian nodded as he folded his hands behind his head. "Yeah, I wish she would've told us too. But, I mean…maybe she'll be happier now. Maybe he'll be good for her. Maybe she'll work less."

I looked at him sadly. "Oh, Jules, don't get your hopes up," I sighed. "That'd be great, but…she won't. It's been all about work for years."

"But now that she's not with Dad anymore….Now that she's found a new guy, maybe he'll—"

"Maybe he'll what?" I asked. "Start paying for everything so Mum doesn't have to work? She'd work even if he did do that. She likes being independent and she likes her job. It provides her with money and now with a little bit of fame with that new program starting at St. Mungo's. Besides, there's no way this Sam guy is better than Dad."

"I didn't say that," Julian said. "But maybe we could give him a chance."

"I guess that's fair," I said. "But I'm just saying that I wish I had known a little more in advance that he existed and has been going out with Mum."

Julian nodded. "Me too."

"I wonder how they met," I said a moment later, finishing putting away my clothes and kneeling down to start lifting my schoolbooks out of my trunk.

Julian shrugged. "Probably not at work. I don't remember seeing him at the Christmas party."

"There were a lot of people there," I argued with a shrug, sliding my books onto the bottom shelf of my bookshelf.

"Well, she's never talked about working with anyone named Sam."

I let out a dry laugh. "Clearly, that means nothing."

"True."

We were silent for a minute as, one by one, I finished putting away everything in my trunk before sliding the trunk itself under my bed and standing up. "Do you need any help unpacking your things?" I asked.

Julian sighed heavily and got up off my bed. "No, Lilah," he said irritably. "I don't need help doing simple tasks. It may surprise you, but I can do them. I can even use the toilet on my own, too!"

"Julian," I pleaded. "Come on, I was just asking because I'm already done and I'm willing to help if you wanted it. Please don't be that way."

Julian paused in the doorway. His head was down so I could only see his profile.

"We never got to really talk after we fought in the hospital wing after Ron broke his leg," I continued. "Or, at least, we never got to talk about the argument." I paused. "I don't baby you to try to make up for what you missed out on, although Merlin knows I wish I could redo those years for you. I guess I always worry and try to take care of you because you are my little brother and I know what we've gone through. I know it's been hard for me so I can only imagine what it's been like for you. For a long time it was just me, you and Dad against the world. At least that's what it felt like. And then Dad was gone and it was just me and you. And even though we each have our own friends now and I don't feel as…lonely, I still feel like when we come home, it's just me and you all over again. Nothing is easy out there, Jules. Things happen and they hurt you and maybe I just want to shield you from that for as long as I can."

Julian was quiet. He still didn't look at me. "I know things hurt, Liles," he finally said. "I was hurt when Mum and Dad split and you and I being essentially on our own after that didn't help. I felt lonely, too. So I know what being hurt feels like. I know what lonely feels like. And you can't shield me from things like that. At least not forever. Because they'll hurt so much more when I finally do feel them. I won't know how to handle it or deal with it on my own."

I blinked before breaking into a smile. "You've always been very wise and insightful, even as a little boy."

I saw a fleeting smile pass over his face. "But if it makes you feel better," he said. "I feel the same way you do. You get it. You were all I had for a long time, too. You're my sister and truly, I know I can go to you about everything."

I nodded and smiled as I felt a lump form in my throat. "Of course," I whispered.

Finally, Julian turned around and I could see tears forming in his own eyes. I'd only seen him cry once or twice since the night our parents divorced. Usually, he held it all in well in his attempt to behave like a grown up

"That being said," he continued, his voice shaky. He paused. "Honestly...I _don't_ know if I want Mum to see someone else. I _don't_ want anyone to replace Dad."

"Oh, Jules," I whispered. "No one is going to replace Dad. He's our Dad and no one can take that away. Maybe he doesn't live here anymore, but that means nothing. What means something is, well, the legal stuff, first of all. That stuff states he's our dad and no one else. Secondly, it's how he's treated us. He's always acted like a father to us, no matter what Mum thinks about him. Okay?"

Julian nodded and I beckoned him over with a tilt of my head. He crossed the room and wrapped his arms around me as I kissed the top of his head and hugged him tight.

* * *

"Mum has a new boyfriend."

Fred, George and I were sitting out by the pond that was out in their backyard. It was far enough from the house where someone could go there to get a bit of privacy without being overheard by someone hanging up the laundry or by Mr. Weasley working in his shed of Muggle devices. In fact, that was something I loved about the Burrow. It was in the middle of nowhere. There weren't any other houses around except for the Lovegoods and the Diggorys, both of which were a few hills over in either direction. So, technically, the Weasleys had a very, very big backyard.

Anyway, we had all gone for a swim and now we were sitting out on the dock that Mr. Weasley had built, using magic only on Mrs. Weasley's insistence. He had wanted to build it by hand, but no such luck. Angelina was hanging out with us as well, but she had gone up to the Burrow with Ginny to get us something to drink.

The area around the pond was filled with setting sunlight. The yellow glow filtered through the green leaves and rays of light shone over the shimmering pond water. Everything was still and quiet as if this was the only place on Earth and we were the only people.

I glanced up from staring down at my feet dangling in the water to see the twins staring at me with wide eyes.

"She does?" Fred asked. "How long have they been together?"

"Nearly three months now," I answered. "I just found out yesterday when we got back from King's Cross and he was in our house."

Fred and George both snorted with laughter. "Seriously?" George asked.

"Seriously," I nodded.

"What's his name?" Fred asked. "Is he nice?"

"His name is Sam and I guess so," I shrugged. "Julian and I hid upstairs for most of the rest of the day. Not that he was there that long anyway. Mum went to work shortly after we got back and he left, too, but then he was back for dinner. I was pretty upset about being kept out of the loop, so I didn't really talk to him. Julian did because he's trying to give him a chance, even though he's not happy either."

"What about you?" George asked. "Are you going to try and give him a chance?"

I nodded. "I mean, logically, that's fair and I suppose he deserves it. But I just need a chance to process it all before I can even fake being polite. So for now it's best to not say much at all."

Just then, Angelina and Ginny returned with the drinks. They passed out the bottles of butterbeer before Angelina plopped down next to Fred and kissed him. "Missed you," she smiled.

George, Ginny and I all groaned and rolled our eyes exaggeratedly. "Please," I said.

Angelina giggled before leaning up to kiss Fred again. When she pulled away, Fred looked back at the rest of us before smirking and going in to give her an even deeper kiss.

This time, we protested even louder, even resorting to kicking water at them with our feet. They both yelped as the waves of cold water hit their skin and they broke apart, cringing.

"That's freezing!" Angelina squealed.

"Nothing compared to how disgusted George, Lilah and I feel," Ginny muttered.

"Yeah, well…." Fred stood up and dusted off his legs before turning to walk away.

"Where are you going?" I called "Don't tell me you're going to sulk." I let out a teasing laugh that immediately faded as Fred turned around and, faster than I could blink, ran for the end of the dock where we were sitting. When he reached us, he launched himself into the air, pulled his legs to his chest and came splashing back down into the water, soaking George, Angelina, Ginny and I with the freezing cold pond water.

I let out a scream. "Fred Weasley!" I yelled. But then I realized he probably hadn't heard me. He was still underwater.

"Where'd he go?" Angelina asked, peering down into the water.

"Pull your feet up," I ordered, knowing Fred well enough to realize exactly what he was trying to do.

Ginny, George and Angelina did as I said, but right before I had gotten my left foot completely out of the water, a hand shot up from the depths, grabbed my ankle and pulled. I let out another shriek as I fell into the pond. I scrunched my eyes shut as I pushed myself to the surface.

"Frederick Gideon Weasley, I am going to kill you!" I cried, splashing water in the direction of his laughter. When I was done, I pushed my hair back and wiped water from my eyes before opening them and glaring at Fred, who was treading water in front of me, his trademark lopsided grin on his face. I scowled. "Stop smiling." I splashed him again and then finally broke out into a giggle as he splashed me back and tried to dunk my head underwater.

I felt water splash my face as Ginny, George and Angelina jumped in with us. "Get him away from me!" I laughed as Fred grabbed my wrist and tried to pull me closer to he could dunk me.

Suddenly, there was the sound of more excited yells as Ron and Julian crashed through the trees bordering one side of the pond. Julian got to the edge first and jumped, latching onto the rope dangling from one of the branches. He let it swing out as far as it could before letting go with a whoop and crashing into the water, soaking Fred in the process and getting him to let go of my arm.

"Thanks, Jules," I laughed, quickly swimming away from Fred before he could catch me again.

The seven of us played around in the water for a little while longer before Mrs. Weasley came down to call us all out for dinner.

"If you stay in that water much longer, you'll all catch cold," she said, ushering us all out and back up the hill towards the house. At the back door, she made us wait while she got us all towels. We dried ourselves off as best we could before traipsing through the house and upstairs to change.

Angelina and I followed Ginny into her room. I shivered and wrapped my towel even tighter around me. The air felt even colder than the water now that I wasn't swimming anymore. I grabbed my change of clothes from atop Ginny's dresser and dropped them onto her desk chair that was across the room from her bed, where she had already laid out her clothes.

The three of us changed quickly, still shivering. I pulled my wet hair into a bun before pulling the sleeves of my sweater down over my hands and scrunching my shoulders up.

"You ready?" I asked, turning to face the other two girls. They nodded and we all headed back out to the stairway.

"So I hear your whole family's going to Lilah's house this weekend," Angelina said, playfully hitting Ginny in the shoulder. "That'll be fun, I'm sure."

"I'm actually a bit excited," Ginny admitted. She looked at me. "Ron said Julian told him you live in a Muggle neighborhood so that's what Dad's excited about. But Julian also told Ron that you call your staircase a princess staircase." She smiled. "And he said your bedroom has a balcony."

"It does," I said with a smile. It was true that despite everything, I did love my house. I knew it was big and elaborate and kind of empty with only three people for the past five and a half years, but I did love it. It was my house. I'd been there all my life.

"I wish I could have a balcony," Ginny said with a wistful, almost sad sigh.

"They're not all they're cracked up to be," I told her. "I mean, an ax murderer could climb up the tree next to my window and let himself right in. I mean, I lock it at night, but he could break the windows of the doors with his ax."

Angelina snorted. "Why would you ever say something like that?"

"Just trying to assure Ginny that she isn't missing out on much," I shrugged with a smile as we reached the bottom of the stairs.

"But you don't need to say something like _that_," Angelina laughed.

I grinned and led the way into the kitchen where Mrs. Weasley was finishing up dinner.

"Need any help?" I asked her.

She glanced over her shoulder and smiled at me. "Can you three bring the plates, napkins and silverware out back?" She asked. "We'll be eating outside and the boys are already setting up the tables."

"Sure, Mrs. Weasley," Angelina said, grabbing the napkins and drink glasses. I grabbed the plates and Ginny grabbed the silverware. When we went outside, we saw that the twins, Ron and Julian were just finishing up putting the tablecloth over the two tables they had pushed together to accommodate all ten of us.

"Right on time," Fred beamed, kissing Angelina's temple when she reached him. She smiled and blushed before beginning to set the things in her arms on the table. Ginny and I followed suit and soon the table was finished. All that was missing was the food.

"Where's Percy?" I asked curiously as Mr. and Mrs. Weasley came out the back door with dishes of food in their hands and headed for the table.

"He's been up in his room all day preparing for his new job at the Ministry," George snorted.

"Ah," I replied. Percy had come out of Hogwarts with a job at the Ministry already lined up. He was working in the Department of International Magical Cooperation, so it wasn't the same department as his father, but I was sure having connections certainly helped him get a job so quickly. Although, his amazing grades in school were probably the main reason. Fred and George could tease him all they wanted, but he _was_ very smart.

Percy came outside a few minutes later and we all began dinner, which was usually chaotic with so many people trying to get food on their plates, but once we had all started eating, it was quieter, which was also very common for dinner at the Weasley's house. It would go from loud to silent in a matter of seconds because everyone was too busy enjoying Mrs. Weasley's food.

"So, Lilah," Fred said suddenly, looking excited. "I've been meaning to tell you. Dad got tickets to the Quidditch World Cup. I know you're going with Wood, so we'll probably see you there."

"Yeah?" I asked excitedly, as Julian groaned.

"Are you serious?" he cried. "Come on!"

Fred looked at him apologetically. "Sorry, Jules. But Dad only came home with enough tickets for the family. He hoped to convince Mum to come," he smiled, glancing at his mother. "But she couldn't be convinced. She hates Quidditch. So, Ron thought we should invite Harry too in Mum's place."

"Harry's going, too?" Julian cried. "Not fair."

"And Hermione," George added with an awkward cough, looking away.

"The thing is, Julian," Mr. Weasley said, looking truly embarrassed. "Once we found out Harry was coming, I thought you and Hermione would like to come, too. But since Fred and George told me Lilah was going, I assumed you were going with her. I didn't realize she was going with Oliver by herself until Ron said something and by then it was too late. I'm sorry. Otherwise, I would've tried to get a ticket for you as well." He paused. "I really am sorry."

"No, it's okay," Julian said, looking disappointed. "Lilah said she'll buy me a souvenir."

"I promise one day you'll get to go, Jules," I said. "If I have to start saving up money to take you, I'll do it."

He nodded, but I could still see he was disappointed. This was such a mess. I felt awful. I knew it wasn't anyone's fault, but it felt so unfair that everyone was going to be able to go to such an exciting event, except my brother, who was one of the people who loved Quidditch most of all. I considered offering to let him go in my place, but I knew he'd never accept it. I sighed and rested my chin in my hand as I continued eating. The World Cup was going to be Ireland versus. Bulgaria. My brother supported Ireland, but he was also a pretty decent fan of Viktor Krum. He and Ron had once spent half an hour talking about that one player alone. Maybe I could somehow get him Krum's autograph to make it up to him. Because if I was going to get him a souvenir, it was going to have to be a big one to properly cheer him up.


	29. Chapter 29

Two days later, I nervously stood at the dining room window, peering out from behind the curtain at the front gate. It was Saturday. _The _Saturday. The Weasleys were going to be here any minute for dinner and I was a nervous wreck.

At first, I had apologetically suggested that the Weasleys Apparate into a clearing in the woods behind my house as a method of transportation. I felt terrible about it-making them hike through the woods to get to our house wasn't all that polite. But luckily, they had actually worked out another way. Mr. Weasley was supposed to arrange for a Ministry car to take them. That had been a great relief. It was normal enough for my mother and for the neighborhood without having to make our guests hike through the woods.

The one major downside to tonight was that Sam was here. Honestly, I didn't need him to join us. That would just make things weirder. But then again, maybe he'd be a good influence on my mother. It was weird. She was different around him. Not a whole lot different, but a bit. She still worked all the time and she still didn't have much time for me and Julian. She still had us cleaning the house every week too. And it was obvious that she still wasn't the biggest fan of the Weasleys. But she hadn't made any rude remarks about them tonight. At least not yet. She hadn't said no to this dinner. She hadn't called it off. It was this strange mix of her still being my same old mother, just quieter. And that was usually only when she and Sam were together. If he wasn't around, then forget it.

Also, on the subject of Sam, he was cooking dinner tonight. Of course he could cook. Just another thing to add to how seemingly perfect he was. He was going to cook the whole meal, but I had insisted on making the dessert, mainly because I didn't want him to worm himself completely into the Weasleys good graces too. I just didn't want them to like him. I was still unsure and I didn't want them to automatically love him just like my mother had. Even Julian seemed to be warming up to the guy. I hated it. I wanted to have some part in this night. I didn't want the whole thing to be prepared by this random...guy that the Weasleys had never even met. He had already invaded my family and my house. I didn't want him to invade something else that was mine. So, I had insisted on making the dessert. A blueberry pie-the twins' favorite.

"They here yet?" Julian asked, coming to stand beside me at the window, drinking a glass of water.

"No," I answered, shaking my head and glancing behind me. I had set the table with a gold tablecloth, placing candles at both ends and setting the dishes and utensils out perfectly straight and centered. Otherwise my mother would notice and point it out, rolling her eyes as she did so.

"They're late." Mum herself breezed into the room, checking her watch.

"By how much?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

She pursed her lips. "Forty-five seconds," she said. She had already poured herself a glass of wine and had probably gulped half of it down already. That's how I could tell she was nervous. Either that or dreading the night ahead. Maybe a bit of both.

I shook my head and laughed. "Mum, please, I'm begging you. Try to give them a chance, okay? Don't you trust my judgement?"

"Of course, which is one of the main reasons why I haven't said anything and why I haven't canceled it all. If I didn't want to try, I could have certainly called it all off, not allowed this, and barricaded the door."

She did have a point, even if i suspected that Sam had talked her out of calling it off. I smiled. "Thank you. Honestly. It means a lot to me…and them."

A faint smile briefly crossed my mother's face before the sound of an engine came from outside and she nervously began smoothing her dress.

I quickly turned back to the window. "It's them," I hissed to Julian excitedly.

We watched as the car's doors opened and the Weasleys began pouring out. Mr. Weasley got out of the passenger seat and the rest of them began climbing out of the back.

"How are they all fitting in there?" Mum asked. "There are…." she did a quick head count, "seven of them. Six were crammed into the back!"

"An Undetectable Enlargement Charm maybe," Julian suggested.

"Good thing Bill and Charlie aren't home yet," I said. "They're the two oldest boys. They're in Egypt and Romania, remember?"

"Egypt and Romania," Mum repeated. She paused as the Weasleys stood at the front gate, gaping up at our house. They looked stunned and I felt uncomfortable. I could only imagine how they felt, finally seeing my house when they lived in a place like the Burrow. "I only hope neighbors didn't see them all pouring out of the car," Mum added. "And I also hope they don't notice the group of people gaping at our house. They look like tourists for heaven's sake!"

I rolled my eyes as the Weasleys finally made their way up the front walkway and towards the front door. I slipped out of the dining room and into the foyer, opening the door just as the Weasleys were climbing the porch steps.

"Hi," I said quietly, grinning at them. "You're here."

"We're here," Mrs. Weasley replied, grinning. She pulled me into a hug. "It's good to see you, dear. You have a _beautiful_ home."

"Thanks," I whispered into her shoulder before pulling away and hugging the others.

"You didn't tell me your house was this _huge_," Fred said when I got to him. "In fact, you didn't really tell me anything about your house."

"Julian told me about the stairs," Ginny chimed in, gazing at said stairs as all seven of them pooled into the foyer. I shut the door behind them and smiled.

"We could fit about two or three Burrows in this room alone, I bet," George whispered in awe.

"Look at that chandelier!" Mrs. Weasley sighed.

I stood leaning back against the front door, fighting back a giggle as they took everything in. Just then, they were distracted by my mother coming out of the dining room. She cleared her throat nervously.

"Hello. Joanna Matthews." She stuck out her hand and I held my breath. I watched as this time she shook every Weasley's hand without wiping her own hand on her dress afterwards. I had to fight back a cheer. "I believe we met briefly many years ago," she continued.

Mrs. Weasley nodded and grinned. "I'm sure you've forgotten our names by now—there's so many of us! But let's see…." She turned and pointed to Percy, who was standing just behind her right shoulder. "This is my third oldest, Percy. Bill and Charlie work in Egypt and Romania. Bill is a curse breaker and Charlie works with dragons. And in fact, Percy here just graduated Hogwarts and got a job at the Ministry in the Department of International Magical Cooperation."

"Is that right?" Mum asked, raising an eyebrow in interest. That was definitely a higher up department than the one she knew Mr. Weasley worked for, so of course she was impressed.

"He did outstanding on both his OWLs and NEWTs," Mrs. Weasley bragged proudly. "Earned one for every subject, both sets of exams."

"That's excellent," Mum nodded. "Congratulations."

"Thank you," Percy said, puffing his chest out and adjusting his glasses.

Mrs. Weasley turned to the twins next. "These are the twins. I'm sure you remember them. They're the jokesters of the family. They've driven me up the walls since the day they were born, but Merlin can they make me laugh. When they're actually being funny, that is, and not pulling pranks."

"Pranks," Mum said flatly, looking the twins over.

"Yes, pranks," Mrs. Weasley said, rolling her eyes. "They want to make a career out of it. We've been hearing explosions coming out of their room ever since they got home for the summer."

"Explosions?" Mum asked, her eyes widening as her eyebrows shot up.

Mrs. Weasley nodded. "But they're good boys, really. Very sweet when they want to be."

Fred and George beamed up at my mother as innocently as they could. But she was still analyzing them. I could tell. I could also tell that she was thinking that of course her daughter had to befriend the two members of the family who liked to play pranks and blow things up. She was probably wondering why, oh why couldn't her daughter have made friends with the genius of the family?

"This is Ron," Mrs. Weasley continued, pointing. "Julian's friend. He's been giving Julian a lot of pointers on playing chess from what I heard. And this is Ginny, my youngest. A year younger than Ron and Julian."

Mum nodded. "I think I've got that all down." She forced herself to smile. "Dinner should be ready shortly. Would you like to come sit in the living room? What about drinks? Does anyone want a drink?"

"Is it okay if I show Ginny my room?" I asked, glancing at the youngest redhead, who beamed. I smiled. I knew how much she wanted to see my bedroom. And the balcony.

"And the twins," Fred added with an innocent smile. "Ginny and the twins."

"Erm," Mum said. She hesitated before putting on a smile. "You know the rules. No boys allowed in your bedroom."

"That's never been a rule," I said.

"Only because you've never had boys over before," Mum said with a nervous laugh as she fixed her hair.

"Oliver's been here," I said.

"Once. At the Christmas party that he showed up to unexpectedly. And that was before you were dating!"

"We'll all be up there together," I shrugged. "We won't be long. Plus, come on, it's Fred and George." I rolled my eyes and pretended to gag.

"We're offended!" the twins gasped, gaping at me.

"We'll have you know," Fred said, "that the two of us are very handsome. Besides our talent for jokes and pranks, our looks are our second best attribute."

Mum stared at the twins with pursed lips for a moment before glancing at the rest of the Weasleys and then back at me. "Fine. But not long, okay?"

I smiled and nodded before leading Ginny and the twins up the stairs, Julian hot on our heels.

"This staircase _is_ a princess staircase," Ginny said with a sigh, pausing at the top and looking down.

I smiled and leaned against the wall outside my bedroom. "I told Oliver that I used to slide down the banister as a kid. Julian used to do it too. Remember?" I glanced at my brother, who grinned and nodded.

"When we'd help Dad clean, he'd start it and then he'd encourage us to do it," he said. "And we would, with a little help from him."

"A Balancing Charm, I think," I added.

"When's the last time you did it?" Fred asked, passing me and pausing in my bedroom doorway. "Is this your room?" he asked, without waiting for an answer to his first question. When I nodded, he walked right in, leaving the rest of us to follow him.

"Did what? Slid down the banister?" I asked, taking a seat on the edge of my bed.

Fred nodded as he began making his way around my room, examining everything. I saw Ginny eyeing the balcony doors and smiled.

"Go ahead," I said to her, tilting my head towards the French doors.

She all but ran outside and I saw her taking in the view. "This is beautiful!" she cried.

"I have to admit, it is pretty snazzy," George said, following his sister and letting out an impressed whistle. "Ah, look!" I heard him exclaim. "There's even a tree in the vicinity for the perfect opportunity to sneak out."

I cleared my throat awkwardly. "Sure," I answered, "I suppose." I looked at Julian, who smiled apologetically at me.

"Wait until you hear the story of the time Dad climbed _up_ the tree and banged on the windowpanes of the door," he called out to George, following him and Ginny outside. "Lilah screamed so loud, Mum and I thought something bad had happened to her. Mum was _not_ happy when she found out it was just Dad.

I laughed and smiled appreciately at his slight change of subject from me sneaking out to dad sneaking in.

"So," Fred prompted. He was standing at my desk now, running his finger along the few quills I had laying out. "You never answered my question. When was the last time you slid down the banister?"

I shrugged. "Years ago, I suppose. Before Dad moved out."

"Why not since?" Fred asked curiously, sitting down on the edge of the other side of the bed and looking at me.

"I'd fall off," I snorted. "With no one to help me balance..." I trailed off and shrugged.

"There's always the option of sliding down on your stomach," Fred countered. "If you want to do it, there's always a way to do it."

"Who said I wanted to?" I asked with a smile, raising an eyebrow.

Fred shrugged and lay back on my bed, resting his hands behind his head and putting his feet up.

"Seriously?" I asked, nodding towards his feet.

He smirked, but didn't answer. "Do you want to or not?"

I was quiet as I picked at a loose thread on my comforter. Finally, I met his eyes. "Yeah, I'd like to."

"Then do it," he whispered.

"Fred," I said, giving him a look.

"Lilah," he said, widening his eyes at me.

I laughed as I stared back at him. He and George never ceased to amaze me. They were so confident and comfortable with almost everything. I mean, they hadn't even been in my house five minutes and Fred was already making himself comfortable on my bed. And he was telling me that I should slide down my banister again, something I hadn't done since I was about ten, but still kind of missed doing sometimes.

"I'll fall," I said. "I told you. Even if I did go on my stomach...I've never done it on my own before."

"Don't be a wimp," Fred laughed. "You have to learn to take some risks, Lilah."

"Well if I'm going down on my stomach, how can I see anything? The only thing I'll see will be the banister. Won't it be less exhilarating and fun that way?"

Fred just stared at me, studying my face with an amused smile on his face. "Maybe you're right," he said. "That is actually a good point."

"Even still," I said. "I will fall. I'm not confident in being able to do that without the aid of magic, which I can't do legally until October."

Fred shook his head. "And? The worst that'll happen is you'll break a bone."

"You don't know that," I told him. "Why don't you test it out now and we'll see what injuries you get?"

Fred laughed. "Fine, but when you turn seventeen...I want you to slide down that banister."

"But my mother-"

"Doesn't know what fun is," Fred answered swiftly, waving a hand around impatiently. "Besides, shouldn't there be something...amazing about seeing your child do something that makes them happy, even if you disagree with it?"

I laughed again. "I suppose...But we're talking about sliding down a banister here, Fred."

"It's the little things," he replied with a smile, his eyes searching my face again.

I looked away and stared back down at my bedspread. It was kind of making me nervous the way he was staring at me. Directly at me with that amused smile and his hands casually tucked behind his head while he lounged beside me on my bed.

"So, is Sam here?" Fred asked after a second.

"He's cooking," I said, wrinkling my nose.

Fred raised his eyebrows. "Why is that a bad thing? It smells delicious, Lie."

"I know," I said with a sigh. I hated to admit it. "I made dessert, though." I looked up at him with a smile. "Blueberry pie."

"My favorite," Fred said, smiling back.

I nodded as his smile faded a bit. I just stared back at him for a moment, wondering what he was thinking. Here he was, catching up on all the bits of my life he had wanted to discover nearly five years ago. I wondered if it was what he had expected so far.

"You don't like him," he finally stated. "Sam."

I shrugged. "I don't know yet. Still deciding. I just...don't want him to replace my dad. I know he really can't. Not technically. But I don't want him to even try. I don't want people to act like he has."

"No one expects you to act like he's been your dad all along," Fred said thoughtfully. "Especially not right away. That would be mental."

I bit my lip. "I just...I don't know, Fred. I don't know if I trust him. He seems...too good. He's seemed to tone my mother down a bit. He's cooking dinner. He's winning Julian over and he's already won over Mum. He'll probably win your family over as well by the time the night ends. I don't know. I still feel like it's too soon. I feel like having another man around is a betrayal to my dad. And like I said, he seems too good and too perfect so far."

"So that means there's something terribly wrong with him?" Fred asked. "He doesn't have to have anything wrong with him."

"I don't know what he wants," I said. "Dating a divorced woman with two kids?"

Fred laughed and sat up. "Maybe he wants a family." When I shrugged, he laughed again. "Lie, people do that all the time. It's not unusal or a dealbreaker for a lot of people." He paused. "It's kind of normal."

I shrugged again, hating the way he was making me feel stupid, however unintentional it may have been.

"You really don't trust him yet?" Fred asked, scanning my face seriously again.

I shook my head. "No," I whispered. "Maybe I'm crazy, but-"

"No," Fred said slowly, shaking his head. "You're not."

"It all seems too good to be true. I don't want everyone to get their hopes up only for it to end again."

"So it really has nothing to do with Sam?" Fred asked.

I shrugged again. "It does and it doesn't, I guess. I don't really know him. He hasn't given me a reason to not trust him, sure, but he hasn't really given me a reason _to _trust him either. Despite him being...helpful, I suppose, he hasn't proven himself yet. At least not to me."

Fred was quiet, but I could practically see the gears turning in his head. He was thinking.

"What's going on in that head of yours?" I whispered with a small smile. "Do I want to know?"

He grinned and stood up, stretching his arms above his head. "No, it's nothing. So what was with that look on your face when George said your tree was perfect for sneaking out?"

I hesitated. "Erm, well...I don't think now's a good time."

"As good a time as any," Fred said, turning to face me and sticking his hands in his pockets as he grinned.

"The night my parents decided to divorce," I said slowly, "was my birthday. It happened after I was punished for getting a bad grade on a quiz that my private tutor gave us. Dad convinced me to sneak out and go trick-or-treating. I did so using that tree. When we got back, there was a huge argument and my parents decided to split that night. I've always kind of felt a bit guilty about that. I mean, I know it's not my fault, not really. But I feel like I was the final straw. My mother makes me feel like that sometimes at least. She always brings that night up..." I shrugged. "I didn't mean to ramble, but I just thought you should finally know. I'm working on this thing where I actually let the people who care about me know about the parts of my life that I'm insecure about."

Fred grinned. "I'm honored," he said. "And you're right. It's not your fault. If it didn't happen on your birthday, it would've happened another day. Actually, if you want my opinion, I'm glad you snuck out. I'm glad you didn't listen to your mother. She's too uptight anyway. Not letting you go out because of a bad grade? Merlin, if my mother did that, George and I would _never_ be allowed to leave the Burrow!"

I smiled. "Thanks for the reassurance."

Fred nodded and held out a hand to me to pull me to my feet. "Anytime, Liles." He hesitated again and smiled. "Thank _you _for trusting me enough to let me in. It only took five whole years."

I giggled. "Shut up."

We sat down to dinner shortly after. We managed to make it through without any issues, which I was thankful for. Once everyone's plates were empty and nothing had happened, I sighed with relief. Now we just had to get through dessert.

One thing I did keep noticing, though, was the way the twins kept looking at each other and silently communicating. I could only hope they weren't going to do anything that would get me in trouble. But I couldn't say anything during dinner so I kept my mouth shut. They had seemed to be on their best behavior so far. They had offered help numerous times and had even offered to refill the adults' wine glasses. Part of me was skeptical of their behavior, but another part of me pushed the doubt away. They wouldn't do anything that would get me in trouble with my mother. They knew how things were. I was just being silly.

"So, Sam," Mr. Weasley began, "do you work at the publishing company with Joanna? Is that how you met?"

"No, I actually work for the Daily Prophet as a photographer. I'm the one who took the picture of Joanna and Phillip Hamilton at St. Mungo's when they introduced the new reading program. After we were done, I told her no newspaper photo would do her beauty justice."

Mum blushed as I fought the urge to drive the candlestick in front of me straight into my eye. This guy was so corny.

"That's gross," Julian said, wrinkling his nose as he expressed my sentiment.

Everyone laughed at Julian's comment, though, except Mum. She sent him a look, but when she saw everyone else laughing, she plastered a smile on her face and pretended to think everything was hilarious as well.

"You really do have a lovely home," Mrs. Weasley said, looking around the room.

"So do you," I said with a smile.

"Oh, thank you, dear. But your house..." She sighed. "I would've loved to have a house like this, but we just couldn't afford it." She smiled widely and looked around at her husband and children. "But I wouldn't trade our family for anything. I love them so much more than I ever could love a house. The Burrow works. It gives us everything we need. Sure, it's cramped, but we all have room and we all have shelter. We have food. We can't buy extravagent clothes and the younger children get a lot of hand-me-downs, but we manage. And we can't have a lot of extras, but we have each other. I know it sounds cliché, but it's true. And we have a lot of land for everyone to make use of. There's the makeshift Quidditch pitch, the pond...like I said, we manage."

"But if you had less children," Mum began, "you could afford so much more, don't you think?"

"Well, sure," Mr. Weasley shrugged as I fought back a groan. "But we love having a large family. We're all so close and there's always someone to turn to. Always someone to play with."

"But don't things get chaotic?" Mum asked, staring at Mrs. Weasley over the top of her wine glass. In fact, she was kind of squinting at her, as if she couldn't focus. I suddenly wondered if she'd been drinking before dinner. It would explain why she suddenly couldn't stop talking. Instead of realizing she should continue being polite and keeping her mouth shut about anything involving money, she had to go into the off-limit topics. She didn't sound accusatory or disgusted, just curious, which I suppose was good in some way. But still, I didn't like what she was implying—that the Weasley's had way more children than they could afford. I didn't know if she would've done that anyway, wine or no wine, but it was definitely playing a part.

"Of course," Mrs. Weasley answered politely. "Especially with these two around." She pointed at Fred and George.

"But you must have known," Mum said, looking confused.

"Known what?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"Well, you must have known that the more kids you had, the more you'd struggle to make ends meet. Maybe you should've thought more about what you'd be able to afford."

"Mum," I said, sending her a look. "Don't. Please, don't."

"I just think," she said, "that it was some poor planning. Things could've been so much different if you hadn't had so many children. Or if you _both_ worked."

"Mum, stop, don't go there," I said.

"I just—"

She was cut off by a sudden _poof_ from Sam's place at the table. And just like that, he was gone. I blinked for a moment, but then my mother happened to look down at Sam's chair and shriek. She jumped to her feet and we all peered at the chair to have a look, some of us half standing up to do so. Sitting there on the seat was a brown, bumpy toad. It croaked once before there was another poof and Sam was sitting back in his chair, looking shell shocked.

Fred and George were shaking with laughter, but doing their best to hide it. I, on the other hand, sat there in stunned silence. I wished someone would do or say something. I knew this wouldn't go over well with my mother, but I had no idea how Sam would react.

"What was that?" he asked slowly.

"Our sons," Mrs. Weasley whispered, her face white and her eyes wide. "We've said they like jokes, but we never thought-we've raised them to-we thought they'd know better-"

"Toad Tablets," Fred said, his shoulders still shaking with laughter. "They can be slipped into people's drinks and they dissolve clear so that no one notices. They're tasteless and odorless, too. George and I just finished testing them on ourselves and we needed someone else to try them on."

I buried my head in my hands. The twins had mentioned the Toad Tablets to me, but they hadn't said they were finished with them. And they hadn't said they wanted to test them out yet. When I looked up, my mother was glaring at me, practically smoking at the ears.

"Lilah," she snapped. "Can I see you in the kitchen, please?"

"Now Joanna," Sam said, holding up a hand. "Before you get angry...I actually think it was kind of amusing myself. I mean, no one's hurt, right?"

"Not the point," Mum hissed, standing up. "Lilah, kitchen, now."

I gulped and stood on shaky legs, all eyes on me as I exited the silent dining room after my mother, taking my dish and Julian's with me as I went. Once we got to the kitchen, I watched as my mother immediately emptied the rest of the wine bottle into her glass and took a sip.

"How much did you have before they got here?" I asked, looking at her redder than usual cheeks.

"I don't remember," she answered, teetering a bit. "But that's not the point. The point is that those two hooligans you call your best friends just had the nerve to pull a prank in this house! On Sam no less!" She hiccupped and pointed a shaky hand at the dining room.

"Oh, Merlin," I whispered. I was beginning to panic. Mum never did things like this. She never got drunk or even really that tipsy. She always knew how to control herself because being drunk made people look like fools, according to her. And of course, she had to do this now. "Why?" I asked as she turned towards the sink and put all the dirty dishes inside of it. "Why are you like this?"

"I needed something to help me relax if we were going to have _those people_ in our house." She gestured over her shoulder with the hand that was still holding the wine glass.

"Those people are my friends, Mum," I whispered, my voice cracking. I was on the verge of tears. "I thought tonight was going to be different. I thought you might've actually been giving them a chance. But you were nice and buzzed and relaxed when they got here and now you're just getting more and more drunk and spewing insulting nonsense everywhere."

"They're polite, sure, and they seem like _nice_ people," she said. "But that Percy boy seems to be the only logical one out of the whole lot. I mean, look at the father. Obsessed with Muggles! He _collects plugs_! And did you hear what they were saying about their oldest? The long hair? The earring? And their second oldest working with dragons? How reckless! And those twins…they're the worst of the lot! Besides what they did to Sam-which was completely disrespectful and rude, by the way-they spend their free time sitting in their room blowing things up and pranking people! They want to open a joke shop!" She laughed, hiccupping as she did so. "Come on, Lilah, that's ridiculous! And their youngest son must've eaten more than all of us combined!"

"So?" I asked, tears burning my eyes and rolling down my cheeks.

"And it's such a shame that the girl is going to end up the same way as her brothers…reckless and crazy. Probably dying her hair bright blue or getting _fang_ earrings." She shook her head and downed the rest of her wine. "They clearly have too many children to handle and way more than they can afford. And then they have the nerve to say their life is _better_ than ours!"

"They never said that!" I exclaimed. I wished she'd stop talking. I wasn't sure what she truly meant or not. All of it? None of it? Half of it? She was well on her way to being completely drunk, so I didn't know if she even realized what she was doing. "Don't you care about how you must look to them?" I practically spat. "Getting drunk? You look silly."

She let out a bitter laugh. "I don't care how I look to _them_. They mean nothing. Like I said, they're completely illogical! They think they're fine the way they are, but they don't know what they're missing out on. Food, better clothes, a better house."

"They're happy!" I argued. "So much happier than we are! I'd take their family over ours any day!"

"How dare you!" Mum slapped her hand on the counter and I backed away slightly, tuning my head away from her. "I know I raised you better than this, Lilah Fitzgerald," she said. "I've wondered what's gotten into you and now I wonder if it's _them_." She pointed over my shoulder towards the dining room. "You've been spending so much time with them that they're…brainwashing you! Maybe they know how to behave for the most part, but I can see that they're all pretty wild. Fang earrings, joke shops, working with dragons….it's all reckless and wild and careless and you're turning out just like them."

"Good," I whispered.

Mum frowned at me before turning back to the sink. "This is why I wanted your father out of the picture," she said. "He's a lot like them. He's different than us. They're different than us. But maybe you're different, too. Maybe you're like _him_. Like _them_."

"As I said…good." I answered.

"They're trash, Lilah. And if you want to throw your life away to choose them. If you want to choose them over me…the one who raised you, then go right ahead. But don't come crying to me when you end up just like them. Because I certainly won't be giving you any handouts."

"I don't want or need any handouts from anyone. Especially you," I hissed, curling my fingers into fists.

"Then I hope you enjoy living like them. In a dumpy rickety _shack_ with barely two Sickles to rub together." She paused. "And stop crying. _You're_ the one who looks ridiculous."

I heard a noise from behind me and whirled around to see Mrs. Weasley standing in the kitchen doorway with Ginny and Julian.

"We came to see if you needed any help with clean up," Mrs. Weasley said briskly, practically shooting daggers at my mother. "But you seem to have it under control."

"How much did you hear?" I whispered, looking at Ginny.

"Erm…." She looked at me guiltily. "Pretty much all of it. Your voices got kind of loud…."

I let out a watery, bitter laugh. Then, before I could stop it, a sob escaped my throat. I couldn't stand there any longer, so I swiped at my eyes and ran from the room.

* * *

There was a wooden swing in our backyard, hanging from a tree branch. Dad had put it up for Julian and me years ago so that we'd have something to entertain ourselves with when we did get the chance to play outside. We'd take turns pushing each other for _hours._ After a while, we used it less and less frequently, but it still hung from a sturdy branch of a tree at the back corner of our yard. Mum had never taken it down.

So that was where I sat now, lightly gripping the ropes with my hands as I stared down at my bare feet. My shoes had been kicked off somewhere along the way as I ran through the yard to escape the kitchen.

I hoped the Weasleys were gone by now. I hadn't said goodbye, which would have normally bothered me, but I was mortified. Not like I'd see them again anyway. I'd probably be too embarrassed to ever look them in the eye again, first of all. And secondly, they probably hated me beyond belief. I even hated me right now. How could I let this happen?

"Need a push?" I looked up to see the twins making their way towards me. The moonlight was currently casting half of their faces in shadow so I couldn't see their expressions.

"Only if you think you can push me so hard that I fly up to the moon," I answered, wiping a hand across my cheeks to get rid of the few remaining tears that were left behind.

The twins looked at each other, before one of them came to stand behind me and pressed his hands into my back, gently propelling me forward a bit.

"We're sorry, Liles," the twin pushing me whispered. When he spoke, I knew it was Fred.

"Why are _you _sorry?" I asked.

"This whole thing was our idea," George said, lowering himself to the grass a few feet in front of me. He set two objects down in front of him that I realized were my shoes. "I found your shoes, by the way."

"Your whole family heard _everything_," I whispered, staring at the ground and shaking my head. "My mother was getting drunk. It's embarrassing." I paused. "She never does that, just so you know. She hates looking like a fool in front of people."

"But she doesn't care what she looks like in front of us," George said. "We heard."

"I'm so sorry," I said. "I don't know what to say."

"Don't say anything," Fred said from behind me as he kept pushing me gently. "You don't have to. You don't have to apologize or explain. You warned us and we wanted to come here anyway."

"We're happy we met your mother," George said. "Sure, she was rude and insulting and now Fred and I totally understand your warnings, but…at least now we know firsthand. It's better this way. No secrets. No holding anything back. We never wanted that kind of relationship with you. We came here tonight mostly because of you, not because of your mother."

I swallowed as more tears silently cascaded down my cheeks. "Does your family hate me?"

"No," Fred whispered. "We all heard you defending us. Thank you, by the way. It means a lot."

I shook my head. "I told you I would," I said. "I told you I'd defend you."

"You don't have to do that, you know," George said. "If you want to drop us, we get it. You can salvage your relationship with your mother."

"No," I answered firmly. "I don't care if my relationship with my mother falls to pieces. She's wrong about you. She's wrong and I'm not going to side with her when I so strongly disagree."

The twins were silent. Finally, Fred grabbed the rope, his own fingers closing over it just above mine, gently dragging me to a stop. He came to stand in front of me. "Lilah, look at me," he said.

I looked up at him, not even bothering to hide my miserable expression. My eyes were wet, red and puffy and my cheeks were also wet with tear tracks.

"Don't cry," Fred whispered, reaching out and wiping away the tears on my cheeks. "If anything, this whole night is our fault. You told us something like this would happen, but we insisted. Like George said, I'm glad we did it because now we know firsthand what your mother's like…but knowing firsthand is kind of rough. Besides, we're the ones who pulled the prank on Sam and started the whole thing."

"Why'd you do it?" I asked.

"You said you didn't like him," Fred asnwered simply. "It seemed only fair that we prank him if he makes you uneasy." He paused. "He actually seemed kind of cool with it, though, which is strange. I, personally, haven't had any reason to think he's untrustworthy, but if he bothers you..." he shrugged.

"My mother will never let me live it down," I sighed. "She'll never let _you_ live it down. In fact, you might have ruined your chances of her ever liking you."

"We'll live," Fred said with a quiet laugh. "_She'll_ live. Actually, having her hate us is worth it if we can contribute to teaching her a very valuable lesson."

"Which is?" I prodded.

The twins looked at each other before looking at me again.

"The thing about life, Lilah," Fred whispered, meeting my eyes. "Is that it goes on. So, George and I think it's best to just go with it instead of trying to fight it tooth and nail like your mother seems to do."

I smiled. "She won't see this as you teaching her a lesson though. You know that, right?"

"We do," George said.

"And do you think we care?" Fred added.

I let out a quiet laugh. "No, of course not."

Fred grinned and suddenly knelt down. He grabbed one of my shoes with one hand and my foot with the other. And then he began to put my shoes back on for me in silence.

"Is the rest of your family still inside my house?" I asked, suddenly wondering what was going on in there if the Weasleys hadn't left yet. For all I knew, the house could be getting destroyed from the inside out in a huge brawl between my family and theirs.

Fred nodded as he finished with my shoes and sat back on his knees. "Sam came in and brought your mother upstairs and the rest of my family decided to clean up.

I gaped at him. "After all that happened?"

Fred smiled and nodded again. "Not so much for your mother, but for you and Julian."

I let out a watery laugh. "Still friends?" I asked. "No hard feelings?"

"None," Fred answered, crossing his heart with his fingers.

"At all," George agreed, doing the same.

Fred stood up and held out his hand to me. "Come on, let's get you back inside."

I took his hand and let him pull me to my feet. His skin was warm and callused on mine and it practically sent waves of comfort through my entire body. I felt immensely more relaxed. The Weasleys didn't hate me. Maybe what had happened tonight hadn't ruined everything like I thought they had. It looked like things could turn out all right after all.


	30. Chapter 30

"See, this is what happens when we don't get to see each other in person for a week," Dad said, pointing his fork at me.

I half-smiled. It was the next weekend and Julian and I were spending it at Dad's flat. Dad had cooked and we were all eating dinner. I had even been able to invite Oliver over and Julian and I had just finished filling them in on Mum's new boyfriend and the dinner with the Weasleys.

I had barely talked to Sam in the past week, but he was slowly becoming buddy-buddy with Julian and I hated it. He had even convinced Mum to let Julian have his own broom at some point, so he had come into our house the other night, brandishing a new broomstick with a red bow attached. And not just any broom, mind you, a Cleensweep Eleven, the same as Oliver's. Julian had been ecstatic and had immediately gone out back with Sam to try it out, only after promising to stay in the clearing in the woods behind our house and to not fly higher than the trees. I, on the other hand, had sulked in my room the rest of the night. When Julian asked what was wrong later, I told him I was fine and to bugger off. He looked hurt and I immediately felt bad. I never talked to him like that.

"I know," Julian said excitedly in respnse to what Dad had said. "So much has happened."

"So, you say this Sam guy is nice?" Dad asked, looking from me to Julian as he took a bite of his chicken.

I propped my head up in my hand as I stared down at my plate and pushed my food around, deciding to let Julian answer the question.

"He's great, Dad! He convinced Mum to let me have a broom! They got me a Cleansweep Eleven, just like Oliver has!"

"Really," Dad said, staring at Julian. I couldn't read his expression. I couldn't tell if he was upset about Sam's role in our lives and that he had been able to convince Mum to let Julian have a broom-something Dad had never been able to do—or if he was glad that Julian was so happy about this new development in our lives. Maybe he was both.

"He can't replace you," I finally said, looking up at Dad and raising the side of my head off my hand. "He's not our father."

Dad smiled. "I appreciate that, Lie, but if your mother's happy and if he's a good man, then I'm happy for all of you."

"Lilah doesn't like him," Julian said with a roll of his eyes. "She barely speaks to him."

"I'm just taking longer to process," I said. "I don't think I'm quite read to have a new dad figure just yet."

"It's been years," Dad said gently. "And besides, what if I brought home a girlfriend? Would you want a new mother figure?"

I hesitated. "No, I'm not sure I'd want that either," I said with a sigh.

"Your mother and Sam look pretty serious now," Oliver said, looking at me. "At least from what you've told me."

"He's still not my dad," I replied firmly. "I don't understand how everyone seems to be okay with the fact that Julian and I just discovered his existence a week and a half ago and now it's okay to welcome him into our lives with open arms."

"But he's been brilliant in a week and a half!" Julian protested. "He let _mum_—_our_ Mum—be convinced to let _me_ have a broom! And he convinced her to actually let me ride it! And she clearly really likes him. She's not as picky."

"Only because she's around even less!" I answered. "I never see her anymore because when she's not working, she's off with him. And working on the reading program at St. Mungo's has made her even busier too, so now she's just practically non-existent. I'm fairly certain I've only seen her two or three times in the past week. But Sam, he's just making himself comfortable in our house…eating our food, using our things…and he still makes me and Julian do everything. He cooks, sure, but we still clean and do laundry. We have to do all the dirty work."

"Come on, Liles, you never minded doing any of that before. We used to have fun doing it," Dad said.

"Yeah, I had fun doing it with you. And after you left, I didn't mind it, but now…I don't want to do any chores that involve him. I don't want to do his laundry or clean up after him. If he's going to practically live with us, he can at least help out a bit. Make things easier, you know?"

"Well, you either want him to act like a part of the family or you don't, Lilah," Dad shrugged. "You can't have it both ways."

"Is this about the dinner with the Weasleys?" Oliver asked patiently.

"No!" I exclaimed with a dry laugh. "It has nothing to do with that. My relationship with the Weasleys is fine."

"Then what, Lilah?" Dad asked gently.

"I need time to trust him," I said. "I barely know him. I was taken by surprise and now he's practically living in my house. And he'll try to act like my dad. He'll tell me what to do, try to give me advice about my future, tell me to start another load of laundry..." I sighed.

"Well even if you need time to get to know him, you'll still have to _talk_ to him," Julian said with a snort. "Not hide out in your room all the time."

"Well, if Mum hadn't ambushed us-"

"Lilah, you need to get over it," Julian snapped. "Get over being ambushed and get over yourself and give this guy a chance."

I felt a lump growing in my throat. I held back my tears before going back to picking at the mashed potatoes on my plate.

"What's going on, Lilah?" Dad asked gently

"Nothing!" I protested. I sighed and stood up, tossing my napkin onto my chair. "Excuse me for a moment." I hurried away from the table and into the bedroom of my dad's flat that I usually shared with Julian. I took a seat on the bed and buried my face in my hands as I fought to take one deep breath after the other in order to calm down.

A moment later, I heard the door open again and the bed sink down and creak a bit as someone sat next to me.

"Lilah?" Oliver's quiet voice broke the silence. He gently pulled my hands away from my face and turned me to face him. "Talk to me. What's going on?"

I refused to meet his eyes. "I'm fine. Just a little emotional I guess."

"Over what?" he prodded. "Please, just talk to me."

I sighed and closed my eyes. "I just love my dad and I don't want Sam to replace him or think he's already our dad so soon. And only when he and my mother are dating. They aren't engaged or married. How do we know this will last? How do we know he won't leave? And if Julian-if _both _of us-get attached, then another person leaving might be even harder. Especially on Julian. And personally, I just need time and I need to work this out and accept Sam at my own pace and on my own terms. And I feel like everyone else automatically loves him and nags me about not loving him that much as well."

"I think it's fine if you need time and it's fine if you don't want to see him as a Dad just yet," Oliver said. "But Julian did have a point. You'll have to talk to the guy in order to do that."

"I just feel like why bother if this is going to be temporary? Why bother if it's going to have an ending, just like everything else in life does?"

"You don't know that," Oliver whispered. "Honestly, that doesn't seem like your mentality. If that's what you really think, then why bother with us? Why don't we break up now and get the ending over with?"

"Oliver, don't," I sighed, looking away. But I knew he was right. I didn't usually think like that. Not about everything at least. But sometimes I couldn't help it.

"It might end," Oliver said. "Between Sam and your mother. It might not. They might get married and that'll be hard and take some adjusting. But you've got to at least try, Liles. You've got to set a good example for Julian, right?"

"He's already setting an example for me," I said with a small smile. "I don't feel like the older sister sometimes at all."

"He still looks up to you very much and cares what you think. Why else would be be so worried that you're acting weird about Sam?"

"He just thinks I'm crazy," I said.

Oliver laughed. "No he doesn't. Trust me." He leaned forward to kiss my forehead as he put an arm around my shoulders and pulled my legs onto his lap with his other hand. "Your concerns are very legitimate," he said. "After what you experienced, I think they make sense. Your parents already split up once and your dad moved out. You only get to see him every other weekend….It's not a great or ideal situation. So you don't want to get too attached only for it to happen again. But you don't have to keep your guard up so high, you know?"

"Maybe I do," I answered.

"No, you don't," Oliver argued. "Seriously, I think you should give Sam a chance. He does deserve one, doesn't he? Sure, it was unfair that the news was sprung upon you like it was. Your mother may have approached it the wrong way, but if she's happy with him and if he's trying and making an effort to be part of your family and accept you and Julian…It's probably hard for him to take on two kids along with dating your mother. If he's making an effort, that's great, isn't it?"

I was quiet as I fiddled with the collar of Oliver's shirt. "He's not my dad," I said, for what felt like the millionth time that night.

"No, he's not," Oliver agreed. "And he never will be. But that doesn't mean he's the enemy, does it? He can just be another adult in your life for you to be close to and for you to consider unofficial family, right? It'll happen in time. Isn't that how you feel about Mr. and Mrs. Weasley? And…perhaps my parents?" He smiled hopefully.

I actually laughed. "I love your parents," I said. "I really do."

Oliver smiled. "And they love you." He paused. "Look, maybe as long as Sam is trying, you could try too."

I shrugged. "I guess," I finally said.

Oliver sighed, but I saw him smile. "It's a start, I suppose."

I smiled back before leaning up to kiss him, resting a hand on his cheek. He deepened it, tightening his grip around my shoulders and bringing his free hand up to rest on my cheek.

"If I don't hear any hint of voices in there," my Dad called from the other room, "I'm going to have to assume you're doing something that is forbidden in this flat. Therefore, I'll have to come in and separate you two myself."

I giggled as Oliver pulled away. "I don't think I want that," he laughed.

"Neither do I," I answered, letting out a laugh of my own. I gave Oliver one last kiss on the cheek before standing up and reaching for his hand. "Come on, let's go finish dinner."

* * *

A week after the dinner at my dad's flat, I was pacing the floor in front of the fireplace, chewing on my fingernail as I deliberated my decision. I was upset and wanted to talk to Oliver about it, but I didn't want to write to him and I didn't want to wait until tomorrow. I had only found out the upsetting news after dinner and when I asked my mother if I could go to Oliver's she said it was far too late. But I still wanted to talk to him. So I had to wait until everyone went to bed and fell asleep, which had been just before midnight.

Finally, I decided to just go. I didn't know if the decision was actually a bad one or not considering he was still living with his parents and I didn't want to wake them. But pretty soon, if things went according to plan, he'd be moving into his own place. He had tried out for two Quiddidtch teams this past week, but the one that mattered the most to him, Puddlemere United, was next Wednesday. After he was on a Quidditch team, he'd be making money consistently and he'd be able to pay the rent for his own flat. He was also hoping to find a roommate to split the cost with.

I threw down some Floo Powder and called out Oliver's address. Seconds later, I had arrived in his living room.

The entire house was dark and silent as I made my way through it to Oliver's room. This was definitely so creepy. I was sneaking into my boyfriend's house in the middle of the night. But I was going insane and I needed to talk to someone who could calm me down.

When I finally reached Oliver's room, I slipped inside and made my way to the bed. I gingerly sat down on the edge and shook his shoulder. "Oliver," I hissed. "Wake up."

He muttered in his sleep and rolled over from his back to his side.

"Oliver," I hissed louder, shaking him a bit harder.

He groggily opened his eyes a bit and paused as he seemed to register that I was there. Then, he fully woke up with a start, opening his eyes wide and sitting up quickly. He reached over and turned on the light on his nightstand before turning back to me as we both squinted in the sudden bright light.

"Lilah?" he asked, rubbing his eyes. "What are you doing here? Is everything all right?"

I nodded. "No one's hurt or anything if that's what you mean."

Oliver looked me over in confusion. "Okay, then why did you feel the need to sneak into my house in the middle of the night?"

I gave him a guilty smile as I turned slightly on the bed so I was facing him more. I tucked my right foot under my left thigh and kept the rest of my left leg dangling off the side of the bed. "Sorry. I debated not coming and just waiting until tomorrow, but I needed to talk to you."

"About what?" he asked, looking at me seriously.

I looked away and stared absentmindedly at the calendar hanging on the wall above his desk as I shook my head slightly and let out a quiet breath of laughter. "It's stupid. But I just needed to talk."

"I don't care if it's stupid," Oliver insisted, reaching out and grabbing my hand. "Talk to me."

"Sam got two tickets for the Quidditch World Cup and he asked Julian to go with him," I whispered.

I watched as a confused expression crossed Oliver's face. "Isn't that good? I'll bet Julian was over the moon about it."

"He was," I said, looking away. "But now he thinks the sun shines out of Sam's every orifice."

Oliver fought back a laugh. "And you still aren't sure if you like Sam or not."

I shook my head. "I don't know if I trust him," I said slowly. "I wonder what he gets out of this…out of dating my mother. A divorced woman with two children."

"A family?" Oliver suggested with a shrug.

I didn't answer. "That's what Fred said too. But maybe I'm also a little jealous," I finally whispered, looking down at Oliver's quilt. "I don't want to lose Julian. If I'm not worried about pushing him away by suffocating him, then he's going to be taken away by this guy who walks in and thinks he's our dad after knowing us less than a month."

"Julian is always going to look up to you, Lilah," Oliver said with a smile, rubbing his thumb over the back of my hand. "Didn't you say you talked it all out a few weeks ago?"

"We talked, but I don't know if…." I sighed. "Even if Julian understands why I feel the way I do, I doubt he'll ever suddenly _like_ being babied. And he thinks Sam is _cool_." I paused. "Our real Dad is cool. I'm cool," I added, somewhat defensively.

Oliver laughed, but disguised it with a cough when I looked up at him. "Sorry. You are very cool. Your dad is cool, too. But maybe it'll be good for Julian to have a dad-figure right there at home. One that he sees every day."

I shrugged again. "I just feel like the bad guy a lot lately," I said. "I'm ruining his life by babying him and then I get to go to the Quidditch World Cup while he doesn't and then Sam comes in and fixes it all and becomes the hero. Maybe I'm not such a good sister."

"You are," Oliver assured me, using his free hand to reach out and stroke my cheek. "You're a wonderful sister and Julian's lucky to have you." He paused and when I finally nodded, he smiled. "Come here."

I scooted closer to him just as he leaned forward and kissed me. He pulled back and traced his thumb over my lower lip before going in for a second kiss that I found myself quickly deepening. Oliver fell back onto his pillows and I fell with him without breaking the kiss. I lay on my side, pressed up against him as he wrapped his arms around me.

"How mad will your parents be if they catch us right now?" I asked playfully as I pulled away and looked up at him, the corners of my mouth turning up.

"Pretty mad, most likely," Oliver whispered, skimming his fingertips across my forehead as he pushed some loose hair off my face. He moved his hand to rest behind his head as he smiled at me. His other arm was still draped across my back, coming to rest near my hip. He began lightly rubbing his thumb back and forth over the tiny strip of skin that had been exposed after my shirt had ridden up slightly.

"Are they heavy sleepers?" I asked, trying to continue sounding playful and not show just how crazy he was driving me. "Because since you missed so many chances during the school year to stay up late and snog me senseless…you can make up for it right now."

Oliver chuckled before it faded and he was simply staring at me with that expression on his face. The same one I sometimes noticed he wore when he was looking at me. A weird mix of awe, amusement and disbelief.

"What?" I asked, giggling.

"It's just…you are something else, Lilah Fitzgerald," he said with a smile. "And it's hard to believe you're mine."

"You flatter me," I said with a smile. "I always knew you were a keeper."

"I always knew that, too," Oliver said, fighting to keep a straight face. "Ever since I made the Hogwarts Quidditch team."

I laughed and tried my best to stifle it in Oliver's shoulder. He started laughing too and it was only made worse by the fact that we were supposed to be keeping quiet.

Eventually our laughter slowed and I rested both my head and my free hand on Oliver's chest. I absentmindedly traced the Puddlemere logo on his t-shirt with my fingertip. "When you make it onto Puddlemere United and I come to watch your first match," I whispered, breaking the silence, "can I make a t-shirt that says _My boyfriend is a Keeper_?"

Oliver snorted. "Please don't. That's so corny."

I giggled before my smile faded and I looked at him apologetically. "I think I should be getting back now," I said. "The last thing I need is to fall asleep here and get us both in trouble."

Oliver nodded and leaned in for another quick kiss before allowing me to sit up. He walked me down to the fireplace and showed me where the jar of Floo Powder was. "See you soon," he said as I stepped into the fireplace.

I smiled as I looked him over. He stood there in his Puddlemere United t-shirt, baggy plaid pajama pants and bare feet with his hair sticking out every which way.

"You look cute," I told him, smiling wider.

"Shut up," he muttered.

"I mean it!" I answered defiantly. "Dress like this when you try out for Puddlemere. You'll have them all swooning."

"Nice effort, but I doubt it," Oliver chuckled.

"Thanks for making me feel better," I added.

Oliver smiled. "Don't mention it. Thanks for waking me up in the middle of the night and scaring the living daylights out of me."

I grinned back. "You're welcome."

"Goodbye, Lilah," Oliver sighed, giving me a smile and a wave. "Go home and get some sleep."

I nodded and waved back before throwing down the Floo Powder and calling out my own address. When I had finally stopped spinning and got my bearings, I stepped out of the fireplace and began heading for the front stairs.

"Did you have a nice outing?"

I jumped and nearly let out a shriek as the voice spoke from the armchair to my left. I turned to see Sam sitting there, staring at me expectantly. I froze, my heart hammering in my chest.

"I—um —," I stammered, at a complete loss for words.

"I believe your mother specifically told you to not go out," he said.

"I couldn't sleep," I answered.

"So, where'd you go?" Sam asked, standing up and squinting down at me. "To see those lowly Weasley friends of yours?"

I decided not to answer, instead beginning to slowly back away from him, towards the door. I was preparing myself to run and make a mad dash for my bedroom or the bathroom, both of which had locks on their doors. Something was definitely wrong. All of Sam's cheeriness was gone and he looked kind of intimidating. I had also caught that he called the Weasley's _lowly_. It was the first time I'd heard him talk like that about them. After pretending he liked them at dinner and pretending he was okay with the prank the twins pulled on him, I now knew what he really thought. And now I only felt stronger about not trusting him.

"No, I didn't go to see the Weasleys," I finally answered.

"Your boyfriend?" Sam asked, sneering knowingly.

"Why would you think I have a boyfriend?" I asked as innocently as I could. I'm pretty sure my voice came out way too high pitched to be successful though. The only reason I had asked the question and decided to play dumb was because I was trying to hide my nerves. I hadn't told Sam about Oliver and I hadn't wanted to. I hadn't wanted to risk telling a photographer for the Daily Prophet that I was dating a soon to be professional Quidditch player. No matter what team Oliver made it onto, he'd get a lot of media attention and I didn't want to give Sam easy access into Oliver's personal life by inviting him around all the time. I had tried to convince my mother to keep quiet as well, but she had simply laughed at me and said that was ridiculous and that Sam would never interfere and try to sell Oliver out. According to her, Sam did his job well and went to photograph whatever he was assigned when he was assigned it.

"Your mother told me," Sam said. I sighed. Figured. She hadn't listened. "She told me all about him. Bragged, really. Asked if I've ever been sent to photograph the team and all that." He paused. "According to your brother, he's a good kid, your boyfriend. Which is _such _an assurance to me." He grinned.

"You're not my dad, so it shouldn't matter," I retaliated.

Sam frowned. "Actually, while Julian does say he likes Oliver, he also says that having to share you with your boyfriend and with the Weasleys makes him lonely."

"That's not true," I said at once. "He loves Oliver and the Weasleys. He knows he can spend time with them whenever he wants." While the words came out sounding confident, I was suddenly second guessing myself. Did Julian really feel that way? We'd always been close and like we'd discussed it had been us against the world for a while. Did he feel like I was deserting him?

"But he misses _you_," Sam said casually, looking at me with an ugly smile. "Isn't your job as a big sister to take care of him?"

"I do," I answered earnestly.

Sam shrugged and flashed that ugly smile again. "I wouldn't be so sure."

"Can I go to bed now?" I asked irritably.

"Not so fast," Sam said, holding up a hand and attempting a pleasant smile. And maybe to most people it would be pleasant. But to me, it was still hideous. "Your boyfriend..." he said. "He's hoping to get picked to join a professional Quidditch team, isn't he? If he gets picked, he's going to rise to fame fairly quickly."

"Your point?" I asked.

Sam chuckled. The sound practically made my ears bleed. "I just think it's interesting that you haven't mentioned this to me."

"Why would I? I've only known you for about a week or two."

"Or maybe," Sam continued, tapping his chin thoughtfully, "you didn't want me to know since I work for the newspaper. Afraid I'll get a story printed on the two of you? Out you as Oliver Wood's girlfriend with a nice little picture to accompany it?"

I swallowed. Oliver had mentioned that. He had mentioned that he was worried about all the media attention that would not only surround him, but me if the reporters and fans ever found out that he had a girlfriend and that it was me. I wanted my privacy, sure, but Oliver had seemed way more worried about it than me. I had simply told him we'd cross that bridge when we got to it. But now I had to admit, Sam bringing it up now made me completely want to keep it a secret. I just didn't like where Sam was going with this.

"Again, what's your point?" I asked.

"If you want to keep your pretty face out of the paper, you'd better stay in line. Because remember, I'm just the photographer. I can guarantee one hell of a photo, but as for the actual story..." He laughed. "That I have no control over. You just never know what these reporters will say about you." He smiled and shrugged before reaching out to pat my head. I scowled and stepped away from him.

"And," Sam continued, "if I'm feeling generous I can always hand over loads of imformation I've gathered about both you and your little boyfriend."

"You know nothing about him," I said. "And I'm not planning on letting you get to know him."

"But that's the thing about the newspaper," he said. "People can write whatever they want to get a good story. They can embellish. They can fabricate. And people eat it all up." He chuckled and walked away.

I knew that guy was trash and I hated him for taking over my family while he basically bribed me. But I didn't know how to fix this without someone geting hurt.


	31. Chapter 31

The next morning when I went into the kitchen to get some breakfast, I saw my mother standing at the sink, cleaning up her own dishes. "Morning," I said groggily, swiping at my still tired eyes.

"You wouldn't be so tired if you hadn't snuck out last night," Mum said.

I groaned and let my head fall back as I closed my eyes. "Seriously, Mum?" I asked. "He told you?"

"What did you expect him to do? Keep it from me? He and I are partners now, Lilah, whether you like it or not and it's part of our relationship to be honest with each other. You can't expect him to lie for you when you've done something wrong."

I scoffed. "I wouldn't want _him_ to cover for me."

Mum sighed and turned towards me as I leaned against the counter and stared back at her. "Will you just give him a break?" she asked. "If this is about me and how I treated those _friends _of yours-"

"It has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with Sam. I have a dad and he's not it."

"You realize you're acting like a child, don't you?" Mum practically sneered. "A mature person would realize that while Sam is not biologically your dad, I have every right to move on and be with someone else. It is possible to have another father figure if you'd only give Sam a chance."

"But I don't want another father figure when I have a perfectly good one already!" I said.

"Julian has no problem with this," Mum said. "He loves Sam. They get along just fine! Julian is-"

"I know!" I cried, throwing up my hands. "Julian is so great and smart and in every way better than I am! I get it!"

"He is not _better_ than you," Mum said. "You're just as intelligent as he is, but you just-" She broke off and shook her head, letting out a puff of air through her mouth.

"I what?" I asked.

"Julian just knows the right thing to do," Mum said. "He realizes that some instances are not all about him. That what he wants may not be what someone else wants. He's a good sport about bad situations. He doesn't act up the way you seem to."

I stared at her in absolute shock. "So, you're saying I'm selfish for taking time to process things?"

"Firstly, you don't have to act out to process things. You don't have to _sneak out_, like you always seem so keen on doing. And I'm not saying you're selfish for processing. I'm saying-"

"No, that's exactly what you're saying!" I exclaimed. "You're saying I'm selfish because I'm not thinking about how good this is for you. And if it really is good for you, then fine, who am I to tell you not to be happy? But you need to hear me out too. You need to give me time to get used to this because I'm not Julian. We're not the same person. I need more time. And besides that..." I trailed off and sighed, considering whether or not to tell her about what Sam had said last night. Would she even believe me?

"Everything okay in here?"

I looked up to see Sam standing in the kitchen doorway, looking ever so cheerful. And of course his timing was perfect. In response to his question, I simply sighed and rolled my eyes before leaving the room. I marched back upstairs and collapsed onto my bed as my mother's words ran through my head. I loved my brother, but I was so sick of being compared to him all the time. All it did was make me feel terrible about myself. And as much as a large part of me knew that there was nothing wrong with the way I felt, especially after last night, another part of me always wondered whether or not my mother was actually right about me.

* * *

"You must feel so good right now," I said with a grin, slowly spinning my firewhiskey bottle around in my hands.

"You have no idea."

Oliver had just gotten word that Puddlemere wanted him on their team as Keeper. Their old one had just badly injured himself falling off his broom, which was unlucky for him, but lucky for Oliver. The spot had been open for his tryout and the team had unanimously agreed that they wanted him. I was currently treating him to dinner, just as I had promised, and tomorrow his family would be taking him out. I was invited to join them for that, too. I had initially tried to refuse, claiming that surely Oliver's parents would want to celebrate with him as a family. But _they _claimed that I was becoming part of the family, so why wouldn't I be invited?

Additionally, as another act of celebration, my Dad had gotten Oliver and I tickets to his show next week. I had told Dad how I had promised Oliver I'd take him to one and he had given me tickets, which I had presented to Oliver as a congratulatory gift earlier that morning. He seemed a little surprisesd that I had remembered his desire to go, seeing as we had talked about it so long ago, but it was a good kind of surprised and he was really pleased with the tickets.

"I'm really happy for you, Olls," I said now, reaching over and taking his hand.

He blushed. "Thanks," he said. He looked up and took another sip of his drink as he studied my face.

"What?" I asked with a giggle.

"Nothing," Oliver said with a shrug. "It's just...what about you?"

"What about me?" I asked, looking up and smiling at him.

"You passed all your OWLs with flying colors," Oliver said with a grin. "We should be celebrating you tonight as well."

I rolled my eyes. "And you passed all your NEWTs with flying colors." I shook my head. "No, it's all about you for the next few days. Not me."

"Lilah, don't do that," Oliver said. "Honestly, you did wonderfully! Nine out of nine! You even got one in Potions."

"Yeah, an Acceptable," I snorted somewhat miserably. "And Professor Snape only takes NEWT students who got an Outstanding on their OWLs." I sighed. It was kind of ridiculous, in my opinion. I had passed, sure, and I was thrilled about that. But even still, I wouldn't be able to take Potions next year, which was fine with me, but it wasn't going to go over well with my mother. The scores had only come earlier that afternoon and I hadn't gotten a chance to talk to her about them yet. She was going to be upset that I wasn't able to take Potions anymore and she was going to be upset that I didn't score higher. She wasn't going to care that I had gotten an Outstanding in Charms, Transfiguration, Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology and Exceeds Expectations in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Ancient Runes and History of Magic. She'd overlook all that and zero in on the Acceptable in Potions. Which was still _passing._

And besides all of that, I was afraid of how Sam would react. Normally, I'd say he shouldn't care too much. I certainly didn't care about what he thought of my grades. But my mother did care. And what would he do when she was upset about the mark I had earned? I had debated just telling Oliver what was going on, but I didn't want him to do anything rash. Besides, what could he really do anyway? Nothing without potentially damaging his reputation.

"So what?" Oliver shrugged. "Just don't pick a career that requires you to use Potions. I never got the sense that you wanted to anyway."

"I don't," I told him.

"Then what's the problem?" Oliver asked.

"My mother," I told him. And potentially Sam, I thought to myself.

Oliver scoffed. "Forget about what she thinks. You're going to be of age in October, Lilah. You can do what you want. You can make your own decisions. You didn't _fail_ Potions. You just can't proceed to NEWT level."

"Is there something wrong with me?" I asked quietly, looking up at him questioningly.

"What?" Oliver looked taken aback.

"Is there something wrong with me?" I repeated. "I don't know what I want to do when I leave school. I have two years left and all of my other friends seem to know what they want. And my mother says it's half the battle." I paused. "I just…I'm so boring, Oliver. And average. I have no amazing talents...I have no idea what I want to do with my future."

"What are you talking about?" Oliver asked seriously, looking utterly bemused.

"Everything about me is average. I blend in," I told him. "I don't have anything that sets me apart from anyone else. I'm afraid that's going to be a problem later. What if I do decide on a career and they ask me what makes me different or special or they ask why they should pick me over the tons of other applicants? I have nothing." I was beginning to panic at this point, the feeling taking over the pit of my stomach and making it turn unpleasantly.

"Listen to me," Oliver said, leaning forward and taking my hand. "You are _not _boring. You are not average."

"But look at Julian! He's so smart…school practically comes effortlessly to him. I like to read and write, but so does he and he's better at it! He loves Quidditch. He can play chess. He loves animals. And according to my mother, he's not _selfish _like I am. He knows how to act appropriately."

"Wait, what do you mean?" Oliver asked.

I hesitated. "Mum and I argued about Sam. She found out I snuck out to see you last week and thinks I'm acting out because I'm being selfish and hate the idea of a new dad figure. She compared me to Julian yet again and went on about how great he's been handling having Sam around." I shrugged.

"You are not selfish," Oliver said.

I shrugged again. "Even still...Julian can do no wrong, Fred and George are funny, Angelina's smart and organized and pretty and athletic and Tess is adorable and bouncy and so positive about everything….And then there's me, practically ruining our celebratory date because of something ridiculous." I groaned and buried my head in my hands. "Never mind. I'm sorry. Let's just forget any of this ever happened."

Oliver was quiet, so I looked up to see him staring at me thoughtfully. Then, he placed some money on the table and gestured to my firewhiskey. "Wait here. Finish that. I'll be right back." He stood up and walked away. I didn't check to see where he was going. Instead, I picked up my drink and downed the last remaining bit, before swallowing, scrunching my face up as I did so. Merlin, that stuff burned going down, especially in amounts larger than one sip.

Oliver returned about ten minutes later, a Honeydukes bag in his hand. "What's that?" I asked curiously as he held out his free hand for me to take. I put my hand in his and he helped me up.

"It's a surprise," he said, smiling and leading me out of the building. Once we were outside, he squeezed my hand. "Ready to Apparate again?"

I nodded. He had Apparated us from his house to the Three Broomsticks earlier and it was my first time ever experiencing the weird sensation. I still wasn't sure how I felt about it yet.

Oliver counted to three before turning on the spot. I felt like I were being squeezed into a tube and I struggled to catch my breath, but in a few seconds that seemed like forever, it was all over and we were standing on Oliver's front lawn. He led us inside and into the living room where he sat me down on the huge, comfy leather couch. Then, he left the room, taking the Honeyduke's bag with him.

I sat there on the couch, taking in the room. It was a giant, high ceilinged, elegant room with a large fireplace and comfy furniture. Pictures were arranged all around the room. Baby pictures of Oliver, family pictures, everyone smiling widely. I wished we had things like that at my mother's house.

It was quiet as I continued to look around. Oliver's parents were working the night shift at St. Mungo's and wouldn't be back until tomorrow morning. So the house was quieter than usual. All I could hear now was the ticking of the grandfather clock in the corner. The quiet had been peaceful at first, but now it was almost uncomfortable. I wanted Oliver to come back.

A moment later, he returned with another firewhiskey for each of us. He handed one to me and sat down next to me on the couch.

"Trying to get me drunk?" I teased, holding up the bottle.

Oliver shook his head and smiled as he took a sip of his own drink. "Not drunk, exactly. I just have some things I'd like you to be honest about and I wanted to make it easier on the both of us. I'm not sure you'd tell me right out otherwise. Maybe it's not the _best _way...But for me to help you, I need you to talk to me. And I know this is a tough subject for you….Since I don't have any Veriteserum, this is the easiest way. Besides, I wouldn't use Veriteserum anyway. That stuff seems..._too_ sneaky and deceptive. I want you to be a bit loosened up, but I don't want to get you _drunk_, no. I could never do that to you. That would be taking advantage of you. All I want to do now is calm you down in a relatively quick manner. You were going nuts back there. And then you clammed up and were going to keep everything to yourself."

"I'm sorry," I groaned. "I just…panic sometimes. I think maybe my mother's right. She makes me feel so…_worthless_."

"Listen to me," Oliver said firmly. "You are not worthless. You're—," he broke off and held up his finger. "Hold on. Before we get into this, I got something else that will help you calm down." He turned and grabbed the Honeyduke's bag, producing a package of Fudge Flies from within.

I grinned. "You really shouldn't have."

"But I wanted to." He opened the bag and offered it to me. I took a few Fudge Flies and popped one into my mouth as Oliver continued speaking. "You're not worthless," he said. "And you can't let your mother make you feel that way. You can't let her make you doubt yourself." He paused again. "Do me a favor. Forget about your mother for a minute. Forget everything she's ever said to you and forget everything she's ever made you feel. Forget she even exists. Tell me one thing about yourself that you're proud of."

I thought that over for a moment, taking another sip of my drink as I did so. "I guess I'm proud of how well I dealt with practically raising myself and my brother after my parents got divorced," I said. "After Dad left, Mum was hardly ever around so it was all up to me. It still kind of is. It's not a fun situation, and I don't think Julian understands it just yet, but I did everything. I felt like curling up into a ball, but I didn't and I guess that's a good thing."

Oliver nodded. "You put him before you," he said quietly. "You're mother is wrong about you. You're not selfish. You put other people before yourself all the time. You think of other people first. You never put people down. You encourage them when they're down. Like when Ron thought Crookshanks ate Scabbers. You told Fred and George to lay off for a bit and explained to them exactly why Ron was affected so much. It's like you got right into his head and understood him. You put yourself into his shoes. You're compassionate and, like Fred said that night…selfless. You try to understand where everyone is coming from even if you don't understand right off the bat. You try."

I half-smiled as I looked at him, a lump forming in my throat. "You noticed all that?"

Oliver nodded. "I think you're like that anyway, but it only intensified after you had to take care of your younger brother for so long. You're close and you're his sister first, but you're also very motherly because that's what you felt you had to be to him once your dad left and your mother went off to work every day."

I swallowed and downed the rest of my firewhiskey. "So…where is being nice and motherly and compassionate going to get me?" I asked.

"Wherever you want it to get you," Oliver answered simply, taking my firewhiskey bottle from me and setting it down on the table beside him. "It works a whole lot better than being mean. People like you, Lilah. Love you, actually. I love you, the Weasleys love you, Julian and your dad love you. Even your mother loves you, despite what you might think. And besides being nice, you're intelligent. Forgetting about your mother for a moment again, tell me this. Are you proud of your OWL results?"

I let out a breathy laugh. "Very. One in every subject. I worked so hard for that…."

"Exactly," Oliver said.

"But I think I only passed Potions because of you," I said with a smile. "Thank you, again, for helping me."

Oliver nodded. "You're welcome. But back to you…."

I laughed. "Enough about me, Olls."

"No," he insisted with a laugh of his own. "Why shouldn't we talk about you? I'm trying to help you out here." He looked me over. "Maybe your mother is right in saying knowing what you want is half the battle, but it's okay if you don't know what you want right now. You're only a few months shy of seventeen. You're young. So am I. So are the twins and Angelina and Tess…sure maybe we're lucky to have ideas for our futures and I'm lucky enough to be setting mine in motion, but it doesn't have to be that way."

"What am I going to do once I'm done with school?" I asked impatiently. "I need to have something figured out or else I'm going to be jobless, homeless….I'm going to be a nobody and you...you'll be so special and doing great things. And then maybe you'll decide you don't want to be with someone like me."

"Lilah, are you out of your mind?" Oliver asked firmly. When I looked up at him, he was staring at me intently. "You're going to figure out what you want to do. You have great grades. Once you decide, you have the whole world at your feet. You're not going to end up homeless or a nobody. And even if you did, I love you for you not for what you do or don't do once you leave school."

I chewed on my lip. "I had to meet with McGonagall this year to talk about it. Career options, I mean. And I went in without a single idea of what I wanted…."

"And was she angry?" Oliver asked with a raised eyebrow. "Did she shake her head at you and say, 'Well, Miss Fitzgerald, you'd better quit now because if you don't have your entire life figured out by now, you never will'?"

I laughed. "No," I said quietly. "She was nice about it. And patient. She gave me a ton of pamphlets to look over that might give me ideas."

"There you go," Oliver said gently. "You have two years of school left. That's plenty of time. And your grades are still good enough where you have plenty of options wide open. Maybe Potions closed a few doors, but they weren't doors you wanted open anyway. I don't think you'd want to be doing math for the rest of your life."

I shook my head vigorously. "No," I replied. "The day I leave Hogwarts is the day I kiss the majority of math goodbye."

Oliver laughed and silence filled the room as he just looked at me.

"I need to tell you something," I finally said. "But I'm scared."

Oliver didn't say anything. He just looked at me, studying my face as he waited for my decision on whether or not to tell him.

"I might need another firewhiskey," I said.

Oliver shook his head. "No," he whispered. "You're exactly where you need to be. Relaxed, but still able to function and think for yourself. I don't want to push it any further."

I looked at him, tears coming to my eyes. "I'm the reason my parents divorced," I said, hating how my voice cracked.

"What?" Oliver asked, his eyebrows coming together in confusion. "I'm sure that's not true."

"It is," I nodded. And then I explained everything to him, the words pouring from my mouth. I couldn't stop them. They just kept coming. I talked about my failed math quiz that Miss Sullivan had handed back, my mother forbidding me to go trick-or-treating, my dad suggesting I sneak out. All of it. I finally ended with my dad moving out and it being decided that Julian and I only see him every other weekend.

"It was all me!" I exclaimed. "If I hadn't been so stupid and bad at math, none of that would've happened! If I hadn't been so—"

"Lilah, stop," Oliver ordered. He swallowed and I could tell his was thinking carefully about what he wanted to say. "Have you been holding that all in since you were eleven?"

"Kind of," I shrugged. "I mentioned it to Fred a few weeks ago, but not this extensively. And I told my Dad the day he moved out that I believed it was my fault. He said it wasn't, but I still feel like it is. It nags at me every now and then. If I hadn't failed my math quiz, I could've—"

"What? Prevented it?" Oliver asked with raised eyebrows.

"No," I answered slowly, "but prolonged it maybe."

"Wouldn't that be almost torturous?" Oliver asked. "If your parents weren't happy together…I mean, for your mother to want a divorce, she must have been unhappy for a while. She wouldn't have made that decision on a whim after one rough night. Prolonging it would've just made things worse."

I bit my lip. Maybe he had a point. I had never seen it that way. Perhaps it was the selfish side of me believing that I could've had more time with my parents together; more time with my Dad living at home; more time seeing him every day. I had never stopped to think about them and how unhappy and stressful it must have been. At least for my mother.

"Maybe I _was_ being selfish," I said, voicing my thoughts to Oliver. "Like my mother said I am. I never thought of that."

Oliver let out a breath of laugher. "Please, Lilah, you're one of the least selfish people I know."

"I think we all have a selfish side," I pointed out.

"True," Oliver agreed, "but yours rarely makes an appearance."

"The same goes for you," I told him. "I swear…." I trailed off and let out a laugh. "You've sat here on the night we're supposed to be celebrating _your _achievements and listened to me rant and rave and panic and unload all this emotional baggage on you. And you've been patient and you talked me through it and you didn't run away." I paused. "Are you sure you don't want to? Run away, I mean. I must look like such a lunatic by now."

"Not in the least," he said, studying my face with a half-smile. "I love you…warts and all."

"Warts?" I teased, pressing a hand to my chest as I pretended to be offended.

"It's an expression," Oliver whispered with a smile and a chuckle.

"I know," I whispered back. "I did get nine OWLs after all. I know things."

Oliver laughed again. "Do you feel better now?"

I nodded. "Thanks to you. I think I just got overwhelmed for a bit. But thanks for talking me down from it." I grinned, leaning into him a bit more and smiling up at him. "I don't know what I'd do without you. Thank you for not running. Thank you for absolutely everything." I paused to lean up and kiss his cheek. "I love you and I don't know how I can ever really thank you enough."

"There is one way," Oliver said playfully, his eyes darting down to my lips and back up to my face.

"I wonder what that could be," I said, tapping my chin. "It's not like you're being obvious at all."

Oliver laughed. "You're a pain," he said, before leaning down and kissing me, deepening it seconds later. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me even closer to him as I let out a sigh.

"We should stop before we both get carried away," Oliver murmured, pulling away and resing his forehead against mine. "I don't want to do something like this after everything you just told me. It was supposed to be a serious talk, and-"

"It was, and you helped me feel better," I told him, lightly touching his cheek. "I'm fine, Oliver. If I wasn't comfortable, I would have shoved you away by now." I smiled slightly and kissed him again.

"I don't...want to do something...you aren't...ready for," he whispered in between kisses, sighing against my lips.

I pulled away and looked at him, studying his face seriously as he looked back at me in concern. It was written all over his face what he truly wanted, but he was thinking only of me and what would make me happy. And he claimed _I _was selfless.

"It's okay," I finally whispered, nodding my head. "Like I said, if I was uncomfortable, I would have pushed you away."

Oliver smiled and nodded before leaning in to kiss me again, deepining it again after a moment.

So, that night, for once I let myself get a bit carried away instead of being so careful. I let Oliver gently push me onto my back, let myself relax in his hold. I let him gently tug my shirt over my head, nodding when he asked if I were truly okay with this, laughing and nodding again when he asked if I were _absolutely sure_.

I let myself forget about everything. I forgot about my mother and my OWL results. I forgot about Sam and how he had bribed me. I forgot about how Oliver was famous now. It was just me and him as it had always been. I pushed it all out of my mind and let Oliver's fingers glide over my skin, erasing the strange, confusing and panicked thoughts of the past few weeks and replacing them with the feeling of the gentle touch of fingertips and nerve endings being lit on fire.


	32. Chapter 32

I fell asleep on Oliver's couch that night, wrapped in his arms, my back pressed to his chest. I woke to the sun just beginning to illuminate the sky, when everything is still silent and peaceful and wet with morning dew. I slipped out of Oliver's arms and dressed quickly. When I was done, I sat back on the edge of the couch and stared down at his peaceful expression.

"Olls," I whispered, reaching out and touching his cheek, tracing the line of his cheekbone with my fingertips.

"Hmm?" he muttered, fidgeting a bit in his sleep.

"Wake up," I whispered. "It's morning. I've got to go home. My mother's not going to be happy that I stayed out all night."

Oliver's eyes slid open just then and he stared at me groggily. Finally he sat up and stretched his arms out to his sides before leaning in and kissing me. "At least let me make you breakfast first."

"You can cook?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

He nodded and smiled at me. "I'm a very gifted person."

"I'm slowly figuring that out," I said quietly, smiling back at him.

It turned out that Oliver was a great cook. He made eggs, bacon and toast while I sat at the kitchen counter and watched, my elbow resting on the counter and my chin in my hand.

"Falling asleep again?" Oliver asked as he finished washing his hands and flicked his fingers at me, sending a few water droplets crashing into my face.

I smiled briefly and wiped the water away. "No, just thinking."

Oliver set a plate of food in front of me and the fantastic smells coming from it elicited a grumble from my stomach.

"About what?" he asked, coming to sit beside me with his own food.

"You…last night…how I don't want it to end. I don't want to go home and face what's waiting for me."

"Your mother will be that mad?" Oliver asked, taking a bite of his toast.

I shrugged. "Yeah, she'll be upset, she'll lecture me….Not fun." While it was the truth—being lectured was terrible—it was nothing I couldn't handle. But what would Sam do?

"Just think," Oliver said. "Soon enough you'll be of age and moving out anyway. You can spend the night all the time without a single bit of guilt."

I smiled. "Sounds nice."

I left not too long after breakfast—I stayed just long enough to help with cleanup. Then, I departed using the Floo Network and only after giving Oliver a gentle kiss goodbye.

When I got home, I was in big trouble, just like I had thought. My mother was pacing the living room and I was lectured about how she was late for work and how she didn't know where I had gone. She had been debating writing to Oliver or his parents when I had finally arrived. She said she would've liked an update before I decided to spend all night out. She didn't seem to care or even hear the fact that it was an accident and I hadn't meant to fall asleep.

Despite the fact that she said she was late for work, she still had time to ask about my OWL results. She had heard from someone at work that all the Hogwarts test results had come in so she already knew I had mine. Needless to say, she wasn't happy about Potions, just as I figured. She didn't lecture me too long this time, though. Probably because she knew she had told me everything she felt about the subject. But after she was done briefly scolding me for the events of the last few days, she headed off to work. Julian was still asleep so it was quiet. Until I looked up to see Sam leaning against the doorframe.

"You do remember what I said to you about obeying your mother, don't you?" he asked.

I nodded. "I didn't mean to stay out. I swear. And my OWL results...I studied _so_ hard for those. You have to believe me. You can't use things so ridiculous as an excuse to write an article about me or ruin my relationship with Oliver. I'm not a bad kid."

"See, I don't think it's up to you to dictate what I can and can't do," Sam said. He smiled. "But if I were you, I'd watch yourself. Just because nothing happens tomorrow doesn't mean that I'm not gathering up information."

"Good or bad information?" I asked.

Sam shrugged. "Not sure yet. Maybe a bit of both. But does it even matter? Reporters tend to have very..._selective _hearing."

"If you write something bad about me in the paper, it'll reflect on my mother and she'll hate you for it," I said. "You must know that. So why are you doing this?"

Sam smiled. "Use your brain, Lilah. I could play the sympathy card. Poor Joanna Matthews, divorced and raising two children on her own. Doing her best to bring in an income and provide, but her oldest child doesn't even appreciate it. Her oldest child is so unsatisfied with her mother's constant need to work to bring in an income-so distraught that she never gets to see her mother-that she acts out constantly. Everyone will feel sorry for you all, her new program at St. Mungo's will get more publicity and participation and people will donate more books and more money."

"The money will go to the reading program. Not us. And we're fine the way we are money-wise. We're better since she got all those promotions. And it's not like she'd give up work anyway."

Sam laughed. "That's not what I'm aiming for here. I know she won't give up work! And I know this won't improve her income! But it'll improve mine."

"How? You don't write the articles."

Sam grinned. "I could provide some nice pictures of you," he said. "To go along with the article. Or, since I provided the information, I'll just make sure I get a cut of the profits."

"You don't know my mother," I said. "She'll be furious that everyone knows about all the bad things I've done-even if they're made up things!"

Sam smiled. "Sure, but she won't be mad at me. I don't write the articles, remember? You just said it yourself. It won't be my name in black print under the title of the article. She'll be mad at you for somehow landing yourself in the paper."

"She'll wonder how that happened," I said. "It's not like I have reporters following me around."

"No, but your boyfriend does," Sam laughed. "I can easily tell her that he talked to them. Or you did while you were with him. It'll be my word against yours."

"I'm her daughter!" I cried, fighting the urge to actually stomp my foot.

Sam smiled. "Yeah, her daughter that I'm sure she feels as if she doesn't even recognize anymore." He shook his head sadly before laughing again.

"I just don't understand why you're doing this to her-to us."

"You think I really care about any of you?" Sam asked. "This just shows that you aren't as intelligent as your mother seems to believe you are. For one thing, I haven't been getting sent on as many assignments lately. Which means less money in my pocket. Secondly," he laughed, "I was supposed to be a _real _photographer, but I've been struggling for years, stuck in a dead end job at the newspaper, photographing silly things like reading programs at the hospital." He scoffed and shook his head again. And with that, he smiled at me innocently and walked away, leaving me standing there feeling completely nauseated.

* * *

Over the next couple of weeks, Oliver's schedule got increasingly busy. He was joining Puddlemere practices now, which took place six days a week. Besides that, he had started doing interviews for magazines and newspapers. Everyone was interested in Puddlemere's new Keeper and what that meant for the team. Was it good or bad? Would he help lead them to a victory this season? His fame was growing, just like we had all predicted and I found myself having to share my boyfriend with the whole world.

Oliver also had solved the issue of finding a flat. Turns out, Puddlemere's old Keeper, Jamie Willis, used to live with one of the Chasers, Nicholas Russell, in a flat in London. But when Jamie was injured, he had moved out, unable to pay his share of the rent without a job. I felt sorry for him. He had actually fractured his vertebrae falling from his broom, which could've been very serious and left him paralyzed, but he got lucky. The Healers at St. Mungo predicted that they would be able to help him fully recover, but he wouldn't be able to play Quidditch again. It was too dangerous and too much of a risk. Plus, while he'd be able to walk and move—thank Merlin—he'd be in a brace for a very long time.

So, Oliver had been asked to move in with Nick and he had accepted the offer at once. I had helped him move in and I got to meet not only Nick, but the rest of the team when they stopped by later for a tiny, impromptu house warming party. They were nice people and they seemed genuinely happy to have Oliver join their team. And he certainly took a liking to them immediately.

While it was harder to see him now due to his practices and interviews, we tried to make time whenever we could. But we also were both reading to patients at the hospital once a week as part of the program my mother had helped start, so we also got to see each other for a bit then.

We had started a Sunday in the beginning of July. The two of us had each been assigned a long-term patient to read to at least once a week. We chose to go every Sunday because that was Oliver's day off. He was reading to a seven year old boy named Alex and I was reading to an eight year old girl named Grace.

Pleasantly enough, there was an outpouring of books being donated almost every single day. And the interesting thing was that there were not only wizarding books, but Muggle books as well, donated by Muggleborn witches and wizards. So everyone involved was not only getting exposure to books in general, but books from both the magical and non-magical communities.

Grace, the girl I was reading to, was an absolute sweetheart, but also incredibly honest. She never beat around the bush. Immediately after introducing herself to me, she had told me what she was in there for, taking me aback. Apparently, she had a brain tumor. She told me right out that yes, witches and wizards could get them, and no, even with magic, there hadn't been a cure or an easy treatment developed yet. She was going through treatment, but as she said, it wasn't easy. It made her weaker and sicker. So sick that she sometimes figured she might as well be better off leaving the tumor as is and letting it grow. But the Healers didn't want to give up. In fact, they were almost using her as a sort of guinea pig. In addition to the tests being done to solve her individual problem, they were also running tests in order to develop a magical cure. In short, Grace was cooped up in her hospital room day in and day out. Instead of being miserable all the time, though, Grace knew that was the way it had to be. She was realistic. She was only eight, but spoke and acted like an adult sometimes, something I was all too familiar with.

She was nearly ten years younger than me, but I admired her. She was incredibly brave to be putting up such a fight every single day of her life. It was a reminder that while I thought I had it tough sometimes, there were always people who had it worse.

* * *

The night before the Quidditch World Cup, I actually got permission to stay over at Oliver's house. Only after I had assured my mother that his parents would be there all night and only after she had talked to them to be reassured even more. It just seemed easier to stay there than to have them pick me up the next morning. We weren't taking a Portkey since Oliver and his parents could all Apparate, which meant that we had the option of arriving a bit later than all the people using Portkeys. However, Oliver really wanted to be there decently early.

Oliver's parents even offered to come and get me at my house and take me back to theirs by using the Floo Network. That way, they could reassure my mother even more that this was an okay idea. They promised once again that they'd be home, that I'd be staying in the guest room, that we'd be leaving the next morning by nine and that I'd be home a decent time the day after the match.

And finally, _finally_ my mother actually smiled, told us to have fun and allowed me to leave with Oliver and his parents.

"Here we are," Oliver's Mum said with a grin after we had Flooed into the living room. I stepped out of the fireplace and smiled back. I was so excited to be out of my house for a little bit. I still barely talked to Sam and tried to stay out of his way as much as possible. I decided to do my best to make sure he couldn't _gather any information_ on me by observing with his own eyes. Sure, I didn't know what my mother was telling him, but I hoped that by making myself scarce, he wouldn't be able to come to his own conclusions to try and twist around.

"We'll let you get settled in," Oliver's mother said. "Ollie, you can show Lilah the guest room whenever you're ready." She looked at me. "I think you'll find the room very comfortable."

"I'm sure I will," I said. "Thank you again for letting me stay with you and come to the World Cup."

"Don't mention it, dear," Oliver's mother said. She patted my shoulder before leaving the room. Oliver's dad flashed me a smile of his own before following after her.

"How are you doing?" Oliver asked once they had gone.

"I'm fine," I admitted with a shrug. "Same as I was yesterday." I gave him a tiny smile.

Oliver nodded, his eyes searching my face for a moment before holding a hand out for my bag. "I can show you the guest room now if you want."

I smiled and let him take my bag from me. He slung it over his shoulder before reaching out for my hand. I slipped my fingers through his and felt instant warmth and comfort as his skin touched mine. He led me through the foyer and up the stairs before taking a left and leading me into the guest room.

The room was beautiful. It was a good size with three large windows, all with comfortable looking window seats. The room was decorated in soft blues and whites. There was a vanity with a mirror opposite the bed and a dresser was placed along the wall to the left of the door. An armchair sat in the corner with a table beside it. On the table was a vase of beautiful flowers. I stepped closer and saw that they were daisies. I smiled. It couldn't have been a coincidence.

"Nice touch," I said, gesturing to the flowers.

Oliver smiled. "I thought you'd appreciate those."

I grinned and gave his hand a squeeze. "I love them. Thank you."

Oliver cleared his throat and dropped my hand before crossing to the bed and placing my bag on the edge of it. Then, he turned and perched beside it. "There's something I wanted to talk to you about," he finally said, looking serious.

I stared at him as my stomach clenched. That didn't sound good. "Okay," I said slowly, mentally thinking of every reason why Oliver could possiby look so serious right now.

"As you know, I've been having to do a lot of interviews lately. A lot with Quidditch magazines and sports columns of the Prophet," Oliver said. "Obviously, they only want to talk about Quidditch. Usually. But soon I'll have to start doing a few interviews with other magazines and reporters. Reporters from other columns of the paper and reporters from places like Witch Weekly."

"Okay," I answered again, looking at him in confusion.

"_They're_ not going to want to talk solely about Quidditch," Oliver answered. "Nick kind of gave me a heads up, but I already figured..." He trailed off and sighed as he rubbed a hand over his face, pinching the bridge of his nose in the process. "They're going to want to ask me about-"

"Girlfriends," I finished, finally catching on.

"Girlfriends," Oliver repeated, looking up at me. He let out a puff of air. "So, I think it would be best if we kept our relationship a secret from the media. I'm not going to mention you at all. I just wanted to give you a fair warning."

I blinked at him. "What? Why?" I asked. "Oliver, I don't care if you mention me." Actually, this had gotten my brain whizzing. If Oliver talked about me to reporters first, he'd naturally say all good things about me. It would put me in the spotlight-and a good one, I might add-before Sam could, which would take off the edge of his article if he even decided to have one published at all.

Oliver shook his head. "No, it's a bad idea. The media loves to put their own spin on things. Take what happened to Jamie Willis, the guy I replaced. Some articles got what happened to him right, but others claimed he died, some claimed he'd never walk again, which could have happened, but didn't."

"That's terrible," I whispered.

Oliver nodded. "That's what they do. They twist things around to make their stories more interesting. And then even if they do get the facts accurate, there are fans. Believe it or not, I've been acquiring some of those recently, too. Nick has told me some horror stories. He went public with his ex-girlfriend and she actually got some hate mail from some of the fans. A lot of them are immature and get brutally jealous. I can't let that happen to you, Lilah. We've got to keep ourselves quiet and under wraps."

I stared at him. "Oliver..."

"I know that's a lot to ask of you, but it's the right decision. You need to protect yourself. _I _need to protect you. I can't let you end up in the spotlight because of me. I can't let you lose your privacy because of me. I can't let your life end up ruined because of me."

I let out a quiet laugh and looked down at my hands. "I appreciate that more than you know," I whispered. "But...I actually think it's time I told you something now."

Oliver looked up at me at once, concern etched on his face. "What's wrong?"

I was quiet as I continued to stare down at my hands, deliberating just how I wanted to tell him the news. My heart was hammering in my chest. I didn't want to involve Oliver in this, but I didn't know if I had a choice anymore. Just in case something did get printed about me, I wanted him to be prepared.

"Sam is...he's-he said-" I broke off and sighed. This wasn't starting out so well.

"Lilah," Oliver said, standing up and coming back to stand in front of me. He reached out and cupped my cheek in his hand. "Talk to me. Tell me the truth. What's he done? If he's said or done anything to you, I'll-"

"No," I said, quickly and firmly, my eyes going wide. "First of all, you don't need to. Secondly, if you did, you'd be doing exactly what he wants. You'd be _giving him_ exactly what he wants."

"What does that _mean_?" Oliver whispered.

I chewed on my lip as I stared down at our intertwined hands. "Sam's been bribing me. He said that if I acted up and made my mother unhappy, he'd publish an article about me in the paper. He implied he'd twist everything around. He said he wanted to play the sympathy card. Make it seem like I'm acting out because I'm so distraught about my family situation. Divorced parents. Single mother trying to raise us on one income. It's a good income, but Sam will make sure no one knows that. And then people would feel sorry for us and the reading program would get more participation and more money. And my mother will get more attention. And Sam will get paid more for giving the Prophet a good picture and for selling them some information."

"What?" Oliver hissed. "Please tell me you're joking."

I shook my head. "I'm not. I wish I were." I paused. "From what I've gathered, he's going to make it seem like either you talked to reporters about me, or I talked to them while we were together. Without you, it's not like I have reporters talking to me on my own."

"So now we really have to make sure you stay out of the limelight," Oliver said.

"Doesn't matter," I said. "Sam could still publish an article and fabricate a story to my mother about how reporters got all the information. Just like he's planning."

Oliver sighed and shook his head. "Still..." he said.

"What if we went public to someone else?" I suggested, voicing my thoughts from earlier. "To another reporter? What if we put our story out there before he does? That way we won't have to hide. We won't have to keep our relationship a secret, which I wouldn't have wanted to do anyway. And we won't let Sam get his way. We won't be giving Sam the power to twist things around. Because trust me, I don't want to let him win either. This way, we could beat him to the punch and get good feedback about me out there."

Oliver shook his head. "No, I don't think that's a good idea either."

"Why?" I asked.

"The fans, remember?" Oliver asked. "Besides, while Sam is exactly the kind of person I was afraid of, there are still a lot more like him out there who will twist things around for their own entertainment. There are some good ones out there, but unfortunately we can't pick and choose who we speak to..."

I was quiet. "That's really what you want?" I asked. "You want to hide? You want to keep quiet?"

Oliver nodded. "Don't get me wrong. I want to pummel Sam to a pulp and not worry about my career or the media because...I've found something-some_one_-that I love more than Quidditch and protecting her means so much to me." He looked at me and smiled. "But at the same time, keeping you out of the media and keeping your life private is protecting you in the long run, while beating Sam up only protects you now." He shook his head. "This is all my fault. If I hadn't decided to become _famous,_ we wouldn't be in this predicament."

"You mean if you hadn't chosen the career you've _dreamt_ of since you were a child?" I asked, resting my head on his shoulder and looping my arms around his. "You never wanted to be _famous, _Oliver. You've never even thought of it. You just wanted to play Quidditch."

He sighed. "Just...for now try to keep on Sam's good side, okay? I know it stinks, but trust me. You don't want something bad or untrue about you in the paper. You don't want reporters or crazy fans after you."

"I'll try, but it'll probably be difficult considering how nitpicky he is," I sighed.

Oliver was quiet for a moment. "Did you tell Julian the truth?" he finally asked.

I shook my head and snorted. "No. He idolizes Sam. He wouldn't believe he'd do anything wrong."

"I wouldn't be so sure," Oliver said. "He loves you more than he loves Sam. He'd believe you and I think his opinion of Sam would change very quickly. So if you want to win your brother's allegiances back..." He smiled and shrugged as I laughed. "But seriously," he continued, "he deserves to know. He's your brother."

I sighed. "You're right. You're totally right."

Oliver grinned back and leaned closer, pressing his lips to mine. When he pulled away, he pushed a piece of hair behind my ear and continued to smile at me.

"We should get some rest," he suggested. "If you need anything tonight, I'm right across the hall."

I nodded. "Okay. Thank you."

Oliver smiled and reached out to cup my cheek in his hand. He leaned forward again and pressed his lips to mine before pulling back slightly, waiting a beat and going in for another kiss.

"I love you," he whispered.

"I love you too," I answered with a sigh.

Oliver pulled away for real this time and gave my hand a squeeze before letting go and slipping out of the room, gently closing the door behind him.

* * *

The next morning, I woke up to someone lightly scratching my back and whispering my name.

"What is it?" I muttered sleepily, keeping my eyes closed.

"It's time to get up," Oliver answered quietly, raking his fingers up and down my back some more.

I groaned. "I'm never going to get up if you keep doing that."

The movement of his hand halted and I felt him shift my hair off my neck and shoulder, fanning it out on the pillow beside me. "Come on, Lie," he said. "Dad's already downstairs making breakfast. Mum already ate and is making sure everything's packed. We're supposed to leave in forty-five minutes."

Letting out a puff of air, I opened my eyes and propped my head up with a fist as I peered at Oliver, who was sitting on the edge of the bed beside me, already dressed.

"Did you sleep well?" he asked.

I nodded. "You?"

"I did," he said with a smile. I propped my chin on my fist and stared at him a similar smile on my own face. It was quiet between us for a moment until Oliver finally leaned forward to kiss my forehead. "Come on, get dressed," he said. Then, he stood up and headed for the doorway. "I'll meet you downstairs."

Thirty minutes later, when I entered the kitchen, breakfast was already set out on the table. Oliver was sitting there, talking to his Dad, who was pouring glasses of pumpkin juice.

"Morning," Oliver's dad said with a smile as he set the glasses in front of me and Oliver.

"Morning," I replied, sitting down and taking a bite of the food that had already been set out in front of my place. "This is really good," I said.

"Glad you like it." Oliver's dad grinned happily before excusing himself to go help his wife upstairs.

Once Oliver and I were both done and we had everything we needed to go camp out for the rest of the day, we stood in the center of the living room with his parents.

"You know the Apparating point, don't you, Ollie?" his mother asked, reaching forward and smoothing out his sweater. Oliver rolled his eyes slightly, but otherwise didn't address the action—or her use of the nickname.

"Yes, Mum, you've told me multiple times," he replied.

"Okay, okay," she replied. "Now, remember, when we get there, we'll check in and then go find our campsite and get settled."

"Got it," Oliver replied with a smile. He turned to me and held out his hand for me to take. I did so and he gently squeezed my fingers.

"On the count of three," Oliver's Dad said. "One, two, three!"

I felt the sensation of being squeezed into a tube and seconds later, we reappeared in middle of a clearing near the edge of the woods. A wooden table with two wizards behind it was situated a few feet away. I could only tell they were wizards because of the way they had tried and failed to dress like Muggles.

"Names?" the wizard on the left asked, peering at us as he raised the clipboard on the table slightly.

"Oliver Wood and Lilah Fitzgerald," Oliver said as we stepped forward, still holding hands. "My parents are coming too. They should be right behind us." He glanced over his shoulder and sure enough, his parents appeared with a slight pop.

"Adam and Deborah Wood?" the man asked, looking at them.

"Yes, that's us," Oliver's mother said with a grin.

"You're only staying the one night?"

"That's right," Oliver's dad said.

"Exit the clearing and when you reach the field, walk halfway down the first row of tents. There'll be a sign at your campsite with your name on it."

"Thank you," Oliver's parents called before leading the way towards the edge of the woods. Oliver and I followed them, our hands still intertwined.

When we got there, my mouth dropped open. There were rows and rows of tents. I couldn't even estimate how many of them there were. Thousands, probably.

"You look overwhelmed," Oliver laughed into my ear.

"There are so many people," I whispered. "So many tents."

Oliver laughed again. "I know. It's great, isn't it? It was just like this when I went with my grandfather. So many people from all over the world, gathered in one place to witness something we all enjoy. It kind of brings us all closer, even though most of us have never met."

"How poetic," I said with a smile, looking over at him.

"I try," Oliver snorted, nudging me as I let out a laugh. He smiled at me affectionately. "Merlin, I love that sound," he added as I blushed. Oliver smiled wider at my embarrassment and stopped walking. He dropped my hand and turned his back to me. "Hop on," he said.

Smiling, I hopped up on his back and let him give me a piggy back ride to our tent. I rested my chin on his shoulder and loosely wrapped my arms around his neck. I closed my eyes and just listened for a bit. I could hear birds chirping and the hum of voices coming from within some of the tents we passed that were occupied. Excited voices, happy voices. They were good sounds.

Finally, we reached our campsite and I slid down from Oliver's back.

"Home sweet home," Oliver said, taking in the tent in front of us that looked like an average camping tent.

I smiled. "Can we go inside?"

"Of course." Oliver's dad held open the tent flap and I headed inside, Oliver behind me and his parents bringing up the rear.

"Oh, wow," I said with a smile and a laugh as I turned in place, taking in every inch of the interior of the tent. It obviously had an Undetectable Enlargement Charm on it. The inside was way bigger than it looked from the outside. There was a bedroom area with a large bed on one side of the room, I assumed for Oliver's parents, and a bunk bed on the other for me and Oliver. There was a sitting area and even a bathroom and a kitchen.

"Muggles don't know what they're missing out on," I commented. "Without a tent like this, they have to resort to using the bathroom in the woods. I pity them."

"So do I," Oliver said. "Although, we are going to cook our food outside today, though. It'll complete the experience. Wouldn't be camping without a fire, would it? And this way we get to people watch, socialize, that kind of thing." He paused. "Plus, we can't be too showy with our magic. Muggles will notice if we are."

"When can we go find the Weasleys?" I asked.

"Why don't you unpack first?" Mrs. Wood suggested.

I nodded and headed to the bunk beds before turning to Oliver. "Top or bottom?" He gave me a suggestive grin and my mouth dropped open. "Oliver!" I hissed, swatting him. "That's not like you at all!"

"Oh, it is," he assured me. "I have a constant cycle of dirty thoughts running through my head at all times." He looked at me seriously, trying to keep a straight face, but after a moment he cracked and let out a laugh as he turned away to stifle it.

"You're ridiculous," I answered, laughing a bit myself. "Just answer my question…and seriously, if you don't mind."

Oliver looked at me for a moment. "Top," he finally said with a smirk as he tossed his bag up on the top bunk without breaking his gaze from my face.

"Okay," I whispered, staring back at him and trying to keep a neutral expression.

Laughing to himself, Oliver turned and climbed up the ladder to the top bunk, pausing at the top to wink at me over his shoulder.

"I hate you," I hissed, trying to hit him with my bag, but missing as he ducked. He laughed even harder and that got me laughing for a moment as well.

The tent fell into silence then as I set my bag down on the bottom bunk and began unpacking. I didn't have much, so it didn't take very long. When I was done, I sat down on my bed and waited for Oliver. Soon, I could hear his footsteps on the ladder, so I stood up and turned towards him.

"Can we go for a walk now?" I asked. "Find the Weasleys maybe?"

Oliver nodded. "Mum, Dad, we're going for a walk. We'll be back later."

"Okay, be safe," Mrs. Wood called back.

Oliver squeezed my hand tighter and led me from the tent. We began continuing the walk down our row of tents, looking at all the different people that were here. A lot of them were gathered out in front of their tents. There were a lot of children, a lot of campfires, and a lot of amazingly decorated tents. Some were decorated in such a way where it was obvious what country the people inside had come from. Others were decorated in support of either Ireland or Bulgaria. The Irish tents mostly just consisted of a lot of green, but the Bulgarian tents, while there was a lot of red and black, had lots of posters hanging around depicting Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian Seeker.

"See the Weasleys yet?" Oliver asked. "Mind you, it could take us forever to find them in this mess of people."

I shrugged. "Mr. Weasley said he was pretty sure their campsite was near ours, but he wasn't sure how close exactly. So we shouldn't have to look very far."

We walked hand and hand up and down a few more rows of tents, pointing out decorations to each other and laughing as we saw little children playing outside, getting excited for their first ever Quidditch World Cup.

"Were you that excited when you first came all those years ago?" I asked with a smile, gesturing to a young boy. He was about five or six with his face painted green and white. He was shirtless and running around shrieking while waving a mini Irish flag. His mother was chasing him, his shirt in her hands, ready to stick over his head, the second she got close enough.

"Worse," Oliver joked. "I was too excited to put _any _clothes on."

I laughed. "That must have been a sight."

"One that you'd love," Oliver winked.

"What is _with_ you today?" I asked, swatting him.

He laughed and wrapped his arms around me, nuzzling into my neck. "Nothing," he said sweetly.

"Oliver!" I laughed, trying to pry his arms away. "We're in public!" I let out a shriek of laughter as he pulled me closer again and tried to squirm away again. I finally managed to get away and run off down the row of tents, darting around people and laughing. Oliver finally caught up to me and wrapped his arms around my stomach, lifting me up and spinning me around. "Come on, Olls, let me go," I laughed when he set me down, but kept his arms around me.

"Don't wanna," he mumbled, kissing my jaw and squeezing me tighter.

"I'm serious, let me go," I said, squirming in his arms and laughing some more.

Oliver gave my cheek another kiss before releasing me and taking my hand, acting as calm as if nothing had happened. I rolled my eyes and started to walk forwarad again, but Oliver tugged on my hand and spun me back towards him so that I was pressed against his chest.

"I love you," he said with a smile, before leaning in for a kiss.

I grinned. "I love you, too."

We continued walking after that and five minutes later, I spotted a group of people with flaming red hair gathered in front of a tent.

"There they are!" I cried, pointing. I dropped Oliver's hand and took off running, weaving around people, until I was finally close enough to the campsite. Fred noticed me first and grinned as he pushed himself to his feet. I flung myself into his arms and buried my head in his shoulder.

"Hi, Fred," I whispered.

"Hi, Liles," he replied. "How've you been?"

"Good," I told him. "You?"

"Fine," he replied, pulling away and ruffling my hair. I smiled, then immediately turned to George and hugged him. He returned the hug tightly.

"Excited for the match?" he asked, pulling away.

"Probably nowhere near as excited as you, but yes, I am. Oliver's also really excited," I said, turning to Oliver and grabbing his hand again. "I'm surprised he hasn't wet himself yet, actually."

"Hey!" Oliver protested, nudging me with his elbow as I giggled.

"Hi Wood," the twins said together, giving Oliver friendly grins.

"Hi," he replied with a smile.

"When did you all get here?" I asked the twins. "Early, I expect."

"Very early," Fred groaned.

"Percy, Bill and Charlie are coming around noon," George added. "They got to sleep in because they can Apparate."

"We Apparated too but we still got here only about forty minutes ago," I said. I hesitated. "It'll be good to see Charlie again. And I've never met Bill so it'll be good to meet him. Finally." I smiled.

"I know. I can't believe you haven't met yet," Fred said, shaking his head.

"Lilah!" I looked up to see that I had been noticed by Ginny, who had been kneeling by Hermione and Mr. Weasley. It looked like they had been trying to make a fire and had finally succeeded.

"Hi, Gin," I said as she came over and hugged me.

"Hello, Lilah, Oliver," Mr. Weasley said exuberantly. "Hermione's just helped us make a campfire without magic!"

"Oh wow," I said with a smile. I looked over at the flames. "It looks good."

"Doesn't it?" Mr. Weasley asked fondly. He looked back at me and Oliver. "We're going to cook over it if you two are hungry. Just as soon as Ron and Harry get back with the water I sent them to get." He gazed out over the sea of tents. "I wonder what's keeping them."

"We'll go look for them," Fred volunteered. He leaned in towards me. "Come with us," he whispered.

I nodded and slipped my hand into Oliver's again as we began to follow the twins.

"Don't be too long!" Mr. Weasley called after us.

"We won't, Dad," Fred called over his shoulder, waving a hand dismissively.

I smiled to myself and gave Oliver's hand a comforting squeeze as we let the twins lead us back into the never ending sea of tents.

* * *

**A/N: I realize this is probably one of my longest chapters yet, which is still a little weird for me. I'm not used to having chapters this long. But I also wanted to start getting the world cup in this chapter, so that's what bumped it up a little bit. Hopefully the length is okay for everyone and not overly long. **

**Also, thank you so much to everyone who has been reading/favoriting/reviewing. It really means a lot and I really do enjoy hearing everyone's feedback!**


	33. Chapter 33

The rest of the day was some of the most fun I'd ever had. Oliver and I ended up hanging around with the Weasleys all morning. Bill, Charlie and Percy showed up just before lunch and I got to meet the oldest Weasley for the first time. I knew my mother hated the idea of his long hair and earring, but I thought the look suited him.

Charlie ended up congratulating Oliver on his job well done at captaining the team the previous year and Oliver smiled proudly. Then that led to them talking incessantly about Quidditch, which gave me and the twins a chance to talk.

"George and I have to tell you something," Fred said, poking at the campfire with a stick. He actually looked serious and that made me nervous. The twins looking serious was like seeing a penguin in the desert. It was extremely out of place and usually a cause for concern.

"What's up?" I asked, staring at them worriedly.

"Mum destroyed all of our order forms and most of our products that we made this summer," Fred said, looking up at me.

"Oh, no," I whispered, giving them a sympathetic look. I knew how much that meant to them and how much hard work went into all of their products and order forms.

"We didn't get as many OWLs as she would've liked," George said, flushing red. "We got three each, as we already told you."

"There was a huge blowout," Fred continued. "She was already upset about the Toad Tablet prank and then when we told her about our joke shop—that we've decided to name Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, by the way—she freaked out even more. We all had a huge fight. She wants us to go into the Ministry like Dad and Percy."

"I've already told you that's a laughable idea," I told them quietly.

"We know," Fred said with a fleeting smile. "But she won't take it."

"And yesterday," George continued, "when we went to pick up Harry, we accidentally on purpose dropped some of our extra Ton-Tongue toffees on his aunt and uncle's living room floor. Fred picked them all up—except one."

"For Dudley, Harry's cousin," Fred explained. "We knew he was on a diet and that he'd eat it. We wanted to test them out on someone besides ourselves to see how they'd react."

"And you thought Dudley was the smartest idea?" I asked doubtfully, a smile turning up the corners of my mouth.

Fred smiled back and shook his head. "No, not really. But there _were_ adults around to put him right." He paused. "Well, one adult. My dad. Who did, by the way, put him right. But it wasn't easy. He said Dudley's tongue was four feet long before Harry's aunt and uncle would let him shrink it."

I laughed. "Impressive."

The twins smiled. "Yeah, well," George said, "Mum was livid. She yelled at us again and we got into another fight. And this morning, she figured out that Fred and I had hidden some extra Ton-Tongue Toffees in every available space in our clothing. She summoned all of them with her wand and threw them in the garbage."

I closed my eyes and looked away. I knew Mrs. Weasley meant well deep down, but hearing that she threw away something the twins had worked so hard on actually made my heart break a bit.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered. "I know how much it all means to you."

"Ah, don't look so upset, Lie," Fred said with a forced smile. "We'll make more. It's just frustrating that it happened at all, you know? But we can make more order forms, toffees, whatever we need." He hesitated. "Although, even if we do that, there's the problem that we can't afford our own premises. The only way to get Mum off our case is if we move out and buy a place. And not just a place to _live_, but a place to open up our own shop."

"Our savings aren't quite enough yet," George added.

"But they might be pretty soon," Fred grinned, looking at George.

"What do you mean?" I asked curiously, pulling my knees to my chest and resting my chin on them as I peered at my friends.

"This morning, before you showed up," Fred explained, "Ludo Bagman stopped to talk for a bit and asked if any of us wanted to bet on the outcome of the match."

"You didn't," I said, raising my chin off my knees and sending them a look.

"We did," Fred said proudly. "We bet that Ireland would win, but Krum would get the Snitch."

"Seriously?" I asked in disbelief. "You couldn't have bet for a more…predictable outcome? Something more plausible? Something more plain and simple?"

Fred and George shook their heads vigorously. "We've got a good feeling, Lilah," Fred said, taking a deep breath through his nose. "A good feeling, right in here." He patted his chest twice.

"You're both crazy," I said, shaking my head. I paused. "How much? How much money did you bet?"

"All of our savings," George said, looking me in the eye.

My mouth fell open. "_All_ of your savings?" I asked. "As in…_all _of them? Everything?"

"Yes, everything," Fred said, looking at me in amusement. "That's typically what _all_ means."

I gaped at them. "What happens if you two lose? You'll have nothing left! You'll have to start all over."

"Like we said, we have a good feeling," George explained with a smile. "And we'll be a bit richer by tomorrow because of it."

I sighed. "I hope you're right."

About an hour and a half before the match was supposed to begin, Oliver and I went back to his tent, where his parents had cooked dinner for us. And when dinner was over, we could finally begin to walk over to the stadium.

Lanterns illuminated a pathway through the woods that led to the stadium and it was crowded with people all walking to the match. It was noisy. People were yelling and cheering and everyone looked so excited that it was hard not to feel excited with them.

"Where exactly are our seats?" I asked curiously.

Oliver pointed to the side of the stadium nearest us. "Right in the middle of this side of the stadium. Dead center. They're great seats. We're lucky to have gotten them."

Once we reached the stadium, we had to climb up a decent amount of stairs before finally reaching our seats. Oliver started to get a little antsy at that point, waiting for the match to start. He was like a little kid and I found his excitement endearing.

When the match finally did start, though, he shot out of his seat like lightning, making me jump.

"It's starting!" he exclaimed as an announcer's voice—I think Fred had said it was Ludo Bagman, actually—spoke over the noise of the cheering crowd, welcoming everyone to the four hundred and twenty-second World Cup.

"And now, without further ado," he said, "allow me to introduce the Bulgarian National Team Mascots!"

"I wonder what they brought," Oliver's mother asked in interest. But then, as the mascots flooded onto the field, she groaned.

"What are they?" I asked, peering down at the group of what seemed like a bunch of girls with white-blonde hair to me.

"Veela," Oliver's Mum answered with an eye roll.

"_Really_?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. I could remember reading about veela. I didn't know they could be used as mascots though, so I hadn't thought to put two and two together.

Just then, music started blaring and the veela began dancing. I watched in disgust as Oliver gaped at the group of dancing girls below us as if he was in a trance. I glanced over at Oliver's mother, who looked just as annoyed as I did.

"Wonderful, isn't it?" Oliver's dad asked dazedly, zooming in on the field with his Omnioculars.

Oliver's mother scoffed and crossed her arms.

As the veela kept dancing, Oliver kept leaning further and further over the railing as if trying to get an even closer look at the veela. Any second, he'd fall over headfirst.

"Oi!" I called in annoyance, yanking him back by his shirt. "Snap out of it!"

A second later, the veela stopped dancing and my boyfriend seemed to come back to his senses. He blinked at me. "I have no idea what came over me," he said slowly.

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest. "Sure," I grumbled.

"I'm serious!" Oliver protested. "It was weird. It was like I was in this...haze."

"The power of veela," I sighed, glaring as the stupid veela made their way off the field.

"Come on," Oliver pleaded, resting his arm on the back of my seat and leaning in closer. "You know I love you and only you." He gave me a kiss on the cheek and I smiled, but didn't get the chance to reply. The Irish Mascots (leprechauns tossing out handfuls of gold left and right) were being introduced. Then after that, Bagman introduced the players from both teams. And then, finally, the match began.

I had to admit, I was totally wrapped up in the match by the end of it. It was incredible! It was the most intense game I'd ever seen. There were a few injuries and Krum pulled this move apparently called the Wronski Feint (at least that's what Oliver kept yelling). From what I gathered, the Wronski Feint was when the Seeker pretended to spot the Snitch and went into a dive, pulling out at the very last second and usually causing the opposing Seeker to crash. It looked dangerous to me, but Oliver was going nuts over it. I thought he was going to burst into tears any moment.

Also, it turned out that Fred and George were right about the outcome of the match, oddly enough. Ireland won, but Viktor Krum had caught the snitch. How they knew was amazing. With intuition like that, it was a wonder they didn't do better in school just by guessing the answers.

Everyone was on a total high as we walked back to our campsite. Oliver was giving me a piggyback ride again and everyone was letting out cheers and shouts of joy. The pathway through the woods was loud and cheerful.

I laughed as Oliver spun around in a circle, my hair fluttering around both of our faces.

"That was insane!" Oliver cried. "Did you see how Krum caught that Snitch! And Ireland's Chasers! They're amazing!"

"I saw, Olls, I was there," I laughed, leaning forward and kissing his cheek.

"But did you _see_ how amazing they all were?" he asked again, his voice breathless.

I giggled again. "I promise I did."

"This is the best night of my life," he said and I detected a bounce in his step as he continued down the pathway.

"It might be mine too," I whispered in his ear. I felt him give my leg a squeeze where he was holding it and I smiled to myself.

When we finally got back to our tent, Oliver collapsed onto the couch and stared up at the ceiling wistfully. His parents headed into the kitchen area, where Oliver's mother began to make tea.

"I'm glad you came today," Oliver said with a smile.

"Me too," I answered. I paused. "I wish I got to see Julian, though. Maybe I can try to meet up with him still. There's time..."

Oliver sat up and looked at me. "I don't think that's a good idea. He's with Sam, isn't he? We don't want you to have to spend any time with him than you don't have to."

I blinked at him. "Sure, but I really just want to see my brother and check up on him. He's more important."

"Your brother is fine," Oliver insisted. "He's with an adult."

"He's with Sam!" I exclaimed. "I thought we both agreed Sam was crazy. You don't want me near him, so why is Julian any different?"

"He's not after Julian!" Oliver exclaimed. "He's after you!" He glanced over his shoulder before lowering his voice to a whisper. "You're the one he's bribing."

"I don't care!" I shot back. "I don't trust him! He's manipulative and crazy and he's alone with my brother! I just want to check up on him."

"I doubt Julian will appreciate that," Oliver said with a knowing look.

"You can't be serious," I said. "You're really going to bring that up when you know that's a whole other can of worms?"

"Lilah, you're getting hysterical," Oliver said calmly. "Just calm down."

I pursed my lips and glared at him. "Can I talk to you outside? Please?"

"Fine." He stood up and I grabbed his sleeve, pulling him outside the tent.

"You have some nerve," I said. "Acting as if the way I am with my younger brother is a crime, when you know how I feel about it already and then bossing me around and treating _me_ like a child."

"I'm trying to help you!" He cried, throwing up his hands in frustration.

"Well, you're bossing me around," I snapped. "You don't like it when your mother babies you either, so you don't have to baby me."

"You're one to talk. Like I said, you're always complaining about Julian resenting you for how you treat him, but no, maybe it's justified because you have your excuse all mapped out. Deprived of a childhood and all that, right?"

"What are you saying?" I asked furiously. "That it's not true? Or not as bad as I've made it seem?"

"No, I-I didn't mean any of that," Oliver said quietly.

"Then what _did_ you mean?" I raised an eyebrow at him. When he didn't answer, I scoffed and turned away.

"I'm trying to help and give you advice, Lilah, because I love you!" Oliver cried. "I don't want you to spend any more time than you need near Sam. And if you're too stubborn to see that and accept it then I don't know what to tell you. Maybe I'll get tired and stop offering it."

"Seriously?" I scoffed. "Some boyfriend you are."

"Merlin, Lilah, what do you want?" Oliver cried. "Do you want to push me away or do you want me to help you?"

"I want you to have patience and I want to talk this through and work it out together!" I cried. "I _want_ you to protect me because it does feel good to have someone looking out for me for once, but I don't want you go go overboard with this. I don't need another person to suffocate me."

"Suffocate you," Oliver said flatly. "I didn't know protecting you was so suffocating."

"There's a fine line, Oliver," I said.

"I just don't know what you want from me!" He answered. "You want me to protect you and not suffocate you. You say it's nice to be taken care of for once and protected, but then you accuse me of babying you. You don't want to be babied, but you baby your brother!"

"I'm working on it!" I cried. "You know that and you have the nerve to fling it back in my face and use it against me!"

"I'm just confused," Oliver said. "You're sending me mixed signals and I don't know what you want me to do!"

"I just need you to understand!" I cried. "My brother is off with a man that I don't trust and I need you to set aside your worries about protecting me right now because my brother's safety is very important to me."

"Well, _you_ are important to _me_!" Oliver said.

"But is this even about me?" I asked quietly. "Or is it about you and your career? Sam could easily ruin your life by painting me as some crazy girl. And how would everyone react if they knew Oliver Wood's girlfriend was insane?"

"Of course it's not about-why would you-how could you say that?" Oliver asked. "What even gives you that idea?"

"I know how you used to be, Olls," I said. "And I don't think that I have the power to change you completely. I know that being famous must be hard and I know how you feel about Quidditch. That's never going to change."

"I love _you_," he said furiously. "What do I have to do to prove it to you? Quit the team?"

"Don't you dare!" I hissed. "I love _you_ too much to let you give this up over me. I am _not _worth it."

"You are," Oliver said.

I shrugged. "Regardless, I know you still love Quidditch and I know how happy you are being with Puddlemere. You have to understand that I would never do anything to ruin that for you, but I have to look out for Julian, too."

"You're not going to find him tonight," Oliver said. "You don't know where his tent is. Besides, like I said, I don't want you being near Sam."

"You can't tell me what to do," I said, anger rising inside me again as I crossed my arms.

"Can you stop acting like a teenager throwing a tantrum for one second and think maturely?" Oliver asked with a scoff.

"Oh, think maturely so I can see that being near Sam gives him more ways to potentially ruin your career! Got it."

"Why do you keep bringing that up? That's not the case!"

I glared at him. "The only person who truly knows that is you," I said. "But you have to trust me and let me make my own decisions, Oliver! You're my boyfriend, not my prison warden!"

Oliver glared at me. "Fine, you know what? Go! Go find Julian! And I hope Sam writes a huge nasty article about you!"

"Oh, and _I'm _the one acting like a teenager throwing a tantrum?" I asked. "Sam has no reason to write an araticle about me right now. I haven't provoked him enough to do so. And paying my brother a visit is not going to push him over the edge. I can risk being around Sam a bit longer for Julian. So you need to grow up." With that, I turned and walked away.

I walked without any idea where I was headed. I just picked a direction and walked. After a bit, I realized that Oliver was right. I didn't know where Julian and Sam's tent was and there were so many tents that it could take _days _to find them. I sighed. This was a stupid plan. But I couldn't help but feel worried.

I finally stopped walking as I weighed my options. I could keep walking and hope I stumbled on my brother. I could also go back to Oliver's tent, which I really didn't want to do. I couldn't face him again so soon after I had stormed off. I needed time to cool off and so did he. So, I supposed just walking for a bit would give me a chance to do that.

Suddenly, I heard a burst of laughter coming from a tent to my right. I looked up and smiled in slight surprise. It just so happened to be the Weasley's tent. What were the odds that I would end up aimlessly walking back here? I paused a moment as I debated what to do. And then I decided it couldn't hurt to stop in for a bit. Maybe they could help me find Julian.

When I reached the flap of the tent, I heard loud voices and the sounds of celebration coming from inside. I gently pulled back the tent flap and stood at the entrance for a moment, taking in the scene as I waited for someone to notice me.

Fred and George were dancing around the room. George had an Irish flag draped over his shoulders, which he suddenly threw at Ron, who was talking wistfully about Viktor Krum's performance that night.

"I think you're in love, Ron," Ginny laughed.

Fred and George loved that. They laughed and began taunting Ron about Viktor.

"Viktor I love you, Viktor I do. When we're apart my heart beats only for you!"

"Oh shut up," Ron muttered.

I couldn't help myself. I laughed, getting the attention of the others in the room.

"Lilah!" Fred said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

I cleared my throat awkwardly. "I, uh, just wanted to stop by. I don't think I spent enough time with you earlier." I smirked.

"You spent all _day_ with us," Fred said with a smirk of his own. "Although I'm not surprised you're begging for more. We are pretty irresistible."

"Of course you are. It's like you're the honey and the rest of the world are the flies."

"Exactly," Fred grinned, picking the fallen Irish flag up off the floor. "Why don't you come in? Join the fun."

I stepped inside the tent and looked around. "Nice place you've got here."

Fred nodded. "Kitchen, bathroom, sleeping area," he said, pointing to each one. "And finally, the living room." He smiled and moved his arm in a sweeping motion, showing off the room we were in.

"Where's your dad?" I asked. "And Bill, Charlie and Percy?" I looked around, noticing they weren't there. The only people in the tent were the twins, Ginny, Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Off talking to some Ministry people, I think," George said. "Dad wanted to find Ludo Bagman or Barty Crouch and tell them what a great job they did organizing the match. And Percy just doesn't want to miss an opportunity to kiss up to his boss."

"Maybe he can get him to stop calling him _Weatherby_," Fred snorted as the others laughed.

"Speaking of Ludo Bagman," I said, "you won your bet. You must be happy."

"Thrilled," Fred beamed, patting his pocket. "I told you not to doubt us, Lilah."

I smiled. "So I take it you definitely enjoyed the match," I said, collapsing into a chair.

"Oh it was amazing," George said with a grin.

"George's favorite part were the veela," Fred smirked, nudging his brother.

"Shut up," George muttered, blushing and looking away. "It's not like you weren't making a fool out of yourself either. I should tell Ange, see what she thinks."

"She'd probably laugh," Fred said nonchalantly.

Ginny and I both snorted and shared a look. "You sure about that?" I asked.

Fred nodded. "She knows it's not real."

"Yeah, but there's something...upsetting about seeing someone you love gawk over another girl, real or not, magic or no magic, and almost fall face first over the railing."

"Is that what Wood almost did?" Fred asked, roaring with laughter. "Harry and Ron too! Except they weren't about to fall, exactly. It was more like they thought they were on a professional diving team." He continued to laugh as he and George began imitating Harry and Ron's performance, pressing their palms together over their heads and pulling dazed faces. Harry and Ron glared at him from their spots on the couch, both of them turning a bright red.

"Yeah, well, what did _you_ do?" I asked, sending him a glare as well. "Try to do ballet and show them you're just as good a dancer as they are, if not better?"

"No, of course not," Fred scoffed, lowering his hands back to his sides. "That would look silly."

"Damn right it would," I answered.

"Actually, they did something much better," Ginny said. "We wouldn't tell them what they were doing, but now maybe we should, considering they snapped out of it in time to notice what everyone else was doing and have a good laugh."

"All right, hit us," George said, raising his eyebrows at his sister.

"You started comparing your muscles and betting on which one of you was more muscular and how many of the veela you could attract with said muscles."

"Oh, you didn't," I groaned, burying my head in my hands. "Merlin, I'm friends with such egotistical maniacs!"

"We were under the influence of magic, I'll have you know," Fred said. "We weren't thinking right." He paused. "Although, I am more muscular than George. For sure."

"No way!" George protested.

"Maybe we can ask Lilah for her opinion," Fred grinned. "I'm sure she would jump at the chance to touch these babies." He held up his arm and flexed, grinning at me.

"I'm going to vomit," I told him. "Besides, I'm already taken. By someone with a normal sized head."

"You two fought tonight, didn't you, though?" Hermione suddenly asked sympathetically, curling her legs up under her. "You and Oliver?"

"What makes you think that?" I asked casually, picking at a loose thread on the chair I was in. I was surprised, but kind of glad Hermione had picked up on it. Sure, she wasn't the first person I'd run to in order to talk about Oliver, but she was ertainly intuitive. Besides, I was still fairly close to everyone here, especially the twins. And while I wouldn't immediately go to them about any problems with Oliver either, talking about it to someone might help.

"You aren't together." Hermione shrugged. "You aren't spending time with him in his tent and you didn't bring him here."

"What, I can't spend any time alone with my friends?" I asked, deciding to still be a bit difficult.

"Of course, but you came here—to the match—with Oliver," Hermione said softly. "I don't mean to be nosy, but—"

I swallowed. "We did fight," I said. "I just needed to get out for a bit, get away, take a moment to myself..."

"What'd he do?" Fred said, sighing in agitation. "Am I going to have to use my amazing muscles to give him a black eye?"

I flung the pillow that had been sitting on my armchair at him. "Shut up." I sighed. "No, he just-"

I was cut off by the sudden sound of screaming outside followed by the sounds of many rapid footsteps. It sounded like a stampede.

I looked back at the others, my eyes wide. What was going on out there?

Fred and George were instantly on their feet, their wands pointed at the tent entrance, despite the fact that they were still underage.

"Should we look outside?" Ginny squeaked.

Before anyone could reply, Mr. Weasley burst into the tent, followed by Percy, Bill and Charlie. Their faces were as white as sheets, which told me that something was terribly wrong. I wondered what it was. What could possibly be happening.

"Dad, what's happening?" Ginny asked.

"You all need to get out, get to the woods, and stick together," Mr. Weasley said. He looked at the twins. "You're in charge. You're the oldest."

"But what about-?" Fred began, glancing at his older brothers.

"They're all coming to help me," Mr. Weasley said.

"What's going on out there?" George asked impatiently.

Mr. Weasley looked back at him grimly. "Death Eaters are attacking the campsites."

The world outside of the Weasley's tent was absolute chaos. Thousands of people that had once been celebrating in their own tents were now running for their lives towards the woods. People were screaming, I could hear crying, and there were tents on fire, filling the air with an orangey glow and lots of heavy smoke.

Mr. Weasley, Bill, Charlie and Percy had already disappeared, leaving the rest of us gathered in the entryway to the tent.

"Okay, let's listen to Dad and get to the woods," Fred said, swallowing as he gazed at the scene in front of him. He immediately grabbed one of Ginny's hands while George grabbed the other. I stared at their hands for a moment before looking back up at them and making a decision.

"You go, I'm going to find Oliver," I said.

"Lilah, are you nuts? He's probably halfway to the woods right now himself!" George exclaimed. "You're coming with us."

I shook my head and took a few steps backwards. "No, I can't, I have to make sure he's okay...And maybe I can find Julian on the way. I have to go. I'll try to meet up with you later. Be safe." And with that, I turned and bolted, running in the opposite direction from the woods and from any remote kind of safety.

"Lilah!" I heard one—or maybe even both—of the twins screaming behind me. I ignored them and kept running. Maybe I was being idiotic, but all I know was that my boyfriend was somewhere in this mess and I needed to find him. I had fought with him before all this happened. Saying I felt guilty would be an understatement.

Since I was running against the flow of people, it was slow going getting to where I was headed. I was constantly being jarred and slammed into by bodies of people I had no time to even glance at. All I could do was fight my way through, trying to ignore the way the fear, palpable in the smoky night air, seemed to press in on me and the way the bodies of each and every person I passed seemed to blur together, but also surround me. I felt suddenly claustrophobic, but I forced myself to keep moving.

Finally, I found our campsite. The tent was luckily still standing. I hesitated for a minute, resting my hands on my knees. My hair was a mess, I was sweaty and I was coughing from all the smoke. Then, I ran into the tent. No one was there.

"Oliver?" I cried, running around the tent, checking every corner, just in case. Still empty.

I ran back outside and stood there with my hands on my head and my eyes closed, trying to think. I had no idea where Julian and Sam's campsite was. And in this mess, it was going to be impossible to find them if they were running to the woods. That was enough to make my heart beat even more rapidly as it was. And then what about Oliver and his parents? What if they had gone to the Weasley's tent, trying to look for me? It could be a never ending cycle of some twisted game of tag that I didn't want to play.

Swallowing, I took off running again, my heart pounding and my throat burning. Getting to the Weasley's tent was easier than getting back to my own. I was going with the flow of people this time.

But when I got to the Weasley's tent, it was as empty as it was when I left. I swore as I tried to catch my breath. I was alone now. How I was going to find anyone either out here or in the woods was beyond me. I knew now at least that Oliver and his parents, as well as the Weasleys had headed for safety. But what about Julian and Sam? Had they made it to the woods? Or had something happened on the way there or in their tent? What if their tent had been one of the ones on fire?

Before I had time to dwell on it, though, a wave of screams erupted from behind me as well as the _phwoosh _sound of a fire being not only started, but also immediately fed. I turned to see that a group of tents not far from where I was standing had gone up in flames. And not too far from those tents were the people who had started this whole mess. The Death Eaters. Cloaked in black and wearing terrible looking masks to hide their faces, they were marching down the row of tents, setting some on fire here and there and levitating people above their heads. I recognized one as the Muggle site manager. The other people had to have been his family.

Swallowing, I tore my eyes away from them and began to run towards the woods, fighting the urge to throw up. My legs burned, my throat burned, my eyes burned, and my stomach was in knots.

Finally, _finally_, I reached the woods and kept running. It was less crowded now, but there were still people everywhere. It was quieter, but I could still hear the chaos from the campsites behind me. I crashed through the trees, too afraid to stop moving. Eventually my surroundings thinned out in people, but seemed to thicken in forest. Trees were everywhere, it was dark and I could see almost no one. I was lost. I had no idea where anyone was. How would I find them?

My heart was pounding and I couldn't breathe. I stumbled over a few tree roots. I felt sick. I was shaking. My head was spinning. I kept picturing the Death Eaters and the fires and the floating Muggles. I kept thinking that I was lost and no one would ever find me. I remembered that I didn't know where my friends were, or my family, or my boyfriend. I was alone. I was alone and I was terrified.

I stopped in the middle of a clearing. I didn't know how far into the woods I had gone. The trees really weren't that thick, but they seemed it. And they seemed too tall. They towered over me, their branches waving like twiggy arms, reaching out to grab me. Smoke billowed over the tops of them. It was silent except for my own rapid gasps for air and the faint yells and screams I could hear from other points of the forest. _I'm completely alone_, I thought again. It was amazing how I could feel suffocated by the swarms of people running through the campground moments ago and, only minutes later, feel suffocated by the silence.

I was still trembling and I couldn't stop. My head was still spinning. The more I tried to calm my heart, the more it raced inside my ribcage. I needed to sit. Sitting sounded good. I couldn't think. I whirled around looking for a log or a large rock and my head spun violently. And that was when I fainted.

I awoke groggily with my head aching. But I was warm and lying on something soft. Something cool was being pressed to my head.

I let out a quiet groan.

"Lilah?" The voice sounded far away and foggy. "Lilah, can you hear me?" It was clearer now. I could make it out a bit better. It was Fred's voice.

I swallowed and forced my eyes to open. The first thing I saw was Fred's ghostly white face peering down at me, his pale blue eyes wide as saucers and every last freckle on his cheeks standing out clearer than ever against his pale skin. The first coherent thing I wondered in my otherwise dazed mind was how many freckles he had total.

"Where am I?" I croaked, realizing I was lying on a couch with my head in Fred's lap. But that was all I knew.

"You're in our tent," Fred said quietly removing a wet cloth from my forehead and proceeding to brush away the few now wet strands of hair that had plastered themselves to my skin.

"You gave us quite the scare," another voice said. I turned to see George peering at me from an armchair. Everyone else was there, too, dispersed throughout the tent. Ginny and Hermione were huddled on one of the lower bunk beds. Ron and Harry were standing leaning against the posts at either end of the same bunk beds. Mr. Weasley, Bill, Charlie and Percy were gathered in the kitchen area. Bill was tending to a gash on his arm and Charlie was dabbing at his bloody nose. But everyone else seemed unharmed.

"What happened?" I asked, sitting up. The blanket covering me dropped to my lap and Fred's hands guided me upwards, as if he were afraid I might lose my balance again. I felt a little woozy, but not bad. I didn't want to test standing up just yet, though, so instead I leaned back against Fred's side. He pulled me to him and adjusted the blanket on my lap.

Mr. Weasley stepped forward and handed me a mug of steaming hot chocolate. "We were hoping you could tell us," he said quietly, retreating back into the kitchen area.

I cradled the mug in my hands. I still felt a bit shaky, but nowhere near as bad as I had felt in the woods.

"We found you passed out cold in the middle of a clearing," George explained. "Fred, Ginny, Bill and me. We were separated from the others in the woods."

"Bill found us and asked where you were," Fred continued. "We said you had gone back for Julian, but he said no one was at the campgrounds at the moment. Everyone had evacuated and the Ministry was sorting things out."

"So, we wandered through the woods calling your name," Ginny added. "No one was answering. Every once in a while, Bill would use some sort of spell..."

"Homenum Revelio," Bill said, nodding. "It detects the presence of humans."

"Yeah, that," Ginny said, tilting her head towards Bill in acknowledgment. "Anyway, it helped us find you. You were lying in the middle of the clearing, pale as a ghost. We thought the worst, actually."

I swallowed and stared down into my drink. "I ran back to find my brother and Oliver and his parents, but I couldn't find them. I don't even know where Julian's tent is... Anyway, I thought maybe they were trying to find me, so I ran back here and there was no one. So I ran to the woods and I just felt…overwhelmed. I had seen the Death Eaters and there were so many people and then all of a sudden it was just…quiet. No more people, but so many trees, and so much smoke. I was lost. I thought no one would ever find me. I was afraid." I shook my head. "I couldn't breathe. And then I just…passed out."

"Sounds like you were almost hyperventilating," Percy said, adjusting his glasses. "It can happen suddenly and due to fear. And fainting can be an effect."

"That sounds accurate," I said with a breathy, bitter laugh. I paused. "So the Death Eaters are gone, then?"

Mr. Weasley nodded. "We've sorted it all out."

"I'm assuming you didn't see the Dark Mark before you passed out?" Fred asked, gently curling his arm around the side of my head and rubbing his hand up my forehead. He kept doing it and the repeated, calming motion worked wonders. Little by little, my muscles started to relax. But my stomach clenched at his words.

"The Dark Mark?" I asked, my voice squeaky.

"Fred, I don't think you needed to tell her that now," Mr. Weasley sighed.

Fred shrugged. "She'd find out eventually."

Mr. Weasley hesitated. "Someone sent up a Dark Mark at some point. They had been used before when You-Know-Who or one of his followers killed someone, but we suspect that tonight was all just a show—proving to us that they haven't gone anywhere, even if You-Know-Who's been gone himself all these years."

"But then in the woods, we found Barty Crouch's house elf with Harry's wand," Hermione said. "His wand had been used to send up the spell."

"So Mr. Crouch's house elf did it?" I asked, squinting in confusion. That didn't sound right. Why would a house elf do that? _How_ would a house elf know how to do that? And Barty Crouch's house elf, no less.

Mr. Weasley shook his head. "I doubt it. We all seem to think that someone—whoever really cast the spell—planted the wand in Winky's hand. Barty was embarrassed though. Fired the poor elf on the spot."

Hermione let out a noise of disapproval and pursed her lips.

I rubbed a hand over my eyes. "So then what?"

Mr. Weasley shrugged. "The Ministry sorted it all out, performed Memory Charms on those poor Muggles and everyone came back to their campsites. Unfortunately, the good mood from earlier has been dampened, though."

"Do you know where Julian is?" I asked. "And Oliver and his parents?"

Mr. Weasley shook his head. "Probably back at their campsites, or out looking for you."

I took a sip of my hot chocolate. It was delicious and helped warm me up immensely.

"Feeling any better?" Fred asked.

I shrugged. "A bit." There was a pause. "Thank you so much for helping me."

"Lilah, you're my and George's best friend," Fred said. "Don't even mention it."

Just then there was a commotion at the tent flap. George went to investigate and my head snapped up at the sound of Oliver's voice.

"Is she in here? Is she with you?" His voice was hysterical, the most panicked I'd ever heard it, actually.

"Yeah, she's here, but—," George began.

"Let me see her, now," Oliver demanded.

George swiftly stepped from one side to the other, I assumed to block Oliver from coming in. "Hold on, I've got to tell you—"

"Damnit, Weasley, let me see her!" Oliver yelled. I blinked in surprise. It wasn't like Oliver to get this worked up over anything.

"She fainted!" George roared back. "She hyperventilated and we found her passed out in the woods!"

There was nothing but silence for a beat or two.

"What?" Oliver asked, his voice hoarse.

"Yeah," George said, his voice quiet now. "She's a bit shaken up, but she is awake and she seems okay otherwise. But I just thought you should know before you go tearing in there like a lunatic." He stepped aside then and Oliver came inside the tent.

The second our eyes met, a thousand unspoken apologies flew between us, like currents through electrical wires. Oliver looked absolutely disheveled. His hair was sticking out in a million places and he had soot on his face. I probably looked worse, but still, I could tell he was quite distressed about losing me in the commotion earlier.

Fred removed his arm from around me and leaned away into the arm of the couch, allowing me to sit up straight, although I did immediately miss the added warmth his body had been providing.

Wordlessly, Oliver crossed the tent and knelt down in front of me. "Hey," he whispered, his voice shaky. With a trembling hand, he reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

"Hey," I whispered back, giving him a tiny smile.

"My parents are waiting back at the campsite," he said. "I told them I'd come check to see if you were here before we went to scour every inch of the woods to find you."

I gave him a forced, feeble smile. "Yeah, well, here I am," I whispered.

Oliver hesitated. "Julian's there, too."

"You found him?" I asked, a flash of relief coursing through me.

"He was sitting alone on a log in the woods," Oliver said slowly. "Apparently Sam told him to wait there."

"What? Why?" I asked angrily.

Oliver was quiet for a moment. "Sam said he'd need to go help the Daily Prophet cover what had happened. He said he couldn't miss something so huge."

I scowled. "He was supposed to be taking care of my brother!" I cried. "And he just left him alone! I can't believe him! I'm going to-"

"Lilah, Lilah, Lilah," Oliver said quickly, giving my wrist a squeeze. When I met his eyes, he shook his head. "Not a good idea," he whispered.

I glared at him. "This is my brother's safety here, Oliver. I have _every _right to be angry."

"Of course you do," Oliver whispered, reaching up and placing a hand on the side of my face. "And I know this is really what we argued about, but..." he swallowed. "Please. Just don't do anything rash. Trust me, okay? What's important is that Julian's safe."

I suddenly found myself too tired to argue. It was so much easier to simply comply with Oliver's wishes and avoid confrontation. "Fine," I whispered. There was a pause. "Julian _is_ okay, though, isn't he? You're sure?"

"He's fine," Oliver reassured me with a smile. "He's more worried about you right now, actually." He paused. "Want to go see him?"

"Are you kidding? Of course!" I exclaimed.

Oliver stood up and turned to address the Weasleys. "Thank you," he said, clearing his throat. "For taking care of her."

"Anytime, Ollie," Fred said with a smile.

"You know better than to call me that," Oliver said quietly, letting out a faint laugh. He looked at me. "Ready?"

I nodded and rubbed a hand over my exhausted eyes. I waved goodbye to the Weasleys and followed Oliver from the tent. We walked back to our campsite in silence. When I pushed open the tent flap, however, I was greeted with a burst of noise.

"Lilah!" Julian cried, running over and throwing his arms around me. I immediately hugged him back, pulling him to me and planting a kiss on his forehead.

"I'm so glad you're okay," I whispered, feeling on the verge of tears.

Julian pulled away and studied my face. "What happened?" he asked.

"We heard you and Oliver arguing earlier," Mr. Wood said apologetically as if he had purposely eavesdropped, which I knew wasn't the case. I figured we had been loud enough to alert their attention, even if they couldn't make out every word.

"Then Ollie came back inside and said you had had a disagreement and that you had gone to find your brother," Oliver's mother said. "He worried that he should go after you and I thought the same, but Adam disagreed." She looked at her husband. "He said you could handle making it there yourself and perhaps it was best if you did have some time to calm yourself down—both you and Oliver—before addressing the situation again."

I nodded and swallowed as I dug the heels of my hands into my eyes. "Yeah, I, uh, ended up going to the Weasley's and we were all just hanging out when the Death Eaters attacked. Mr. Weasley told everyone to go to the woods, but I came back here to find you all. I was terrified. And then when you weren't here, I went back to the Weasley's thinking perhaps you had gone to look for me—it was a far-fetched theory, really, in all the chaos. Then I went to the woods, but only after I saw the Death Eaters. It was so scary and there were so many people, all moving at once. And then I got lost in the woods and I freaked out and fainted." I sunk down onto a chair.

"You fainted?" Oliver's mother asked in alarm, sitting beside me and gently lifting my chin so that she could study my face. "Do you know if you hit your head?"

I shrugged. "Don't know. I don't think I did. It doesn't hurt."

"I'd still like to run some tests to make sure you didn't hit your head…." Oliver's mother said. "It'll have to wait until tomorrow, though, I'm afraid. We'll bring you by the hospital quickly before we drop you off at home."

I nodded. "Okay."

"Do you feel sick at all right now?" Oliver's dad asked.

"No," I replied. "I feel fine." I looked at Julian. "How are you? Oliver told me what Sam did."

Julian nodded. "I was scared," he admitted quietly. "I was glad Oliver found me so that I wasn't left alone anymore."

I looked at Oliver and smiled as I reached over and took his hand. "I'm glad he did, too." I leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Thank you."

Oliver blushed and smiled. "Don't mention it," he whispered against my ear. He paused. "And I think now is a good time to tell your brother about Sam bribing you. Perhaps tomorrow morning, after we've all gotten some sleep."

I nodded as I swallowed nervously. "Okay."

Oliver gave my hand a squeeze before leading me towards the bunk beds, ruffling Julian's hair on the way. Oliver's mother helped Julian get set up on the couch and moments later, the tent fell into darkness. All was silent once again. Completely silent. There weren't even any sounds of people sleeping, letting me know that everyone in the tent was still awake, too busy thinking about the night's events to fall asleep.


	34. Chapter 34

The day after the World Cup, I told Julian the truth about the bribe. He was furious. He was all for confronting Sam at first too, just like Oliver had initially wanted, but once I told him what Oliver had said, he seemed to calm down a bit. Or he least agreed not to say anything.

"But I mean it, Lilah," he said seriously, "if he makes one more wrong move, I'll break his face. _One_ more. I swear."

"Okay, Jules," I said with a half-smile.

It was awkward after that, though. Sam noticed Julian's change in attitude towards him and said something to me about it. He said it was just one more thing to add to his list of offenses. I asked him why he hadn't just had the article written about me yet, but he said he was waiting for the perfect opportunity, which hadn't arisen yet. That just stressed me out. I felt like I was walking on eggshells. Waiting for it all to hit the fan. Waiting for me to do something "wrong" for him to get upset about. I didn't tell Julian any of that. If he did something to upset Sam, we'd all pay for it. If anything, I had to protect the people I loved from being dragged into my mess.

While I was very excited about going back to school and getting away from Sam, I was going to miss two things desperately. One of them was Grace, but I was considering trying to arrange it so that I could leave school every Sunday morning to go read to her. The other thing I was going to miss was-naturally-Oliver. But if I got permission to go read to Grace, I'd be able to see him then, seeing as he'd be at St. Mungo's as well, reading to Alex.

On the last night before school started again, Oliver took me out to dinner in Diagon Alley, something I actually had to persuade him into doing. And even then, he was overly paranoid about it, constantly checking over his shoulder and choosing a booth in the back corner. I wasn't happy, but I tried to put my negative feelings aside and enjoy the night because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to see him in any place besides the newspaper for a while.

"It's all up to Dumbledore now," Oliver said later. We were back at hs flat, laying on the couch together and staring into the roaring fire. I was nestled between Oliver and the back of the couch, my head on his chest and one hand on his stomach. He had one arm resting behind his head and the other draped over my shoulders, gently tracing circles into my side. "It's all cleared for you to still come to the hospital every week," he continued. "But now all that needs to happen is that you need to be cleared to leave school by Dumbledore."

"Do you think he'll let me?" I asked.

"I don't see why not," Oliver sighed. "It's for a good cause. And it's already been in the paper a few times. We've both been mentioned. Which, by the way, will probably help our case if Sam ever does decide to publish something about you."

"Maybe,"I sighed. "But if we're aiming to put something good about me in the paper, I'd rather just go to a trustworthy reporter and beat Sam to the punch. You know that."

"There _are_ no trustworthy reporters, though, Lie," Oliver said. "That's the thing. You can't trust anyone in this business."

"Are you sure about that?" I asked doubtfully, looking up at him.

Oliver nodded. "Yes." He paused. "Well, maybe not a hundred percent, but I'm fairly certain and I want to do anything possible to protect you."

We were both quiet after that and a moment later, I felt Oliver press a kiss to my head. "You're a wonderful person, Lilah," he said. "Whatever happens...I want you to remember that. Remember that I love you and all I'm trying to do-all I've ever _wanted_ to do-is protect you."

I picked my head up and looked at him. "Thank you," I whispered, resting my palm against his cheek and smiling. "I appreciate it. Honestly. And I love you, too. I just need you to understand that I don't want to be overly paranoid about this. Careful, yes, but there's only so much we can do. There's such a thing as too careful. I don't want to hide, Oliver. And I have to look out for my brother, okay? It's my job, no matter how old he gets. And Sam or no Sam. I'd risk getting bad mouthed in the paper any day if it meant getting Julian out of danger. The night at the World Cup-"

"I know," Oliver whispered. "I admire that about you, actually." He sighed, then leaned forward and kissed me. "Like I said, you're an amazing person."

I blushed. "I'm glad someone thinks so."

"Lots of people think so, Lie," Oliver whispered. "You just need to learn to see it." And with that, he leaned in to kiss me again. I deepened it quickly and slid a hand to the back of his neck, pulling him closer.

"Merlin, I'm going to miss you so much," I whispered, pulling away slightly.

"I'll miss you, too," Oliver said, kissing my jaw. "But we can't talk about that now. In fact, we can't talk about anything."

"No?" I asked with a giggle.

"No, you have to shut up so I can keep kissing you," Oliver answered.

I laughed harder this time before rolling completely onto my stomach and kissing him. He rested his hands on my hips and pulled me closer as I sighed and relaxed into his touch, enjoying and making the most of every second with him while I still had the chance.

"It feels _so_ good to be back," I sighed, stepping into the Hogwarts entrance hall ad wringing out my soaking wet hair. It was pouring outside and thunder was rumbling in the distance, so even though our dash from the carriages to the front door was short, it had left us drenched.

"You're soaked to the bone and still saying that," Fred chuckled, running a hand through his hair and making it stick out funny. "You must have missed this place a _lot_."

"I did," I sighed.

We sat down at the Gryffindor table and waited as everyone else filed in and took their seats. And then we also had to wait for the first years to be brought in and sorted. My stomach was grumbling loudly, begging for food.

Finally, after the first years were sorted into their houses, Dumbledore stood up to make his usual start of term announcements.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Fred sighed, resting his chin in his hand and gazing up at Dumbledore. "Keep out of the Forbidden Forest, no magic in the hallways, check the list of forbidden items outside Filch's door that's grown since last year and that George and I need to steal a copy of to stay updated. Just give us our food already."

I made eye contact with Angelina across the table and rolled my eyes. "Your boyfriend is _really _disrespectful," I said, trying to stifle a smile and a laugh. "You'd better talk to him about that."

Angelina shook her head. "He won't listen," she said. "He doesn't like being told what not to do on a normal basis, but especially when he's impatient to be fed."

I smiled, but didn't get the chance to reply because Dumbledore had started talking.

"Mr. Filch, the caretaker, has asked me to tell you the list of objects forbidden inside the castle has been extended to include screaming yo-yos, Fanged Frisbees, and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs. The full list comprises some four hundred and thirty-seven items, I believe, and can be viewed inside Mr. Filch's office if anyone would like to check it."

"Nice, it's gone up three items since last year," Fred said appreciatively. "That means that there are three more options for me and George to choose from to make a point to use."

"And three more opportunities to land yourselves in detention," Angelina sighed as the twins shrugged and grinned.

"As ever," Dumbledore continued, "I would like to remind you all that the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds to all, as well as the village of Hogsmeade to anyone below third year."

Fred pretended to yawn. "We know, we know," he sighed.

"Yeah, but you still seem to need to be reminded day to day, never mind year to year," I snorted.

"Whatever," Fred said with a shrug. I rolled my eyes.

"Finally," Dumbledore said, "it is also my painful duty to inform you that the inter-house Quidditch Cup will not take place this year."

Fred and George immediately lifted their chins off their hands and looked at Dumbledore in utter shock, their mouths moving, but no words coming out. I looked around and saw that a lot of other people were in shock too. Mutters of confusion could be heard all around the room, particularly from students who were already members of their house teams.

I looked down the table at Julian. He looked absolutely livid. He had been planning on trying out for Oliver's open Keeper position this year. I felt sorry for him. He just wasn't having any luck with trying out.

I did have to smile to myself a little bit, though, as I pictured how Oliver would have reacted to this news had he been here. He would have freaked out and looked worse than Julian right now. I'm willing to bet he might have actually fainted.

Dumbledore put his hands up for silence and when the room was quiet again, he continued. "This cancellation is due to an event that will be starting in October and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and energy. But I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I am pleased to announce that this year at Hogwarts—"

He was interrupted by the doors to the great hall banging open at the same time a loud clap of thunder sounded. Everyone turned towards the doors to see a man standing there. I blinked in shock a few times. I immediately tried to remind myself that it was rude to stare at anyone in this manner, never mind a man who looked like this man did. He was drenched, first of all, his shaggy grey hair wet and dripping water everywhere. He was leaning on a staff for support and had many scars all over his face. A big chunk of his nose was also missing. But the freakiest bit of all were his eyes. One was small and beady and the other was clearly fake—large, blue and rapidly moving all around the socket, eventually rolling backwards so that all we could see was white.

The stranger made his way to the front and shook Dumbledore's hand. The two men spoke to each other, saying things I couldn't hear, before the man made his way to the one empty seat at the table, limping heavily and using his staff to support himself.

"It is my pleasure to introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Moody!" Dumbledore said with a smile.

Usually, everyone would have applauded at this news, but today the announcement was met with silence. Everyone was staring at Professor Moody in shock.

"Moody," Fred said thoughtfully.

"As in Mad-Eye Moody?" George hissed.

"Must be," Fred replied.

"What about him?" I asked, my eyes still on the newest member of the Hogwarts staff.

Fred shrugged. "It's just funny...Dad was called over to help him out this morning. Something about dustbins…."

"Your dad knows him?" I asked, turning to look at Fred.

Fred nodded. "He really likes Moody," he said. "He was once a really great Auror. Sure, he got a bit paranoid over the years, but I mean, think of all he's seen. Most of the cells in Azkaban are filled because of him."

"Impressive," I said, turning back to look at Dumbledore.

"As I was saying," the headmaster continued, "I am pleased to announce that this year, Hogwarts is to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months. An event that has not been held in over a century. It is my pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

"You're _joking_!" Fred exclaimed, his mouth falling open. He didn't look anxious for Dumbledore's announcements to be over now.

Laughter rippled throughout the room and even Dumbledore smiled. "No, I am not joking Mr. Weasley. Now, some of you may not know what exactly the Triwizard Tournament is, so I hope that the students who do know will be patient with me as I explain."

"How do you know about the Triwizard Tournament?" I asked Fred.

"Bill told us," Fred answered. "He heard about it and thought it was amazing. It definitely sounds like it…three tasks completed by three competitors from three different schools. And the winner gets a load of prize money! Think of what George and I could do with that!"

"You'd have even more to add to your savings to get yourself going on opening your own shop," I pointed out. "In fact, you'd probably have more than enough, depending on how much you got. I expect it would be a lot, though."

Fred's smile dropped from his face. "Yeah," he said slowly.

"What's wrong?" I asked, knowing at once that there was something going on; something he hadn't told me yet.

"Nothing," Fred answered quickly, plastering the smile back on his face. "But yeah, George and I are definitely going to enter."

"You're mental," I said chuckling. "My Dad used to tell me all he knew about the tournament. The tasks sound kind of dangerous. I've heard people have died. Is it really worth it? I mean with your savings now, you're well on your way to having enough for your own place by the end of the year. And if you get those order forms started up and running, it'll be great."

"It's definitely worth it, Lilah, trust us," George said quietly. "Can you imagine having that much money? I believe it's a thousand Galleons. A _thousand_."

I swallowed. "That is a lot," I admitted. "But I'd rather you two be broke than dead."

They actually laughed. "Thanks for the sentiment, Lilah, but we're still entering," Fred said.

Unfortunately, their plans were crushed moments later when Dumbledore announced an age restriction that had been implemented on the tournament that year. "No one under the age of seventeen will be able to enter," he explained. "I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them into the Hogwarts champion." He smiled as his twinkling eyes flickered to the twins, who were gaping at him angrily.

"That's utter rubbish!" they exclaimed together.

"We'll be of age in April!" Fred said. "That's only seven more months! Honestly, what will we have learned in seven months that will better prepare us for this tournament?"

"Lots, probably," I said. "Plus, if you're of age and choose to enter the tournament, well, you're an adult at that point. You can make your own choices. If you're younger, you're technically still considered a child."

"I hate when you're rational," Fred muttered, waving his hand dismissively. "Anyway, none of that matters. George and I are fully capable of making our own choices _now_ and we want to enter the tournament! How amazing would it be to compete in those tasks! I've heard they're things that no one would be allowed to do normally. And then, of course, there's the prize money."

"Given that you'd even win," I snorted.

"How disappointing," George said, shaking his head sadly. "You don't even believe in us."

"No, it's not that," I said. "It's not that at all. I'm just saying that it just…the chances of even getting picked and then the chances of winning—"

"Yeah, yeah, you're a buzzkill, I got it," Fred muttered, glaring at the wood of the table.

I frowned and rolled my eyes before going back to listening to what Dumbledore was saying.

"The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will arrive here in October and stay for the better part of the year," Dumbledore went on. "I know that you will extend every courtesy to our foreign guests while they are with us and will give your whole-hearted support to the Hogwarts champion when he or she is selected. And now, I know you are all hungry, so let me stop talking so that we may eat." He smiled and sat down as food appeared up and down every table.

"It's not stopping me from entering," Fred said determinedly, stabbing at his peas with more force than was needed. A few peas even rolled off of his plate and hit the floor.

"You're scaring all your peas away," I pointed out. "Can't you take it easy on them? They did nothing to you."

Fred rolled his eyes, but sent me a brief smile. He turned to George. "You think an Aging Potion will do the trick?"

George thought about it and shrugged a bit. "It should."

Fred smiled and looked at me. "Maybe you could make it for us, Liles. Since you're _so_ good at Potions and all."

I snorted. "Yeah, right, only if you want your heads blown off."

Fred smiled. "No, you're right. George will do it. He really is the best one at Potions anyway. I'll assist by passing him the ingredients."

I shook my head. "It sounds like a dumb idea to me. I mean, Dumbledore's smart enough to not just give out a warning to everyone under age seventeen. There are going to be extra security measures to make sure."

"Like what?" Fred snorted. "It seems to me like it doesn't matter as long as we can convince this impartial judge he mentioned that we're of age. Once our names are in, it won't matter."

"And if you get picked?" I asked. "Dumbledore knows you aren't seventeen."

Fred shrugged. "Again, I don't think it's up to him. This judge picks the champions and that's that. I think Bill said something about it being final once names are picked. So Dumbledore will have no say in the matter once our names our chosen."

I frowned and looked at Angelina. "A little help here?" I asked.

"Yeah, I actually agree with Lilah, Fred," Angelina said apologetically. "I don't think you should do it. Dumbledore has his reasons for making it this way. People have died in this tournament. It's not something to be taken lightly just because you want some prize money."

Fred and George's jaws both clenched and I saw the muscles in their arms twitch as they gripped their forks tighter. "You don't understand," Fred muttered. "We don't just _want _that money. We _need_ that money."

"Why? So you can open your joke shop?" Angelina asked. "As much as I want you to follow your dreams, I don't want you to invest money in something that might fall through. _If _you were able to not only enter this thing, but also _win, _you'd be getting a thousand Galleons. That's a lot of money. And if your business doesn't work out, you'll have wasted it all and you won't be able to get it back. At least not easily."

Fred gave her a look. "I appreciate the concern, Ange, but you don't need to worry. George and I are going to do what we want with our money. And we are going to make sure our business works. It's our only option so we have no choice."

"Well, I don't think it should be that way," Angelina said. "But fine. It's just my opinion. You clearly don't want it."

I looked down at the table uncomfortably as we sat in a weird silence for a few minutes. Luckily once we did start talking again, no one brought up the tournament or money again.

Fred and Angelina didn't speak the whole way back to the dorm. They held hands, but they were clearly still too frustrated with each other to talk.

Later, before we were all about to head up to bed, Fred purposely walked past me to whisper something in my ear.

"Meet George and me back downstairs once everyone falls asleep. We're going on a kitchen run. We have to tell you something."

"Why?" I asked. "What is it? And why is it so secret?"

Fred shook his head and put a finger to his lips before smiling slightly and heading up the stairs to the boys' dormitory.

Sighing, I jogged up the stairs to my own dorm to put on my pajamas.

"I can't believe Fred and George want to enter this tournament," Angelina fumed as she forcefully began to turn down her bed. "It's so dangerous! If they aren't going to be seventeen by the time the tournament begins, then they should just accept it and move on! It's not like they _really_ need the thousand Galleons. Sure, it'll help them along with getting their own premises—really nice premises, of course—but with their savings now they could still manage something."

"That's what I said," I answered with a shrug, climbing into my own bed. "But opening this joke shop is so important to them."

"I can understand that, really I can," Angelina sighed. "But it's so risky! Fred doesn't seem to understand why I worry. I don't want to see all their options dry up because they didn't plan for anything else."

I thought for a moment about what to say. "The twins may slack off a bit," I said, "but they're really determined. They've wanted to open a joke shop for years. They don't stop at anything to get what they want. You know that as well as I do. For instance, if you hadn't said yes to Fred asking you out the first time, he would've asked you out at least once every day until you finally said yes."

Angelina let out a watery laugh as she swiped at her eyes. "I love him, Lilah," she whispered. "I don't want to see him fail."

I smiled. "I know. And he loves you, too. I just think you're both kind of headstrong and stubborn, but about different things. You'll clash, but it could make you stronger."

Angelina nodded and looked down at her hands as she thought that over. "Well, goodnight," she finally said with a laugh and a smile. "Thanks for the talk. I needed it."

I smiled. "Anytime." I crawled under my covers and turned to face the wall, keeping my eyes open until I heard the breathing of the other three girls become deep and even. Then, I sat up and crawled out of bed. I grabbed a sweatshirt of Oliver's that I had yet to return, and slipped it on before tiptoeing down the stairs to the common room. Fred and George were already waiting.

"What took you so long?" Fred asked, tugging on a piece of my hair as we turned and headed for the portrait hole.

"Angelina wanted to have a little chat," I said, my eyes darting away from his to look at the wall.

"About what?" Fred asked.

"You two, of course. She's very upset that you argued." I hesitated. "Do you two argue a lot about you wanting to open a joke shop?"

Fred and George glanced at each other. "Kind of," Fred said. "We don't exactly _argue,_ but we definitely disagree and neither of us will budge on our opinions. So we usually try to avoid the topic altogether."

"She loves you," I said, stopping in the middle of the hallway and looking up at him seriously. "She wants the best for you, just like everyone else who cares about you."

"Yeah, but _you_ don't really agree with her or our mother," George said as he and Fred continued walking down the hallway. George walked backwards as he spoke to me, his hands in his pockets and his eyebrows raised. "Does that mean you don't care about us or you're just one of those few gems of a person who love us and support our dreams of becoming professional jokesters?"

"I support you both wholeheartedly," I said, resuming my walk behind them and speeding up so I was by their side again. "I do want the best for you and I don't want to see you fail either. But I know how stubborn you are and how unhappy you'd be doing anything else but owning a joke shop. I know that's why you're determined to make it work, which means that it'll happen. It's what I told Angelina. You may slack off, but once you set your mind to something…." I trailed off and laughed. "You'll make it happen if it's the last thing you do. It's admirable, really."

"Lilah, you're sweet," George said as he and Fred pretended to blush and bat their eyelashes at me.

"You're embarrassing us," Fred added, looking away shyly and digging his toe into the ground.

"Come off it," I laughed, giving him a shove. It knocked him off balance and he stumbled sideways a bit, laughing himself.

"You're going to pay for that, Fitz," he chucked, lunging forward and grabbing me around the waist. He slung me over his shoulder and I found myself laughing and poking Fred's back, trying to get him to put me down and let me walk to the kitchens like a normal person. But he refused, claiming we were going to stop off at the laundry room so he could drop off the sack of dirty laundry he'd found in the hallway.

"How nice," I snorted as we finally reached the kitchens and Fred lowered me down from his shoulder. "You're too kind."

Fred smiled. "Aren't I?" He reached up to tickle the pair on the fruit portrait. It promptly giggled and the portrait swung open to reveal the kitchens.

Once we got inside, we were greeted by not one new face, but two. Apparently Dumbledore had hired Dobby, the house elf that used to be owned by the Malfoys and had been freed by Harry two years ago, and Winky, Mr. Crouch's old house elf. The same one that had been found with Harry's wand at the World Cup.

Dobby looked awesome. He was decked out in an overly large sweater, a knit hat and a pair of mismatched socks. He, along with Rosie, greeted us just as enthusiastically as aslways. But Winky, however, looked miserable. She was sitting in the corner by the fireplace, looking a mess and hiccupping.

"Is she…drunk?" Fred asked, peering at her curiously.

"A bit, sir," Dobby answered honestly. "Dobby tries to tell Winky not to drink any firewhiskey or butterbeer. It is different for house elves, but Winky does not listen to Dobby."

"Will she be all right?" I asked, frowning as I looked at Winky.

"She will be fine, Miss Lilah," Rosie assured us. "Dobby and Rosie are taking very good care of her. The best Dobby and Rosie can. But Winky just is not used to being fired yet. That is all."

I looked at Fred and George who shrugged and allowed Dobby and Rosie to lead us to our usual table in the back of the room, where they then promised us they'd be right back with snacks for all of us.

"So what did you want to tell me?" I asked a few minutes later as we ate.

"Well, it has to do with that bet we made with Ludo Bagman at the World Cup," Fred said.

"The bet that you won," I said. "You said he paid you for it, didn't you?"

The twins looked at each other. "He did," Fred said slowly.

"But?" I prodded, not liking where this was going. My stomach was sinking unpleasantly and the twins hadn't even told me what happened yet.

"He paid us in leprechaun gold," George finished quietly.

"Leprechaun gold?" I repeated shrilly, raising my eyebrows. "So—so it's all gone?"

The twins nodded. "Vanished. It was gone by the next morning," Fred said. He shook his head, his expression a mix of anger and disappointment.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," I said. "This is a nightmare. That was all your savings and you were right about the outcome of the match so you deserve it back! There has to be something we can—"

"Lilah, stop rambling," Fred said with a laugh.

"Do you think it was a mistake?" I asked.

The twins shrugged. "Maybe," George said. "That's why Fred and I were thinking of writing Bagman a letter first. A polite one saying that we discovered the gold disappeared and if he knows anything about it."

"That sounds good," I said, nodding thoughtfully. "Yeah, start with that. Be nice. If it turns out that he _did_ do it on purpose, maybe the fact that you were nice first and gave him the benefit of the doubt will work out in your favor."

"Or it won't," Fred shrugged. "If he gets dirty, we can do the same." He gestured between himself and George. "But we're not going to resort to that until he does—if he does, that is."

"Good plan," I told them. I hesitated. "Have you told anyone else?"

"No one," George said.

"Haven't even told Ange," Fred said with a dry laugh, looking down into his hot chocolate and stirring it absentmindedly with his spoon.

"Why not?" I asked quietly.

"Do you know how she'd react?" he asked. "I only mentioned we made the bet because I was writing to her about the match and at the time I thought we had been given real money. She hated that we gambled in the first place. It didn't matter that we won. But if I told her that we lost all the money and that it wasn't real—if I told her we'd been _ripped off_—she'd just gloat. I don't want to give her that opportunity."

"I think you should tell her," I said. "Sure, she might give you that _I told you so_ look, but after that, she's going to be mad at Bagman because he was the one that ripped you off. Who does that? What grown man rips off two sixteen year old boys?"

"An idiotic one," George snorted, "an immature one…a foolish one."

"Do you think he has a good reason?" I asked thoughtfully.

"I don't know," Fred shrugged. "Maybe we'll find out when we write to him. Maybe we won't. Either way, George and I are getting our money back."

I nodded. "I think you should tell Angelina. She's your girlfriend. She loves you."

"I don't want it to turn into an argument," Fred said. "Anytime anything joke shop related comes up, she berates me about not having a back-up plan and how risky everything is. She somehow manages to tie it into everything. Even if I just tell her we didn't get real money from our bet, she'll relate it back to the joke shop. I won't have to even mention the shop myself, but she'll bring it up."

"Okay, fine," I said, holding up my hands. "I guess it's your call. I'm just telling you what I think."

Fred was quiet again as he stared into his drink. Finally, he raised his eyes to meet mine. "I'll think about it," he said. "Okay?"

I half-smiled. "Okay."

Fred smiled back before leaning over and peering into my hot chocolate. "I think yours is more chocolatey than mine."

"What are you talking about?" I laughed. "Yours looks fine."

"No, it looks less chocolatey than yours. The house elves like you better."

I smiled sweetly. "Now _that _is true."

The twins laughed. "Shut up, Lie," Fred snorted, giving me a playful shove.

I rolled my eyes and swatted his hand away before taking an obnoxious sip of my drink that only elicited mock glares from the twins. "Delicious," I commented casually.

"Hate you," the twins said together.

I giggled. "Hate you more."


	35. Chapter 35

The next morning, we were handed our schedules and I immediately noticed that I had Defense Against the Dark Arts first thing.

"That'll be interesting," George said. "I wonder what kind of teacher Moody will be. He was an Auror after all. He's seen things. All kinds of things related to the Dark Arts. He has _firsthand experience_."

"I actually don't know if that scares me or not," Katie sighed, frowning down at her schedule. "Besides, I don't know if anyone could be better than Professor Lupin."

"You never know," Lee added. "Lupin was great, don't get me wrong, but Moody was one of the best Aurors around."

"I've heard he went a bit batty towards the end," I said.

"Yeah, just a bit of paranoia," Fred shrugged. "Wouldn't you be too if you were chasing after the darkest wizards in the world for years and years?"

"I suppose," I said slowly.

Half an hour later, we filtered into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and found our seats. I sat next to George so that Angelina and Fred could sit next to each other in front of us.

I had actually wondered if things like that would ever be a problem for the twins. Would George get mad about having to share his brother so much? But Fred and Angelina were very good about it, I have to admit. They-well probably mostly Ange-had come up with the idea of rotating in classes so that things were equal. Besides, Fred and George still spent a lot of their free time together. Angelina was usually studying anyway, so those were the times Fred and George spent together. When she wasn't studying, she and Fred went off to the kitchens, or probably a broom cupboard, but I didn't like to think about that part.

Professor Moody arrived right on schedule and wasted no time in getting to the point. "My name is Professor Moody. I was hired by Dumbledore to teach you what you need to know by the end of this year and I plan to do just that." He turned towards the chalkboard and began to write. "Now, can anyone tell me one of the three unforgivable curses?"

"Unforgivable curses?" Katie squeaked out.

"Yes, Unforgivable curses, Miss...?"

"Bell," Katie answered.

"Miss Bell. From what I've seen, your last few teachers in this subject have been...lacking, with the exception of Professor Lupin, who managed to successfully cover a wide range of dark creatures. But you've never learned about dark spells or how to recognize them. You can't defend yourself against something you don't recognize and that is the purpose of this class, is it not?" There was a pause in which everyone just stared at him, slightly open mouthed.

"So," Moody prodded, "anyone? An unforgivable curse?" He looked around the room with both eyes, his huge, blue magical one swiveling wildly in its socket.

I was surprised to see Fred slowly raise his hand. "There's the Imperius Curse," he said.

Moody nodded his head and gave Fred a once over. "You'll be one of Arthur Weasley's kids?"

Fred nodded.

"Your father would know a lot about the Imperius Curse," Moody said. "Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble some years back." He turned and looked down at the desk in front of him, which contained a multitude of jars. Inside those jars were various creatures. I could see spiders, mice and rats from where I was sitting. I wondered what they were for and also if I even wanted to know.

"Hmm," Moody said thoughtfully. "I was planning on using the mice for the fourth years, so maybe I'll use the spiders for this class to switch it up a bit."

"No, use the mice for us and the spiders for the fourth years," Fred blurted out.

Moody looked at him, eyebrows raised. "Why do you say that?" he asked curiously.

"My younger brother's a fourth year," Fred said. "And he's afraid of spiders." He shrugged one shoulder as a guilty but playful smile spread across his face.

"Yeah, and whose fault is that?" I hissed, aiming a kick at the back of Fred's seat. He smirked wider, but didn't turn around.

Moody stared at him for a few seconds before flashing a tiny, brief smile. "Actually, Mr. Weasley, despite the fact that you don't know what I'm going to do with these creatures yet, that bit of information might just help me to prove my point when your brother's class rolls around. I expect you think that if I bring a spider out in his class, it might perhaps be possible for everyone to have a good laugh at his expense?"

Fred nodded. "Pretty much."

Moody smiled and nodded his head. "Part of my point," he said. He turned back to his desk and pulled a tiny mouse from inside one of the jars. It squeaked helplessly as it tried to run, but Moody held on tight. Then, he aimed his wand at it. "Imperio."

The mouse was still for a moment before it jumped out of Moody's hand and landed on one of the desks in the front row. The two girls sitting there jumped backwards and gasped as the mouse scurried towards them, crawling up one girl's arm and onto her shoulder. It paused for a second before Moody moved his wand and the mouse jumped to Lee's head. Lee whimpered and swatted at it, but the mouse jumped up and down, missing Lee's hands each time.

Fred and George were laughing and I even smiled a bit at Lee's reaction. I hadn't expected him to look so silly.

"Think it's funny?" Moody asked, smiling at the twins in amusement. "So what should I have the mouse do next? Drown herself?" He moved the mouse to a bucket of water on the window ledge. The mouse hovered inches over it and the room went silent. "Jump out the window?" The mouse moved to the window and dangled high above the ground.

"Bloody hell," Fred whispered, gaping at the tiny rodent.

"That is exactly right, Mr. Weasley," Moody said with a wry smile. "Someone under the Imperius Curse is under the complete control of the caster. They can be forced to do _anything_." He paused, taking in the silent room, each and every student looking at him with wide eyes. I couldn't even hear anyone breathing.

"The Imperius Curse," Moody said, looking up at us. "Another one?"

A Ravenclaw in the front row suddenly raised her hand. When Moody gestured to her, she cleared her throat. "There's the Cruciatus Curse," she said timidly.

"Ah, yes," Moody said with a wry smile. He summoned the mouse back towards him and pointed his wand at it again. I braced myself. The poor little thing.

Moody enlarged the mouse slightly before muttering the second Unforgivable Curse. "Crucio!"

I gripped the edges of my desk tightly. I was sitting in the middle of the room, but even from here I could see that the mouse was writhing in pain. If it were able to, it would have been shrieking.

"Pain," Moody said quietly as he lifted the curse. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse. That one was very popular once, too." He paused. "Now…the last curse? Anyone know it?

It was quiet for a beat until finally, Angelina raised her hand. It was trembling slightly. "The Killing Curse," she whispered shakily.

Moody nodded before setting the mouse down on his desk. Before it had the chance to hurry away, Moody aimed his wand at it. "Avada Kedavra!"

A jet of green light burst from his wand and the mouse curled up dead on the dark, mahogany wood of Moody's desk. I let out an involuntary squeak and clapped my hands over my mouth.

The class was even more silent after that, something I didn't think was possible. I continued to fight the urge to scream. Or throw up. Or both. These were very real, very dangerous curses that had been once been very popular. Back when You-Know-Who was in power, they were probably used constantly. I had only been two or three years old during the height of it, too young to remember or understand much. But now, at nearly seventeen, witnessing the spells being demonstrated in my own classroom, well, it was enough to send chills up and down my spine.

"Avada Kedavra's a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it," Moody said. "You could all get your wands out now and point them at me and say the incantation and I doubt I'd get so much more than a nosebleed. But that doesn't matter. I'm not here to teach you how to do it. Now, if there's no counter curse, why am I showing you? Because you've got to know. You've got to be aware of what the worst is. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you're facing it. Anyway, the use of any one of these curses on a fellow human being could earn you a one-way ticket to Azkaban. This is what you're up against. That's why you need to be prepared and practice constant, never-ceasing vigilance." He paused. "Only one person's ever managed to survive the Killing Curse and he's here in this very castle."

"Harry Potter," a Ravenclaw boy said.

Moody nodded. "October thirty-first, nineteen eighty-one. Halloween. An exciting time for most children, I expect, but one year old Mr. Potter was facing a tragedy and he was too young to even know it was happening."

"Maybe it's better that way," Katie said. "Better not being able to remember what you saw and what it meant. Not able to understand what it meant as it was happening."

"But he knows now," Moody shrugged. "And that's not much better. Now get out your quills and copy this down…."

He turned back towards the chalkboard and began writing down notes as he talked. Almost as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. The rest of us copied the notes down, sitting silently at our seats.

My head was spinning. It was hard to believe the the things that had gone on all those years ago. Unforgivable curses being used left and right without a care, people being murdered for no reason whatsoever...Harry's parents had been murdered on the day of my fourth birthday. While I was celebrating with my family, going trick or treating, opening presents and blowing out my candles, Harry's parents were being killed with the very curse I had just seen demonstrated right in front of me. It horrified me how drastically different the same night could be for two people. It scared me that I had never realized until now just how bad things had been, even though I had been young and it wasn't expected or even really possible for me to understand. But I was old enough now and the realiziation of what was possible in this world scared me. And that, I knew, had been Moody's point all along. To freak us out a bit and make us aware. Make us understand. Because we had always been too young before. And now we were on the brink of adulthood, able to protect ourselves and others, and if we weren't aware-if we weren't _careful_-we'd be in for a huge shock when Hogwarts finally spat us out into the real world.

* * *

If I had thought our first Defense Against the Dark Arts class was freaky, it was nothing compared to our next class. Professor Moody told us we'd be trying to actually fight off the Imperius Curse.

"This is mental," I muttered to Angelina as we all gathered around the edges of the room while Moody cleared away the desks with a wave of his wand.

"What do you think he's going to make us do?" Alicia asked.

"Probably embarrass ourselves in front of the whole class," Katie replied with a snort.

"Too bad we don't have this class with the Slytherins then," George snorted. "I'd love to see them do something embarrassing."

"That would also go both ways, you know that right?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "I don't know about you, but the last thing I want is Montague teasing me for the rest of my life because Professor Moody Imperiused me and made me bark like a dog while hopping on one foot."

"It may be worth it, though," George argued.

Moody began calling up students one by one and putting them under the Imperius Curse, telling them to try and fight it if they could.

No one could fight it, though. Person after person stood in the center of the room and was forced to do something ridiculous. It was just as we suspected. People started imitating animals, hopping on one foot, singing songs...it looked humiliating, but it also terrified me. The humiliation was part of the point, but still only the surface of it. People could be-and already had been-forced to do far worse things than imitating a duck.

"I'd think you wouldn't be smirking like that after what happened with the mouse last class," Moody suddenly said, looking at the twins, who were leaning casually against the wall with their arms crossed, fighting not to laugh as Lee was forced to do jumping jacks while singing the alphabet in the highest pitched voice he could manage.

Moody lifted the spell and Lee immediately hurried back to his spot beside the twins, looking freaked out.

"Weasley," Moody barked. "Since you were laughing...you're up."

"Which one?" The twins asked, still wearing their identical smirks.

"Either," Moody said casually.

The twins looked at each other before Fred pushed off the wall. "I'll go," he said confidently.

He walked to the center of the room and stood there with his hands in his pockets while Moody studied him intently.

Finally, Moody smiled. "Okay, got something," he said. He cleared his throat and aimed his wand at Fred. "Imperio."

Fred's eyes glazed over and he stood there in an apparent daze for a moment.

"Stun your twin," Moody said simply.

Fred stood there for a moment and then, faster than I could blink, he pulled out his wand, turned and aimed it at George, whose eyes went wide as the class gasped.

I looked back at Fred, whose own eyes weren't all that glazed anymore. Well, they were, but not as much as they had been. I could see somewhere in there that he knew what he was doing and was fighting it. His arm twitched slightly as if he were trying to put it down. A weird noise escaped his throat as if he were trying to speak and not speak at the same time.

"Do it," Moody ordered. "Stun him now!"

Fred made that odd sound again as his arm twitched. "St-St-" he said. He was fighting it, which was pretty unbelievable but I didn't know how long it would last.

"This is ridiculous," I said. "Just stop. I think you've made your point. He looks like he's suffered enough."

"He's this close to fighting it off," Moody said. "Let him keep trying."

"Do you know how upset he'll be if he ends up hurting his twin?" I asked.

"He won't be hurt. It's a stunner," Moody scoffed. He looked at Fred. "Go ahead. Do it."

"Fight it, Fred," I ordered, meeting his eyes. I wasn't sure if he'd hear me, but something told me he did. His jaw was clenched as he looked at me, then at George, his wand still aimed at his own brother's chest. His hand was trembling.

"Stupe-stupef-st-." Suddenly, a look of anger flashed across his face. "No," he said, suddenly and forcefully. And then he blinked and stared at George in total shock, as if he couldn't believe what he had just done. With that he dropped his wand and sunk to his knees. His wand clattered to the floor and rolled away, stopping at my feet.

In an instant, George was at his twin's side pulling him to a standing position as I met Moody's eyes.

"See?" he said. "He fought it off. I made my point and scared him enough that he fought it off. Do you know how much willpower that takes?"

"But look at him," I said, gesturing to Fred, who was looking shocked and confused and almost groggy as if he had woken up from a dream and was still trying to determine what was real and what wasn't.

"It's not easy realizing that with one spell, you can be forced to do things," Moody said. "In the face of dark wizards and witches, they won't make him _stun_ another person. They could-and probably will-make him do something much worse-like actually _kill_ someone else. In reality, he could be forced to kill his brother, his best friends, his girlfriend." His eyes flicked over to Angelina, Katie, Alicia and Lee before sweeping over the twins and back to me. "So I'd think it's safe to say that he won't be smirking like that in this class again."

Fred and George were quiet for the next few hours. It was odd for them, but understandable. When they finally did start talking, I expected them to have some kind of anger towards Professor Moody, but instead they were kind of okay with what had happened.

"I know why he did it," Fred said in the common room later as he ran a hand through his hair. He paused and looked at George "Merlin, what if I had hurt you?"

"Like Moody said, it was a Stunning spell," George shrugged, trying to play it off. "I probably wouldn't have been hurt too badly."

"Yeah, but I still didn't want to do that to you," Fred argued. "Plus what if you got hurt when the spell threw you backwards? There were no mats around or anything."

"There aren't any mats in the real world either, Fred," I pointed out.

"That's the deepest thing you've ever said," George snorted. He looked at Fred. "She's right, though. Plus, you don't have to worry about any of that because you, Fred Weasley, fought off the Imperius Curse!" He clapped his brother on the back. "If you can do it once you can do it again!"

Fred shrugged. "Maybe...but I guess it was pretty awesome, wasn't it? I fought off an unforgivable curse!"

"The only one in the class to do so," Angelina pointed out with a smile. "Normally I wouldn't encourage your arrogance this much, but I am very proud of you." She leaned over and gave Fred a kiss on the cheek. "Love you, Freddie."

"Love you too, Ange," he answered with a smile.

* * *

"What's everyone crowding around the bottom of the stairs for?" Lee asked one morning in the beginning of October.

We'd been in school for about a month now and we had all begun to settle back into our usual routines. I was getting used to my routine of going to St. Mungo's every Sunday. I'd see Grace, then Oliver afterwards. We'd go for lunch in the cafeteria and then I'd go back to school. It was nice. And I was lucky. I still got to see my boyfriend in person once a week instead of having to resort to letters only.

Oliver and I did write, but I never seemed to know when I'd get a response from him. It could take hours or even days, depending on his schedule. Sometimes he'd read a letter of mine after practice, but fall asleep before he could respond and not get a chance to write back until a day or two later. It stung a bit, but I wasn't angry exactly. I couldn't hold it against him. He was busy and he loved what he was doing. The only good thing was that we were guaranteed our Sundays but even those meetings would come to an end eventually. But neither of us knew when that would be right now, which was fine with me.

"There's a sign posted on a tripod at the bottom of the staircase," Angelina pointed out now, standing on tiptoe to look over the heads of the crowd.

"Can you read what it says?" Fred asked.

"No," Angelina scoffed. "Why don't you try to look? You're already taller than me. You don't have to strain as much to see it."

Fred smiled and rolled his eyes before turning back towards the sign and craning his neck a bit. "It says…. 'The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving at…six o'clock on Friday the 30th of October. Lessons will end half an hour early. Students will return their bags and books to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the welcoming feast'."

"Excellent, classes will end half an hour early," George said. "We have History of Magic last." He and Lee high fived.

"Are you still trying to enter?" I asked George in an undertone as we made our way into the Great Hall.

He nodded. "Fred and I are going to make an Aging Potion. We still think that'll do it. It's fairly easy to make. We just have to make sure we set aside the ingredients and then sneak up to our secret headquarters so we can brew it without getting caught."

"Your secret headquarters?" I asked. "Let me just ask you...is wherever these _headquarters _are safe to brew potions?"

"What do you mean? Why wouldn't it be safe?" George asked, sitting down across from me and beside Fred, who was whispering with Angelina, their foreheads touching. George plunked his bag down under the table at his feet and stared at me in amusement.

I scoffed and gave him a look that said _are you an idiot?_

"What?" George asked defensively.

"Uh, well first of all, do you have proper ventilation? Secondly, what if you blow up your cauldron and blow up the castle? It could kill you at the worst, trap you somewhere or injure you at the best. Neither of those options are all that great, though."

George snorted with laughter. "We're not going to blow up our cauldron, Lilah. We aren't you."

"I'll have you know that I have never blown up my cauldron in my six years of being here," I said, giving him a look.

George held up his glass of pumpkin juice and tilted his head slightly as if he were toasting me. "Congrats, Lie." He paused. "But seriously, we'll be fine. It's just one Aging Potion. There aren't a lot of fumes or anything. We're only making enough for the two of us. And I'm confident enough in my Potions skills to say that we're not going to blow anything up. Besides, our secret headquarters have great ventilation, being out in the open and all." He smirked.

I looked at him in confusion. "How is that possible? Where are these headquarters?"

"The roof," George said with a smile.

"The roof?" I repeated, my eyebrows shooting up again.

George nodded. "It's where we've also been working on our inventions while we're at school."

"How do you get up there?" I asked. "Tell me!" I added, when George hesitated.

"There's a passageway," George finally said. "It's not on the map. Fred and I found it accidentally. We were trying to look casual after we had pulled a prank on Filch and when we leaned up against a stretch of wall, a section of it opened. We followed the passage and it led to a flat, square, open area of the roof. Almost like a battlement. It's perfect. It's hidden, out of the way, quiet…_and_ there's plenty of ventilation, like I said." He winked at me and I smiled.

"Why didn't you ever tell me?" I asked quietly. "Why do you want to keep it such a secret?"

George shrugged. "I guess Fred and I kind of wanted to keep it between us. As our place to invent things. No one else knows about it. Lee doesn't know, even Ange doesn't know."

"Why did you cave and tell me now, then?"

George shrugged again as he thought about it. "I guess because we can trust you to know where we make our inventions. You won't tell on us and you don't care if we're doing it. Besides, I haven't told you exactly where the passageway is so you can't quite find it on your own."

I laughed as George smirked. "It's okay," I said. "You don't need to tell me _where _it is. If you want to keep it private, go ahead. I just…I'm glad you told me _about _it. And I won't tell anyone else. I solemnly swear."

George grinned. "I knew we could count on you, Liles."

* * *

A few days later, I was attempting to make some progress on my homework, which was actually going well, when the twins appeared at the arm of the couch. I tried to ignore them, but of course, they had to start talking.

"Lilah Fitzgerald, you wonderful human being."

"What do you want?" I grumbled, looking up from my essay to see the twins looking down at me, grinning widely.

"We just had a thought," George said.

"A beautiful, incredible, amazing, _genius_ thought," Fred added, actually plunking down next to me on the couch.

"You finally decided to stop asking McGonagall about the Triwizard tournament and what the tasks are?" I asked. "You're only going to make her suspicious of your plan to enter _illegally_. Or is that your genius thought? You aren't planning on entering anymore?"

"No, we are," George said. "But, in case something does happen to prevent us from doing so or if we don't get picked, well..."

"Well what?" I asked looking at them. I didn't like where this was going.

"We realized that the delegations from the other schools are coming on October 30th, which means everyone who wants to enter can do so after that night."

"Yeah, and?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Your birthday is the next day. You'll be seventeen!" Fred exclaimed in an excited whisper, exaggerated joy illuminating his face as he grasped my shoulders. "Isn't that wonderful?"

"Are you suggesting that _I_ enter the Triwizard Tournament?" I raised my eyebrows.

Fred paused. "No," he said. "We didn't think you'd want to. Unless you do, of course..." He looked at me and took in my expression with amusement. "No, we were going to ask if you'd put our names in for us."

I laughed in disbelief. "You both are out of your minds. Completely and utterly delusional."

"Come on, Lilah," Fred pleaded.

"No, I won't do it," I told him, shaking my head.

The twins looked at each other before looking back at me. "_Were _you thinking of entering?" George asked, widening his eyes in shock.

"No!" I exclaimed.

"It could be fun," Fred said with a shrug. "You might enjoy it."

"No, I won't. I know you think this whole thing is some huge adrenaline rush, but I don't want to do it."

"Scared?" Fred teased, raising his eyebrows.

I shot him a look. "Frankly...yes," I said simply. "These tasks are going to be dangerous. They won't be judging who can paint the best picture of a flower or anything like that."

Fred and George both laughed. "Can you imagine?" Fred asked.

"Stop laughing," I told them. "I didn't say it to be funny. I'm being serious. It's one thing if you two want to enter—something I still don't particularly like, by the way, but I suppose I can't stop you. I, on the other hand, can make my own decisions. And no, I do not want to enter the Triwizard Tournament."

"Such a waste of a privilege," Fred sighed.

"A privilege?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. "It's a privilege to be able to enter a competition where people have died?" I rolled my eyes.

"Angelina's considering entering," George said, giving me a look.

"What?" I spluttered, looking at them, my eyes wide. _Angelina_ was thinking about entering? I found that hard to believe. She was the last person I'd have thought would want to enter. Between the two of us, I had thought we were on the same page.

Fred nodded solemnly, the muscles in his jaw clenching. "She kind of convinced herself to do it. All on her own. We got into a fight about it earlier. I told her she was being hypocritical. She told us it was dangerous and that we shouldn't try to enter because people who meet the age limit are more prepared. But she's just over five months older than us! She's in our year! She doesn't know any more than we do."

"Neither do I and you just tried to convince me to enter," I said quietly, twirling my quill in my hands and watching as it became nothing but an off-white blur.

"But that's the thing. You need us to try and convince you. We didn't think you'd say yes, but…." He let a puff of air out of his mouth. "We know where you stand about us entering. We know you don't like it and you've made that clear. But you know why and that's part of the reason you don't exactly hound us about it. You don't want us to enter because you're worried. You'd worry now and you'd worry if we were already seventeen. It's not because you don't think we're smart enough or that we'd waste the money on something silly."

I looked up at him sympathetically. "Fred, cut Ange a break. Her heart is in the right place."

"But for her to do that to me—to us!" Fred exclaimed, gesturing between himself and George. "For her to say she doesn't think we should enter because we haven't learned enough and that we'd waste the money…and then she goes and comes to the decision to enter behind our backs! If we haven't learned enough, then neither has she. It's hypocritical!"

"In a way, you're right," I said. "Learning-wise, you, Angelina and I have all learned the same. The only difference is that Angelina and I can make the decision to enter as _adults_ by the end of this month. But sometimes it hits me. I'm only going to be seventeen. I'm basically a child. I forget that sometimes….But Merlin, our brains haven't even fully _developed_ yet and they expect seventeen year olds to be old enough to decide on the strangest things…." I trailed off and shrugged.

"I don't know, Liles, maybe you have somewhat of a point," Fred sighed with a curt laugh. He ran a hand through his hair and rested his elbows on his knees as he stared into the fire. "So much is expected of us at such a young age. But at the same time, that's just it. Technically, we _are_ young. We can go a little crazy here and there. Take risks, you know?"

"Fred, you do understand that we're not talking about throwing a wild party and getting drunk, or sneaking out to Honeydukes in the middle of the night, or skinny dipping out in the lake, hoping the giant squid doesn't get you—"

Fred looked at me and raised his eyebrows as his mouth turned up into a surprised grin. "Lilah!" he gasped as George laughed, leaning back into the couch and pressing a hand to his mouth to stifle it.

"Shut up," I told them, fighting back my own smile as well as the blush that was spreading across my cheeks. "I was trying to say that you do get that this isn't something to be taken lightly, don't you? It is serious and I don't feel like any of us—even the seventeen year olds—should be expected to make a decision like this." I shrugged. "I mean, they also expect us to know what we want to do with our lives by now and have everything all planned out and it's funny because after all those years of feeling like I had things under control, feeling like I was a grown-up…I have no idea what I'm doing. I feel younger than I've ever felt in my entire life."

"Well, that was an abrupt topic change," George said with a smile.

"Sorry," I muttered, flushing red. "I went off on a tangent there. But it's okay. You wouldn't get it anyway."

"Liles," Fred whispered, reaching over and taking my hand. When I didn't look up, he gave it a squeeze. "Hey."

I finally looked up at him and waited for him to go on.

"You'll figure it out," he told me patiently, his blue eyes searching my face. "Like I said, we're young. We have our whole lives ahead of us and the world at our feet. And for the record, just because George and I know what we _want _to do, doesn't mean we're well on our way there. We're still figuring it out as well. And you know more than anyone that we might not get the opportunity to open our shop after all. And then what'll happen? We'll be homeless just like Angelina said. _You_ on the other hand, have options. George and I…our future depends on Bagman paying us back in real money, or winning the Triwizard Tournament." He smiled at me. "Just great, isn't it?"

I couldn't help myself. I burst out laughing. "I'm sorry," I apologized, covering my mouth with my hand. I shouldn't have bothered, though. The twins were laughing too.

"You won't be homeless," I said when my laughter died down. "As I keep saying, you'll stop at nothing until you figure something out. There are other ways to get enough money and open your shop. Merlin, you're so ambitious. You'll find a way. I know you two."

Fred and George grinned at me. "I love when you compliment us," Fred said.

"You love when _anyone _compliments you," I snorted, turning back to my homework and flipping open my Charms book.

"True," Fred agreed. He patted my knee twice before he and George stood up, leaving me to concentrate alone.


	36. Chapter 36

The days ticked by until it was finally October 30th, the day the students from the other schools were supposed to arrive. Fred, George and I were sitting at the Gryffindor table, eating breakfast and discussing Ludo Bagman.

Now that Bagman was expected to come to Hogwarts for the tournament, Fred and George were planning on talking to him face to face. They thought that was better than sending a letter. Especially since they felt that with a letter, he could easily ignore it. He'd have a harder time doing it if they cornered him in person.

"I can't believe this had to happen," Fred fumed, resting his chin in his hand. "I can't believe we have to worry about this. It's such a…." He trailed off and stared off into space as he thought of the right word. "A bummer."

"It's a bummer all right," George said gloomily. "But we have to have a plan. If he won't talk to us in person, then we'll have to send him the letter after all. Or we'll stuff it into his hand. He can't avoid us forever."

"Who's avoiding you?" Ron asked, appearing suddenly and sitting down next to us, Harry and Hermione at his side.

"Wish you would." Fred glared at Ron irritably.

"What's a bummer?" Ron pressed on, loading food onto his plate.

"Having a nosy git like you for a brother," said George.

"Speaking of brothers," I said, looking at Ron, "where's mine?"

"Still up in the dorm with Neville, Seamus and Dean," Ron reported. "They overslept."

I snorted. "Figures. If they don't get down here soon, they'll miss breakfast."

"So," Harry said, looking at the twins, "you two got any ideas on the Triwizard Tournament yet? Thought any more about trying to enter?"

"Yeah, we're still entering," Fred said.

"I asked McGonagall how the champions are chosen, but she wasn't telling," George said bitterly. "She just told me to shut up and get on with transfiguring my raccoon."

"Wonder what the tasks are going to be?" Ron said thoughtfully. "You know, I bet we could do them, Harry. We've done loads of dangerous stuff before."

"Not in front of a panel of judges, you haven't," Fred said, shaking his head. "McGonagall says the champions get awarded points based on how well they complete the tasks."

"Who are the judges?" Harry asked.

"Well, the heads of houses are always judges," Hermione piped up suddenly. We all turned to look at her. She had been rather quiet during this discussion and I had almost forgotten she was there. When she saw us looking at her, she gave us an exasperated look. "It's all in Hogwarts: A History. Though, of course, that book's not entirely reliable. A Revised History of Hogwarts would be a more accurate title. Or A Highly Biased and Selective History of Hogwarts, Which Glosses Over the Nastier Aspects of the School."

"What are you on about?" Ron asked.

"House elves!" cried Hermione. "Not once, in over a thousand pages, does Hogwarts: A History does it ever mention that we are all colluding in the oppression of a hundred slaves!"

Ron groaned loudly as Harry and Fred became suddenly interested in their bacon. Hermione was gearing up to talk about S.P.E.W. It stood for the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare and she had come up with it all on her own on account of the fact that she had learned that there were house elves at Hogwarts. She didn't like that they didn't get sick time, vacation time, or, well, money for their work.

Recently, she had taken to walking around the common room, shaking a collecting tin in everyone's face, asking them to pay two Sickles to join S.P.E.W. In return, they'd get a badge. Fred and George had flat out refused when she had asked them. They knew that the house elves were happy the way they were. Ron, Harry and Julian had paid only to shut her up. I had given her the money more because I was actually almost on both sides of the argument. I knew the house elves were happy and didn't feel they needed vacation time, sick time or pay. If they were happy, then that was fine. But if they ever wanted any of that, I wasn't going to oppose the idea. I just didn't think they were brainwashed like Hermione seemed to think.

"Listen," George said now, leaning forward towards Hermione. "Have you ever been down to the kitchens?"

"No, of course not," Hermione replied curtly. "I hardly imagine students are allowed to be down there."

"Well, we've gone," George said, gesturing to himself, me and Fred. "We go down there all the time. We've met the house elves and they're happy. They think they've got the best job in the world."

"That's because they're uneducated and brainwashed!" Hermione said hotly.

"They're not," Fred piped up, looking up from his plate. "They're more than happy to do their job. The first time we went in, they practically flung themselves at us. In fact, they do that every time. We're nice to them, we talk, we show appreciation, but…they don't want pay or anything. Knowing that what they do is appreciated is enough."

"But it isn't!" Hermione exclaimed. She started to say something else, but her next few words were drowned out by the mail, which I was grateful for. As much as I knew that Hermione's heart was in the right place, the last thing I wanted was to hear her repeat the S.P.E.W lecture for the millionth time in the past week alone.

"She's lost her mind," Fred muttered, shoveling a forkful of eggs into his mouth. "Nobody honestly wants to join that spew thing." He glanced at Hermione, who was now burying her nose in the newspaper.

"Spew's an appropriate name for it," George added. "She just spews all this wrong information about those elves. She should go take a look for herself. They're overjoyed to be here. Honestly, I would be as well. I'd work here for free too if it meant I'd never have to be in a home like the Malfoy's. Dobby must absolutely love life now."

I snorted. "Leave her alone," I said, looking over at Hermione with an amused smile. "She's not hurting anyone. She's just…she thinks she's doing something good. It'll blow over eventually."

"Hopefully for us," Fred said, shaking his head.

I rolled my eyes and flicked a toast crumb at him. "Shut it."

* * *

Four minutes. That's how many minutes the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were late by. Normally I wouldn't have minded, but I was freezing, despite the jacket that I had grabbed after stopping by the dormitories earlier.

The entire school was standing out on the front steps, waiting for the other schools to arrive. We had been arranged by year, first years at the bottom of the steps, closer to the ground, and seventh years back near the school.

"What do you think is keeping them?" Katie asked, shivering slightly in the cool night air.

"Traffic, probably," Fred answered casually, shrugging one shoulder.

"You think there _is_ traffic the way they're coming?" I asked. We knew nothing about how these people were supposed to get here. We didn't know where to look to watch for them.

"No idea," Fred answered.

Another few minutes passed. "Seems to me like they're a bunch of divas," George remarked, sticking his hands in his pockets and looking around. "Keeping us waiting like this. Honestly."

"Why can't they hurry up?" I groaned. "I'm cold."

No sooner had the words left my mouth than Dumbledore spoke up from the frontof the group. "Ah, here come the students from Beauxbatons, if I am not mistaken."

Murmurs chorused through the crowd.

"Where? I don't see anything!" I heard people saying.

Finally, Seamus Finnegan pointed to the sky above the forest. "There!"

"It's a dragon!" a first year shouted.

"No, I think it's a flying house!" screamed Dennis Creevey.

Fred snorted. "A flying house, how ridiculous."

But it didn't look like Dennis could be all that off. Whatever it was certainly could fly and it certainly was huge enough to be a house. But right now it was too far away to tell.

When the large object got closer, it began to descend towards the ground in front of the stairs and we finally got a good look. It wasn't a house, but a large carriage pulled by six humongous palomino horses. Seriously, just one of their hooves was probably the size of my head, if not a bit bigger.

The crowd was silent as the door to the carriage opened and a foot stepped out.

"Bloody hell," the twins muttered from behind me.

As the person inside the carriage pulled herself-I assumed it was a woman from her shoes and what of her clothes I could see-out into the open air, murmurs rippled through the Hogwarts students once again.

This lady was huge, to put it bluntly. She was even taller than Hagrid by at least a few inches. She had dark hair that hung down to her chin and was dressed head to toe in black satin. Chunky necklaces hung from her neck and large rings encircled almost all of her fingers.

"Are they all that size?" George asked, letting out a low whistle.

"I don't think she's a student, you idiot," Lee snorted. "She looks too old."

"Okay, fine, so she must be the headmistress," Fred answered as the woman began making her way towards Dumbledore. "But how do we know the students aren't the same size? Maybe there's something in the water in...well, wherever Beauxbatons is."

"France," I supplied. "It's in France."

"How do you know that?" Fred asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Because she actually listens in History of Magic," George said. "How else do you think she managed to get an OWL in that class?"

"It's not like I was the only one," I said, glaring at them. By now, the large woman was addressing Dumbledore.

"My dear Madame Maxime," he said with a smile. "Welcome to Hogwarts."

"Professor Dumblydore," Madame Maxime replied. She spoke with a French accent and her voice was deep but polite sounding at the same time. "I 'ope I find you well."

"In excellent form, I thank you."

"My pupils," Madame Maxime said, waving an enormous hand back towards the carriage. A group of girls suddenly poured from the carriage. They were dressed in blue, but their outfits were clearly not made for the weather here. The fabric was too thin for the chilly October air and they were all shivering as they huddled at the bottom of the steps.

"Do you think one of them would let me try to give them my jacket?" Lee asked, his voice filled with awe as he looked the girls over. "Merlin, but which one would I even pick? They're all bloody gorgeous."

I rolled my eyes and continued to take in the Beauxbatons girls. It was true, they were all practically flawless. I could tell from here. Their hair was so shiny it was nearly reflective. I doubted their skin had a single blemish.

"I call dibs on the dark haired one over there," George said, gesturing to a girl with black hair standing nearest to us.

"Really?" Fred asked. "I'd have thought you'd rather go for blondie." He pointed to a blonde girl standing on the other side of the group. "That's who I'd pick." He sucked in a breath and grunted as Angelina elbowed him hard in the stomach. He cleared his throat. "If I wasn't taken and madly in love already," he amended, grinning down at Angelina, who rolled her eyes.

"You're all such pigs," I said, making a face. "Honestly, they could be dumb as dirt."

"Stereotyping much?" George asked, poking me in the side. I flinched away and swatted his hand.

"I'm not. I'm just saying, they could be. I'm all for girl power, believe me, but dumb, pretty girls _do _exist, you know. My point is that you know nothing about those girls."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Lee said, rolling his eyes. I glared at him.

"'As Karkaroff arrived yet?" Madame Maxime was asking Dumbledore now.

"He should be here any moment," said Dumbledore. "Would you like to wait here and greet him or would you like to step inside and warm up a bit?"

"Warm up, I theenk," Madame Maxime answered. "But ze 'orses…."

"Our Care of Magical Creatures teacher will be more than happy to take care of them," Dumbledore explained.

"My steeds require—er—forceful handling," Madame Maxime said slowly. "Zey are very strong."

"I can assure you that Hagrid will be up to the job," Dumbledore said with a smile.

"Very well. Will you please inform zis Hagrid that my 'orses only drink single malt whiskey?"

"It will be attended to," Dumbledore said with a nod of his head.

Madame Maxime finally looked satisfied and she gestured for the students to follow her inside. I saw the eyes of almost every boy standing on the steps follow them as they made their way past. I fought the urge to vomit.

Once they had disappeared from view, silence filled the air once again and we were left to wait some more for the students from Durmstrang.

"Do you think they'll come by carriage too?" Alicia asked. "I wonder if it's prettier than the Beauxbatons one."

"How much do you want to bet it isn't?" Fred asked, looking the Beauxbatons carriage up and down. "Actually, how much do you want to bet the students aren't as pretty?" He grunted again as Angelina elbowed him for the second time in five minutes. "I meant to say as pretty as the Hogwarts girls," he said, looking down at her.

"Aw, thanks, Fred," I said, turning to him and batting my eyelashes. "You flatter me."

"Back off, Lilah. You have your own boy to flirt with," Angelina said with a joking smirk.

"He's not here. I'm deprived," I joked back.

"Ladies, ladies," Fred said, holding up a hand. "I know I'm good looking, but there's no need to fight." He looked at me. "Since the real thing is taken, Lilah, I can't help you there, but I _can_ offer you a knockoff." He gestured to George. "Almost like the real thing with a few minor differences and for a cheaper price."

"Hey," George protested, sticking his tongue out at his brother.

"Be nice," I told Fred. "George is wonderful and not a knockoff." I smiled at George as Fred shrugged.

"If you say so."

"Hold on," Lee suddenly said. "Can you all hear something?"

We froze as our ears perked up. He was right. There was a faint rumbling sound that was only growing louder by the second.

"Where's it coming from?" Katie whispered.

"Look! The lake!" Lee suddenly cried.

Everyone turned to look where he was pointing. The water of the lake, usually flat and calm, was now rippling madly.

"You know, that _could _be from the giant squid eating some bad fish," Fred said.

"Gross, Fred," I muttered.

"I mean," he continued, "how would the Durmstrang students get here by traveling underwater? How is that possible?"

"Clearly it is," I said as the lake rippled even more. Suddenly, a mast broke through the surface, reaching higher and higher into the air until more and more of a giant ship appeared. Eventually, it was fully emerged, floating on the lake as calmly as if it had sailed in the normal way.

An anchor splashed into the water moments before a plank was lowered from the ship, the other end coming to rest on the grassy lawn. People started to disembark. From what I could see, they were either really beefy or were wearing bulky clothing. I was going to go with the second option though. From what I remembered Professor Binns saying, Durmstrang was located somewhere far north where it was a lot colder than it was here.

As the figures approached, I saw that they were indeed wearing large fur coats as well as thick hats. The man in front was clearly the headmaster, his hair dark and tinged with grey. He even had a goatee. His eyes were dark and beady.

We watched as he greeted Dumbledore, the group of students assembling behind him.

"Now that's what I'm talking about," Alicia said with a nod as she looked over the group of boys.

"Gross," George commented. "They probably have heads made out of sawdust."

"Stereotyping much?" I asked as I also skimmed the group of boys, holding back a laugh as George poked me in the back again.

"Viktor," Karkaroff suddenly said, gesturing to someone standing somewhat behind him in the shadows. "Come along, into the warmth." He looked at Dumbledore. "Viktor has a slight head cold."

As the boy stepped forward into the dim light of the waning sun, I had to blink a few times to make sure I wasn't seeing things. I realized I wasn't when murmurs floated up through the crowd of Hogwarts students.

"Is that—is that-?" Fred stuttered.

"Viktor Krum?" George whispered.

"Seriously?" Lee continued.

I immediately began searching the crowd for my brother. I knew he would love this information. A real live famous Quidditch player in his midst. Then again, he was actually friends with Oliver, who was also a professional Quidditch player. But I knew Krum was different. Julian didn't think of Oliver as a professional. They'd been friends first, and that's what Julian would always see him as. A friend and a role model, but not a celebrity.

Sure enough, when my eyes fell on Julian, his mouth was hanging open and he was staring as Viktor was ushered inside by Karkaroff.

"Why is it that both of these schools have managed to make the male population of _our_ school fall in love with both of them at first sight?" I asked with a roll of my eyes. "I mean, what gives?"

"It's okay, Liles," Fred said, nudging me. "We still love you too."

"Thank goodness," I snorted. "How else would I ever go on?"

"No idea," Fred shrugged innocently. "Now let's get inside. Maybe we can get a better view of Krum somehow."

I rolled my eyes. "Pathetic, isn't it?" I asked Angelina.

"Completely," she replied, shaking her head as she watched the twins crane their necks to see over the crowd. "I'm considering pretending I don't know them."

I laughed. "That's the best idea I've heard all day."

* * *

It turned out that the judge that would pick the three champions wasn't even a person. It was a cup. A goblet, to be more exact. The Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore called it.

He had Filch bring it in during the feast and everyone ogled at it a bit as Dumbledore explained that the Goblet would be set up in the entrance hall for the next twenty four hours. Anyone who wished to enter would simply write their name and school on a slip of paper and put it in. Then, at the Halloween feast the next night, the Goblet would spit out the slips of paper with the names of the champions it had selected. To ensure that nobody under the age of seventeen could put their names in, Dumbledore said he would surround the Goblet with an Age Line.

"We were right," Fred hissed to George as we reached the common room later. "An Aging Potion should fool the Age Line, shouldn't it? It'll be fine. Once we get our names into the Goblet, it won't matter. We'll have as good a shot as anyone!"

And just like that, they were gone, racing upstairs to collect what they needed to brew the potion. I headed upstairs with Angelina, Katie and Alicia. We got ready for bed and I started a letter to Oliver, filling him in on what had happened that day. Once I was finished, I set it on my night stand so I'd remember to send it off early the next morning. As I was just getting comfortable in bed, I noticed Angelina was sitting upright in her own bed, the blankets pooled in her lap as she stared down at her hands.

"Something wrong?" I asked her.

"What if it works?" she asked quietly.

"What if what works?" I looked at her in confusion.

"What if Fred and George manage to get their names into the Goblet of Fire and what if it picks one of them?" she asked shakily, looking up to meet my eyes.

"What if it picks _you_?" I asked. When surprise flitted across her face, I smiled. "Fred told me that you were planning on entering…and about your fight. Sorry."

Angelina shook her head. "I love Fred…and George, too, but they're so…hard to keep up with. And so hard to talk down from something once they've got their minds made up."

"What's the difference between them entering and you entering?" I asked. "We've actually all learned the same."

"The difference is that I'm seventeen and they aren't. If they enter, they're doing it illegally. They're going against the rules. They aren't supposed to make this decision on their own."

"Seventeen year olds aren't capable of making a decision like that on their own either," I said. "Lots of seventeen year olds are going to go into this thinking it's a great idea only to find out it's so much more than they bargained for."

"Well, either way, rules are rules," Angelina said with a tight smile. "The age limit is seventeen. I'm seventeen and I want to enter…Gryffindor could use some representation. The more Gryffindors that enter, the better our chances will be."

"Why _do_ you want to enter?" I asked.

Angelina let a puff of air out of her mouth. "Well, a part of me kind of wants to. It's kind of thrilling…I know it's not really like me at all, but that's the thing. I want to do something exhilarating for once. I want to take a leaf out of Fred and George's book and show them I'm not as rigid as they seem to think I am…especially lately. Maybe by entering I could somehow make things better with Fred. If I enter, it'll be the next best thing to them actually entering and maybe they'll be okay with it….I don't know, like I said, it's dumb."

I smiled. "No, it's not. I get it. And maybe if you win you can give a portion of the money to the twins."

Angelina laughed. "No, let's not go that far. If I win, I win fair and square." She paused. "Besides, they'd never take it even if I did try to give it to them."

I shrugged. "Desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked.

I hesitated as I just looked at her for a moment. Eventually, I shook my head. "Nothing. Forget it."

* * *

The next morning, after a typical out of tune rendition of Happy Birthday from my roommates, and after I had performed my first bit of legal magic (summoning my clothes from the dresser, nothing special), we headed downstairs to breakfast only to get distracted in the entrance hall by the Goblet of Fire.

Lots of people were already there, milling around and watching to see who would put their names in. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Julian were standing off to the side, pieces of toast in their hands, watching the goblet intently.

"Are you really going to do this?" I asked Angelina as she fiddled with the slip of paper in her hands.

She nodded. "Yeah, I mean...why not? I want to. I could really also use the money too...I don't think too many Gryffindors are entering either. Legally at least. It'll be nice to have someone representing us, like I said last night."

I nodded. "Okay, well...good luck."

As Angelina walked towards the Goblet, the rest of us headed for Harry, Ron, Hermione and Julian. "Anyone put their name in yet?" I asked. "Besides Angelina?"

"All of the people from Durmstrang apparently," Ron supplied. "We saw Krum put his name in about five minutes ago."

We watched as Angelina gingerly stepped over the age line, smiling slightly when it allowed her to pass.

"Anyone else?"

"Cedric Diggory, from Hufflepuff," Harry added.

"Oh, we _know_ who Cedric Diggory is," Katie said as she and Alicia giggled shrilly. I rolled my eyes and looked at my brother, who was silently watching Angelina drop the slip of paper into the flaming goblet. He looked back up at me when he sensed me looking and smiled.

"Happy Birthday, Lilah," he said, reaching into his bag and pulling out a flat, square gift wrapped package.

"What's this?" I asked in surprise, taking it from him slowly.

"Your birthday gift," he said as if I were dense.

"But where did you get it?"

"Partially from Hogsmeade and partially from…a friend," he said. "Open it."

I smiled. "You didn't have to get me anything," I told him.

"Of course I did," he answered. "You're my sister. I'm practically required to get you something even if I didn't want to. Otherwise, I'd risk looking like a prat."

"You've been talking to the twins too much," I snorted, gently pulling on the end of the purple ribbon wrapped around the box. When it came loose, I gently pulled apart the wrapping paper and opened the box. "Oh, Jules, it's perfect," I whispered.

Inside was a plain black picture frame, which was lovely in itself. But it was what the frame held that I really loved. It was a photo of Julian and I last year on one of the Hogsmeade visits. I had my arms around him from behind and was trying to kiss his cheek. I watched as the moving photo version of me leaned forward, trying to aim correctly while Julian squirmed away, laughing despite his desire to pull out of my grasp.

I bit my lip as my eyes filled with tears. When I had blinked them back, I smiled and looked up at Julian. "I love this. Thank you." I gave him a giant hug and kissed him on the cheek. He didn't try to pull away this time.

"You're welcome. I'm glad you like it," he said. "Colin Creevey took that picture of us, remember?"

"Is he the only kid with a camera around here?" I asked curiously.

Julian snorted. "Seems like he is. He's very overeager. Still. After two years of being here."

"I don't think it's that anymore," I said. "I think he actually likes taking pictures."

Julian shrugged and I ruffled his hair before tucking his gift into my bag. Angelina was joining us again now and the Goblet was left standing alone in the quiet once again.

But that only lasted a few seconds.

The sound of loud cheering echoed off the walls as Fred and George came tearing down the staircase, their fists raised in the air. Lee ran behind them, looking just as pleased.

"Done it," Fred said in a triumphant whisper as he reached us. "Just finished it up this morning."

"Finished what?" Ron asked, blinking.

"The Aging Potion, dung brain," Fred said with a scoff.

"One drop each should do it," added George, rubbing his hands together with glee.

"I'm not quite sure this will work, you know," Hermione said, raising her eyebrows. "I'm sure Dumbledore will have thought of this."

"That makes two of us," I muttered as Fred and George ignored her. They high fived Lee, who wished them good luck, before they each pulled a tiny vial from their pockets.

"Ready, Fred?"

"Ready, George."

"Bottoms up," they said together, downing the potion simultaneously. Then, they both jumped right over the age line. Nothing happened, and for a moment I thought they'd done it. My eyebrows shot up in surprise and the twins cheered, clearly thinking they had succeeded as well.

But then there was a loud sizzling noise. A second later, both of them were thrown out of the circle surrounding the goblet. They flew into the air and landed across the entrance hall, crashing into the cold stone floor with identical grunts.

I gasped and let out an uncharacteristic swear word, which got Julian to snicker and nudge me in the side.

I honestly thought Fred and George might have been hurt and was about to rush to their sides. But then I saw the beards. As the twins sat up, they were even more noticeable. They had sprouted identical long white beards.

Everyone in the entrance hall laughed and even the twins joined in once they had taken a good look at each other. That let me know that they were truly okay and not hurt in the least. Thank Merlin.

"I did warn you," said an amused voice. I turned to see Dumbledore standing in the doorway to the great hall. He didn't look angry. In fact, he seemed to think this was funny too. With a twinkle in his eyes and a half smile on his face, he continued. "Why don't you two head up to see Madame Pomfrey? She's already tending to Miss Fawcett of Ravenclaw and Mr. Summers of Hufflepuff, both of whom decided to age themselves up a little too. Though, I must say, neither of their beards are quite as fine as yours."

Fred and George set off for the hospital wing just then, Lee following them in a fit of hysterics. I followed the others into the great hall, trying to fight back a laugh myself. A part of me was relieved. They wouldn't have the opportunity to risk their necks in this tournament. But another part of me felt sad for them. Fred had been right when he said that they didn't just want this money. They needed it. They wanted to open their joke shop and prove that they could be successful doing it. They wanted to prove everyone wrong. And unless they somehow got ahold of some money soon, it was going to take them forever to save up again, while everyone else waited expectantly to be proved wrong, growing more and more doubtful and exasperated by the day.

The twins needed that money and I found myself suddenly needing to help them get it. So at that moment, I made a decision. A crazy, stupid decision that could possibly get me in trouble, but a decision nonetheless. And then I hurried up to the hospital wing before I could change my mind.

* * *

"You are an absolute saint," Fred told me, an hour later as he opened the door to the sixth year boys' dorm. He located his bag and began searching for, I assumed, a quill and a piece of paper. He and George were now beard free and happier than ever after I had told them my idea.

"Honestly," George said, "Fred and I will never tease or make fun of you or misbehave around you again."

"No, please do," I said with a wry smile. "Having you two behave around me would drive me insane, actually." I paused. "Just…try not to kill me or anything."

"No promises there, Lie," Fred said, finally retrieving two quills and a piece of paper. He ripped off two small pieces and handed one to George, along with a quill. They both wrote down their names with nearly identical dramatic flourishes, then handed them to me.

"Honestly, thank you _so_ much," Fred said.

I shrugged. "Don't mention it," I said. "I really want to see you open that joke shop. I know you can do it. Your only problem is the money, so I'm going to do what I can to help speed up the process of getting what you need."

"If you ever need anything at all…." George said with a grin.

I laughed and shook my head. "Don't mention it. Honestly," I said. "Just promise me something."

"Anything," Fred said immediately.

"If either of you two get picked…promise me you'll be careful. Promise me you'll think through everything you do. You especially, Fred."

"Me? Why me?" he gasped dramatically.

"Because you have more of a tendency than George to just act without thinking," I answered with a shrug. "So just promise me you'll be careful. Please."

Fred swallowed and looked at me seriously. "We will, Lie."

I looked at George, who nodded too. "We solemnly swear."

Slowly, I let a puff of air out of my mouth. "Okay, then. All I'll need from you two is a distraction to get everyone out of the entrance hall. Ever since Dumbledore put it out, there have been people milling around every waking moment. And seeing as the selection is tonight, it isn't like I can wait until dinner or until everyone's gone to bed."

Fred nodded. "Five minutes is more than enough time, right? For you to slip in, put our names in the goblet, then put some distance between you and the scene of the crime?" The corner of his mouth turned up into a playful smirk.

"That's perfect," I said with a nod.

"Then consider it done," Fred said with a bow. He clapped me on the shoulder before heading for the door. "Get down there in five minutes and it should be clear."

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"Test out a new product," Fred answered coyly. He hesitated. "Oh, hang on." He jogged back over to his trunk and rummaged in it for a moment before pulling out a pair of ordinary looking glasses. "You'll need these." He held them out to me.

"Why? My eyesight is fine," I said. "I don't understand."

Fred laughed and shook his head at George. "'My eyesight is fine', she says." He laughed again. "As if she thinks we're trying our hand at optometry now." He paused and looked at me thoughtfully. "Funny how you'd be this cool with it, though."

"Funny that you know what optometry means," I shot back with a raised eyebrow as Fred smirked wider. "Seriously, what are these for?"

"You'll _see_ when you get down to the entrance hall," George said with a wink as Fred laughed and high fived him. "Just have those on when you walk down there, okay?" George gestured to the glasses.

I stared at them for a moment before slowly nodding. "Fine."

The twins both smiled at me. "Thanks again, Lilah," they said. And with that, they were gone.

I impatiently waited four minutes and forty-five seconds in the twins' dorm, anxiously pacing around the room as I stared at my watch, my mind racing the whole time. I began to wonder what would happen if one of the twins did get picked. Would the other twin be happy or jealous? I suppose they'd be happy for the most part. At least one of them made it in to compete for the prize money. But that meant only one of them would get to do those tasks that the twins, stupidly, in my opinion, seemed to think sounded so amazing. They had always done everything together, so imagining them doing something so drastically separate seemed odd to me.

Then, there was the flip side of the fact that only one twin was competing. Maybe the twins had trouble seeing it now, but the tasks were designed to be dangerous and challenging. It wasn't a walk in the park. What would it be like for one twin to watch the other compete in such terrifying and dangerous tasks? They'd probably wish they could do it together so at least they could help each other out. Again, they had always done things together, so maybe it would be tough to participate in something so dangerous and huge separately from each other.

I stopped pacing and stared down at the two slips of paper in my hands. I wasn't sure if what I was thinking was even more against the rules than what I had already been planning to do, but I surprisingly didn't take the time to dwell on it. I crumpled up the two pieces of paper in my hands and tossed them in the garbage can. Then, I ripped another small piece from the parchment Fred had left behind and picked up the quill he had also left. Biting my lip, I scribbled both the twins' names on the paper. Fred and George Weasley. And before I could let myself be talked out of it by my own conscience, I slipped out of the dorm and down the stairs, slipping the glasses on as I did so.

When I reached the entrance hall, I stopped in the middle of the marble staircase in confusion. There were still a few people there. Not many—probably about three or four—but they looked odd. They looked panicked and were walking around with their eyes wide and arms outstretched as if they were feeling their way through the dark. Confused and curious, I slid the glasses down my nose a bit so I could see without them. When I did, I almost gasped.

Everything was pitch black.

I couldn't see a thing. It was the oddest feeling. Even the entrance hall at night wasn't this dark. This was like being deep inside a cave. It was as if I had my eyes squeezed shut, even though they were wide open. But if it was all dark and I hadn't known it and I had been able to see people and objects clearly a few moments ago with the glasses on, then that meant….

I put the glasses back on and instantly I could see again. I could see perfectly. I blinked. This was incredible. Fred had said it was a new product, which meant that he and George had invented and actually created this themselves. It made me realize just how smart they actually were and how little credit they got for it. And _that_ made me want to put their names in the goblet even more.

Taking a deep breath, I crossed the room to the Goblet and stared down at the single piece of paper in my hands. Fred and George Weasley. This was it. I looked up at the Goblet again, sitting on its table, waiting for me. I stepped over the age line, holding my breath as it did so. Part of me felt as if I'd get tossed out like the twins had, even though I knew I was over the age limit. Maybe it was because I was scared that my secret would be discovered. As if the Age Line would know that I was seventeen, but the boys whose names were on the paper in my hands were not.

I stood just inside the age line for a second or two, waiting. Nothing happened and I let out a sigh of relief. And then I stepped towards the goblet. I was standing right in front of it. The next step was to drop the twins' names in. I couldn't prolong it anymore. There was nothing else left to do. Plus, I was running out of time. I only had five minutes to do this.

_Just do it,_ I thought. _Do it and run_. I silently counted to three, practically flung the paper into the goblet and then ran. I ran all the way up the marble staircase and back to the Gryffindor dorms, pulling the glasses the twins had given me off in the process. I gave the Fat Lady a breathless version of the password and she swung open, allowing me to dash inside before remembering that it wasn't a good idea to look suspicious since there were people milling around. So I slowed my movements and tried to control my breathing as I made my way to an empty table in the corner and sat down, resting my elbows on the table and my head in my hands.

What had I done? My actions were just catching up to me now and I couldn't believe myself. I had illegally entered two of my best friends into the Triwizard tournament, where, if they were chosen, they'd have to compete in three dangerous tasks. Terribly dangerous. I was so stupid. I knew they were smart, fearless and daring, but they weren't invincible. I wanted them to earn enough money for their shop, but their safety was way more important. They couldn't open a joke shop if they got killed. Left alone with my own thoughts, I was beginning to fear that I had just made a terribly big mistake.


	37. Chapter 37

"Merlin, Lilah, you really are depressing."

I turned to see the twins making their way towards me. I was sitting out in the stands of the Quidditch pitch, looking out at the goal posts. Truth be told, I was missing Oliver. It was just before the Halloween feast—and the champion selection ceremony—and I hadn't heard from him at all yet today. Sure, there was time, but I suppose I had been hoping to have heard from him already. And his last letter had been short and sent earlier this week.

"Why am I depressing?" I asked with a smile, turning back around and staring across the pitch.

"You're spending your birthday alone," Fred said, lowering himself down beside me while George took the spot on my other side.

"I didn't spend it alone. I spent the morning with Ange, Katie and Leesh, and I spent the afternoon with Tess."

"But you're alone now," Fred said. "You shouldn't have to spend any portion of your birthday alone."

"Did it ever cross your mind that I might want to?" I asked, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Wow, you really know how to be rude," George snorted.

I smiled. "I don't mind if you stay. It's fine."

"So..." Fred began slowly. "I'm assuming you did it then? You put our names in?"

I nodded. "I did." That was the other thing that was bothring me. Besides Oliver. I was still pretty upset about what I had done. I was nervous. I kept telling myself that maybe they wouldn't be chosen. But now their names were in so they had a shot. There was a chance they would be and that scared me.

"How'd it go?" George asked.

"Fine," I shrugged. "I just threw your names in and ran for it."

"And then hid away in your dorm until you decided to come down here," Fred said. "Why? Regretting it?"

I looked at him in surprise. "Am I being obvious or do you just know me really well?"

"Both," Fred answered with a shrug.

I smiled and looked away again. "You know I want you to open your shop, but I worry about you two. If you get chosen and if you get hurt, or worse...It'll be all my fault for putting your names in. I'll never be able to forgive myself."

Fred and George looked at each other before Fred smiled at me. "We wouldn't want you to blame yourself," he said. "It would be our own fault. We're the ones who wanted this. We're the ones who asked you."

"You asked. You didn't force me. There's a difference. I came to the decision all on my own," I sighed.

"Still, if anything happens, it's our own stupid fault," George said with a small smile.

I laughed. "I never thought I'd hear either of you say that," I said. There was a pause. "What was that distraction you used, by the way? It was fantastic. Really genius, actually."

"Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder," the twins answered together.

"You like it?" Fred asked.

"Love it," I answered. "Honestly, the creativity and thought and...overall intelligence that had to go into dreaming it up and actually making it. And making it _well_..." I shook my head. "You two are impressive. Honestly. And that's why I really want you to win this money. So that you can open your joke shop as soon as possible and share with everyone else just how brilliant you two are."

"You flatter us," Fred said, pretending to blush. "Whenever we need to fish for compliments, we'll come to you."

I scoffed and shook my head. "I'll compliment you when you deserve it and you know that. When you're acting like total nutters, I tell you."

"True," Fred said. He and George both smiled before George stood up and held out his arm to me. "Come on, let's go. I hear there's a feast being held in your honor tonight."

"If only," I snorted, standing up and linking arms with both twins. "Nobody cares about my birthday when there's things like Halloween and the Triwizard Tournament to be excited about."

"Well, personally," Fred began, "George and I couldn't care less about a silly Triwizard Tournament."

I snorted. "Right. That's why you went through so much effort to sneak your names in."

"Well, now that excitement's over," Fred said. "We got our names in and the chase is won, so the tournament goes on the back burner for the time being."

"Exactly," George continued. "And as for Halloween, Fred and I have never been big on sweets."

I snorted. "Are we talking about the same people, here?" I asked. "Besides, Halloween's just not based off of the candy. There's history behind it. Granted, I still don't know it. I keep forgetting to get the story from Uncle Jesse. Perhaps I ought to, but—"

"Don't bother," Fred said dismissively. "George and I aren't big history guys either."

"You two? Really?" I asked, feigning shock. "I could have sworn History of Magic was your favorite class."

"Nope," George said, shaking his head and grinning.

"So you see," Fred continued, patting my hand, "as far as we're concerned…this feast is _entirely_ in your honor."

I smiled and let out a quiet laugh as my cheeks flushed red. "I'm flattered."

"You should be," Fred whispered, smiling at me. "Happy Birthday, Lilah."

* * *

An eerie hush of anticipation had gone over the great hall for the third time that night. We had all enjoyed a wonderful Hallween feast that was probably better than all of the previous ones combined. And now we were in the middle of the champion selection.

The Beauxbatons and Durmstrang champions had just been chosen. The Beauxbatons champion had been called first—a girl named Fleur Delacour who definitely looked part veela. The Durmstrang champion was Viktor Krum, which didn't come as a surprise for some reason, despite the fact that I was sure the Goblet of Fire had no opinion of celebrities (or even knowledge of what that word meant). Viktor and Fleur had both been sent into a room off the great hall by Dumbledore, who was smiling braodly.

And now it was time for the Hogwarts champion to be chosen. I felt like I was going to throw up. This was it. I still couldn't decide if I wanted the twins' names to be called. I did and I didn't at the same time. I couldn't make up my mind. I just wanted it all to be over.

For the third time that night, the Goblet of Fire lit up, the glowing fames bursting out of the mouth of the goblet and shooting out a slip of paper. I was sitting backwards on the Gryffindor table's bench, my back against the table and my hands resting on the bench on either side of me. I gribbed the edge of the seat harder. So hard, my knuckles started to turn white.

And then I felt something touch my right hand along the length of my pinky, just barely. So lightly it might not have been anything at all. When I looked down, I saw that Fred had moved his hand so it was still resting on the bench like it had before, but it was now resting against mine. When I looked up at him, though, he was staring at Dumbledore, who had just caught the piece of paper from the Goblet and was looking at it.

I knew what had happened before Dumbledore opened his mouth. I knew because I saw his eyebrows come together. I saw him hesitate. I saw the look on his face. After a pause-long enough, I'm sure, to alert everyone else that something was up-Dumbledore raised his eyes and looked straight at the twins. "Fred and George Weasley," he called out, his voice flat, containing none of the excitement it had when it had read out Fleur and Krum's names.

The hall fell silent and I let out an involuntary squeak as I closed my eyes. Crap.

Murmurs started to rise again through the room as everyone began to express their confusion. How could two champions be chosen at once? How was that possible? Or fair? And how had two underage students gotten their names in after all?

"Fred?" George whispered, his eyes wide and still staring at Dumbledore instead of his brother.

"Yeah, George?" Fred asked,

"Did he say Fred _and_ George Weasley?"

"I believe he did," Fred answered.

"But he has one slip of paper in his hand?" George continued.

"I believe he does," Fred said.

They both turned to look at me and I refused to look back. My heart was hammering in my chest and I was still trying to process the fact that they had actually been chosen. That was preoccupying my time too much at the moment. I couldn't bear to deal with their surprise on top of it.

"Fred and George Weasley," Dumbledore repeated, his eyes still firmly set on the twins. He wasn't backing down. A part of me had been hoping he would've laughed, said it was a wonderful joke, that the twins had really outdone themselves this time, and that they should stay put. But no, he was now pointing at the door that Fleur and Krum had disappeared into.

"Wait, he's serious?" Fred asked.

I nodded. "He's serious. Go. Don't draw it all out. Just go."

I expected the twins to simply get up and make their way across the room in almost a shocked stupor as they continued to try to process the fact that their plan had not only worked, but now they were competing together. But I don't know what I was thinking. I should have known better. Instead, they seemed to have taken all the time they needed for processing already. They broke into identical grins and high fived before letting out whoops of joy and jumping up from their seats. Most of the Gryffindors had seemed to stop caring about what had just happened and started cheering, just excited to have representation-_double_ representation, actually-in the tournament. It didn't matter who it was anymore, as long as it was someone.

The twins started doing a victory run towards the door on the other side of the room, high fiving Gryffindors seated along the table as they went and getting them all worked up and excited. But the Gryffindors were the only ones who suddenly didn't seem to care about what had just happened. Every other house table was silent.

When the twins had finally disappeared and the Gryffindor table had fallen quiet again, Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Well, that concludes the selection ceremony," he said hurriedly. I could tell he was still trying to be polite and courteous for our guests, but he was also in a rush to head into the next room and sort everything out. "You may all proceed back to your dormitories-or whatever other living arrangements you may have." He nodded towards the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students. "The first task will fall on-" But he was suddenly cut off by the Goblet of Fire, which had lit up and started emitting fire again.

"Is it supposed to do that?" Lee hissed.

"I'm guessing no," I answered. "It's only done that so far if it was spitting out the name of a champion."

No sooner had I spoken when a piece of paper was flung out of the Goblet. It started fluttering back towards the ground and Dumbledore barely had time to catch it. I suspect he was as shocked as the rest of us. The tournament was supposed to have three champions. And as it was, because of me, we had four. And now there was another name coming out. What a mess.

Dumbledore stared down at the paper in his hands and this time, his expression was one of even more confusion than it had been when the twins' names had come out. This time, I could even see a hint of panic in there somewhere, which terrified me. Whose name could possibly be on that paper that would cause him to look that way? I shouldn't have worried, because I found out a second later when Dumbledore read it out loud.

"Harry Potter."

The hush that had gone over the crowd was the eeriest it had been all night. People were craning their necks to look at Harry, who I could see perfectly since he was sitting almost directly across from me. He had gone white as a sheet and he was gaping at Dumbledore.

"Harry Potter," Dumbledore said again, more firmly.

I wished he'd call the whole thing off right now. Clearly something weird was going on. We weren't supposed to have this many champions. And all the Hogwarts champions were underage. But I had absolutely _nothing_ to do with Harry being chosen. Thankfully.

"Oh, for goodness sake, Harry, just go," Hermione hissed, pulling him to his feet and shoving him towards the door the other champions had gone through. Harry moved through the silent crowd as if he were in a fog. Unlike what had happened with Fred and George, nobody broke into cheers, not even the Gryffindors. I think we were all still in a state of shock. Everyone knew the twins wanted nothing more to put their names in and that they were going to attempt to do it. With them, nothing was impossible and they gave off a crazy air of confidence, which was probablly why everyone had gotten over their shock easily. But with Harry..._no one_ had expected this at all.

After what seemed like hours, Harry finally reached the door to the next room. As soon as it had clicked shut behind him, Dumbledore gave the great hall a sweep with his eyes before politely dismissing us and turning to follow Harry. Madame Maxime and Karkaroff were right behind him. We were all silent until the door closed once again. And then people were in an uproar.

"He's a cheat!"

"They're all cheaters! They're not even seventeen!"

"We want a re-do!"

It was thanks to Professor McGonagall that the room quieted enough to manage to be dismissed in a somewhat orderlyl fashion from the room. I, however, mademy way twoards the door the twins had disappeared through. I didn't care what anyone said. I was going to wait right outside until they came out.

* * *

Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

I was outside the closed wooden door that separated me from the twins and I was pacing so hard that an indentation was going to appear in the floor any second. I couldn't believe this. This whole thing was ridiculous. I was starting to believe that having the Triwizard Tournament was the worst idea anyone had ever had.

After a few more minutes of pacing, the door opened and people started coming out. Madame Maxime was first, huffing past me in a whirl of her long dark colored robes. Flour followed her, graceful as ever. Karkaroff and Krum were next. Neither one of them looked at me either, but I couldn't help watch Krum as he walked by. It was odd to see him up close. There has always been a lot of hype surrounding him and now that he was a foot away, he just seemed oddly...normal to me. Maybe it was a result of me dating Oliver and knowing that no matter how famous he got, he was still Oliver Wood.

Finally, Dumbledore left the room with McGonagall, Snape, Moody and Barty Crouch. Dumbledore looked at me as he walked by and I could've sworn he was about to accuse me of putting in the twins names. Or maybe Harry's. Or all of their names. But he didn't. Instead, he just nodded at me and kept walking, the other adults right behind him.

And then, lastly, the twins and Harry came out together. Harry looked sickened, but the twins looked the opposite. They still looked exuberant, despite the fact that surely they had been put under some suspicion over the past thirty minutes. Believe it or not, I gathered from what I heard of their conversation with Harry as they exited the room that they were trying to get him excited about competing.

"It'll be great, Harry," Fred said. "We have three Hogwarts champions. Three! We have an even higher shot of winning this whole thing! A bigger advantage than the others!"

"But that's not exactly _fair_, as Madame Maxime and Karkaroff pointed out," Harry said. "And they're right. Besides, I'm fine with watching from the sidelines. I'd much rather someone else have this opportunity. Someone who wants it."

"Nonsense!" Fred exclaimed, clapping Harry on the shoulder. "Just you wait, Harry, this will be amazing. Now run on up to the common room. George, Lilah and I are going to get some party food." He glanced over at me and winked as I scowled.

"Really? You're so sure I want to do that with you?"

Fred ignored me, gently nudging Harry forward. "Go on," he said. "But don't tell anyone else how you managed to get your name in until George and I get back."

"I didn't put my name in," Harry said.

"Yeah, go with that until we get back and you can tell the whole story," George said with a wink.

Sighing glumly, Harry made his way past me, giving me a feeble smile in acknowledgement of the sympathetic one I was giving him. When he had left the room, I turned back to the twins and opened my mouth, preparing to start going off on a rant about everything that has happened, but Fred spoke first.

"Lilah Fitzgerald, you wonderful, _genius_ human being." He broke into a grin and closed the distance between us, grabbing me around the waist, picking me up and spinning me around.

I didn't laugh or even smile, keeping my face stony as he set me down. "What'd they say? From what I've heard, I'm assuming you're all allowed to compete?"

"We have to," Fred said. "Dumbledore said that once the Goblet's made its decision, we have to go through with it. There's no turning back."

"Great, just great," I muttered darkly, crossing my arms and turning away.

"Aw, come on, Liles," Fred said playfully. "You did something _good_. At least in our book." He gestured to himself and George.

"Yeah, but your book isn't all that reliable," I said. There was a pause. "You two actually got chosen tonight."

"Yeah, so?" Fred asked with a grin. "That's what we wanted! And you knew there was a chance when you put our names in!"

"Yeah, but-"

"I can't believe you thought of putting our names in on one paper," Fred continued as he started walking towards the doors to the great hall, beginning our trek to, apparently, the kitchens.

"We didn't even think of that," George said. "Probably because we didn't even think it'd be allowed."

"When has that ever stopped you before?" I muttered half-bitterly as I began to follow them out of the room.

"Come on, lighten up," Fred said cheerfully. "No one suspects you."

"Dumbledore _must_ have!" I cried.

The twins shook their heads. "Nope," Fred said. "Well, maybe at first, but George and I insisted we didn't ask anyone. We said we knew all our friends would flat out refuse, so why bother?" He grinned cheekily. "So, we saved your ass, really."

"Hardly," I muttered. "I'm sure Dumbledore is going to investigate further. He only dropped it now because he has a lot to deal with. Like Harry! Thats the biggest disaster of all! Who could have put his name in? At least you two know it was me. He has no idea."

"Lilah, Lilah, naive little Lilah," Fred sighed. "Everything in the world isn't like that. Just because Harry's underage and innocent looking doesn't mean he actually is or can't get his name in himself. Look at me and George for instance."

"He said he didn't do it!" I scowled. At this point, I was angrily half-jogging to keep up with the twins as they quickly made their way down to the kitchens. I couldn't believe how ridiculous they were being. Most of the Gryffindors were thrilled at this news. There were three Hogwarts champions and they were all from Gryffindor. Who cared if they were underage, right? Wrong. At least from my perspective as well as a lot of other students, who seemed to think that Fred, George and Harry were all cheaters. And maybe that was somewhat true in Fred and George's case, but I firmly believed Harry had nothing to do with putting his name in. To me, it seemed obvious that someone had set him up. Had I really been the only one to notice his expression when Dumbledore had read off his name?

"Can't you two see how ridiculous and odd this is?" I asked as we neared the kitchens. "And did you see the glare Ron was giving Harry? He's angry about something Harry didn't even do! And I don't think he's all that happy with you two either, come to think of it."

"He'll get over it," Fred said dismissively. "He'll come around and realize how great it all is."

"It _is_ brilliant!" George added. "Harry managed to outsmart Dumbledore and this Goblet of Fire and he's only fourteen! He didn't even get a beard!"

"Firstly, let's not yell this out in the vicinity of the Hufflepuff dorms," I said, skidding to a halt behind the twins as they stopped in front of the painting of the bowl of fruit. "Secondly, I don't think Harry did this to himself."

"Who even cares who did it or how?" Fred said dismissively. "The point is that a Gryffindor has more chances of winning this!" He reached up and tickled the pear. It laughed and the painting swung open. Within seconds we had been surrounded by house elves. Fred and George gave them instructions about what they wanted, and then, just like that, the house elves had gone to prepare it.

"This isn't a competition between houses," I told them. "It's between _schools_." I paused. "If one of you three win, it'll be a _Hogwarts _victory, first and foremost. And, technically, the point of this isn't about competing. It's about getting to know witches and wizards from other countries and making bonds with them."

"Merlin, you sound like a textbook," Fred scoffed, sticking his hands in his pockets and casually staring around the room.

"Fred, please, can't you just take me seriously? I just don't think Harry put his own name in. I don't think he wants this attention."

"It'll be great, Lilah," Fred told me. "Harry's done lots of dangerous stuff before."

"Not in front of a panel of judges, he hasn't," I shot back. "Isn't that what you told Ron only yesterday? Merlin, Fred…what if this were Ron instead? Or Ginny?"

"I'd wonder how they did it and ask why they didn't share their secrets with me," Fred snorted.

"Be serious," I demanded, fighting the urge to reach forward, grab Fred's shirt and give him a good shake.

"Are Miss Lilah and Master Fred arguing?"

I looked down to see Rosie staring up at us wide eyed, Dobby standing just behind her with a few more house elves. They had all the food in their arms, ready to hand over. I hadn't even heard them return.

I smiled softly. "No, Rosie, not exactly. We just…we don't quite agree on something right now. But we're not fighting."

"Yet," Fred said. When I looked up at him, he held up his hands. "Kidding." He smiled down at Rosie. "Thanks for the food. We'll just be taking this back now. We're having a bit of a celebration, you see. George and I, along with our friend Harry, have been—"

"Oh for Merlin's sake," I cried, throwing my hands up and marching from the room in a huff.

"I know, I know," I heard Fred say from behind me. "She's hideous when she's irritated. Looks like some sort of sea monster."

"Shut up, Fred!" I leaned against the wall in a huff, waiting for them to leave the kitchens and catch up to me.

"Rosie doesn't know, Master Weasley," Rosie suddenly said. "Rosie thinks Miss Lilah is very pretty all the time."

I smiled at that, but the laughter that erupted from Fred and George seconds later was enough to make me scowl. "Gits," I called back before deciding not to wait after all. They could walk back without me for all I cared.

* * *

When I finally made my way upstairs to my dorm later, I saw Casper perched on my nightstand, a piece of parchment tied to his foot.

I slipped Casper a treat as I pulled the note free and unrolled it.

_Lilah_, it said, _Happy_ _Birthday_. _I know I haven't written as much as I should have and I'm sorry for that. But I don't want you to believe that I don't think about you constantly because I do. I hope you had an amazing day today and I want to hear all about who got picked as Triwizard champions when I next see you. The good thing about that is that we won't have to wait until Sunday. So if you'll ever so kindly step outside the common room, I'll be able to give you your gifts in person. Love, Oliver._

Grinning, I dropped the letter to my bed and dashed from the room. I squeezed through the crowd of people still celebrating Harry being picked as a champion and pushed open the portrait of the fat lady. Oliver was standing across the hallway leaning against the opposite wall. When he saw me, he broke into a smile.

"Oliver!" I practically squealed, running across the hallway to him. I flung myself into his arms and he spun me around once before setting me down and kissing me.

"Happy Birthday," he muttered, kissing me again.

I sighed. "Thanks. How did you manage to get here?"

"Wrote to McGonagall," Oliver whispered, peppering my shoulder with kisses. "She said she could connect her office fireplace to my flat's just for this one night since usually Hogwarts isn't connected to residential buildings. Security and all that."

I nodded. "That was nice of her. But..."

"But what?" Oliver asked, looking down at me.

"Aren't you busy?" I asked.

"Not at this hour," Oliver snorted. "Professional Quidditch isn't _that_ demanding."

I sighed and ran one of my hands through his hair. "I miss you."

"I miss you too."

"When I'm out for the Christmas holidays can we do something? Go ice skating one night maybe? Or something. It doesn't matter. Whatever. I'm up for anything. I'm just going to need some time away from my house. Some time away to spend with you in particular."

Oliver hesitated. "I don't know. Maybe. But you're certainly welcome to come to my flat."

"Why can't we go out?" I asked.

"Media attention," Oliver answered. "You know that. And believe it or not...fans. They've started showing up for me as opposed to the team as a whole or specifically for my teammates."

"Yeah?" I asked. "Girls mostly?"

Oliver nodded and I smiled.

"Pretty?"

He shook his head. "Hideous. Every single one of them."

I laughed and leaned up to kiss him. "Maybe they'll back off if they know you have a girlfriend."

"No, I'm not telling anyone about you," Oliver said. "No reporters, no fans...At least not yet. I don't want them to ruin us or you. I want to protect you."

"By keeping me a secret?" I asked. "Oliver, you know I don't like that idea."

Oliver shrugged. "More like keeping your life as private as possible." He paused. "I really don't want to get into this argument again," he said. "I know you don't want to hide and I know you want to put us out there on our own terms before Sam can do anything. But it won't _be _on our own terms, no matter what. I'm just worried.

"I know," I whispered.

Oliver smiled and pulled away. He held up a bag that had been dangling from his wrist by the handle. "Happy Birthday," he said.

I took the bag and began digging through the tissue paper. "You didn't have to do this. You showing up here tonight is good enough."

"I know, I _am_ quite an extraordinary gift," Oliver chuckled. "But I think you'll appreciate what's in that bag."

That definitely made me curious. I plunged my hand all the way inside until my fingers connected with something soft. Some kind of fabric. I retracted my arm and pulled out a shirt. At first it looked like a plain black fitted V-neck, but then I saw that there were words on the front.

"'My boyfriend is a Keeper'," I read, breaking into a smile. Underneath the words were two silver broomsticks, crossed at the handle.

"Do you like it?"

"This is great!" I laughed. "I thought you thought it was corny?"

"I do," Oliver said. "A little." He broke into a smile. "But I knew you'd find it funny, so I had a shirt specially made."

"You _didn't_ have to do that," I said, shaking my head and gazing down at the shirt.

"I did," he replied. "What else are you going to wear to my next match against the Holyhead Harpies?"

"What?" I gasped, my head snapping up to look at him.

He reached into his back pocket and produced two tickets. "Best seats in the house for my next home game against the Holyhead Harpies. Two weeks from today. Got permission from McGonagall and Dumbledore for you and Julian to leave for the day. I figured you'd like to bring him along."

I stared at him. "I don't know what to say," I finally whispered.

"Just say thanks," Oliver laughed.

"I love you so much," I said, letting out a giggle as I shook my head in awe.

"That works just as well, if not better," he chuckled, pressing his lips to mine. Then, he pulled away. "Oh, there's one more thing." He began digging into his side pockets looking for something.

"Merlin, Oliver, you've got to stop this. You're kind of spoiling me a bit."

"So?" He asked. "Nothing wrong with that." He finally produced a small box, one that typically contained jewelry. "Here you are."

I took it from him as I stared silently at the black square box. I couldn't believe him. He was so thoughtful, but I didn't expect or feel it was even necessary for him to do all of this for me. I had meant it when I said his company was enough.

"Open it," Oliver prodded.

Gingerly, I pried open the lid. Inside sat a silver necklace with a circular pendant dangling from the chain. I didn't even know how to describe it, though. There were four rounded parts around the edges of the circle that looked like poorly made pretzels or loosely tied shoelaces. Each of these four pieces looked connected in the middle, looking like a knot that happened to tangle just perfectly and be forever captured in silver.

"I never knew tying four people's shoelaces together could be so gorgeous," I whispered, gingerly touching the necklace.

Oliver laughed. "It's a Celtic shield knot," he explained. "It's supposed to symbolize strength, bravery and protection, so I thought it was perfect. You may not see it, but you are very strong and brave."

"I haven't had much to be brave about," I said with a shrug. "It's not like Harry or even Grace or..."

"You've had plenty that you've been brave about," Oliver told me. "Your parents' divorce, practically raising yourself and your brother...even trying to give Sam a chance before he started bribing you. And even now, dealing with that, putting up with me and my crap. Me telling you to be quiet about it, even though you don't seem to see that it's better for you in the long run..." He grinned as I giggled. "You've been plenty brave."

"All that is nothing," I sighed.

"It's not and I wish you'd stop acting like it is," Oliver insisted. "Everyone has fears and worries and problems and sometimes it takes a lot to overcome them. You've done wonderfully overcoming all the stuff that life has handed you personally. So I think that makes you brave."

I smiled and looked back down at the necklace. "Well, thank you."

"And as for the protection bit that the shield is supposed to symbolize," Oliver continued, "I just don't want you to forget that while you're busy taking care of and protecting everyone else, it's okay to need someone to take care of and protect you, too."

I stared up at him, speechless, before letting out another quiet laugh. "Once again, I don't know what to say."

"Once again, just say thank you," Oliver laughed.

I smiled. "Thank you," I whispered. And then, without fully knowing what had come over me, I leaned forward and kissed him more forcefully than I ever had.

Oliver responded almost immediately. One hand gingerly cupped my cheek while the other found my waist. He slid his hand around to my back and pulled me closer to him. A second later, he was spinning me around and gently pushing me up against the wall. I kept the necklace box clasped tightly in my hand, but I wasn't sure what had happened to the shirt and the Quidditch tickets. Probably on the floor somewhere. I'd have to get them later. But right now all I cared about was Oliver.

I sighed as he continued to kiss me, not only on my lips, but all the way down my neck, to my shoulder and back up again.

"You're driving me crazy," I whispered as Oliver kissed the side of my neck, nipping at the skin slightly. I let out a whimper.

"Good," he murmured, his lips traveling back upwards towards my mouth, "because you're driving me crazy, too."

I let out a laugh as I pulled back and looked at Oliver's face. His pupils were dilated, his hair was messy and his lips were swollen. I expected I looked the same way, but I didn't care.

"Harry and the twins got chosen as champions," I blurted out breathlessly. I had no idea why I chose to say that now. I hadn't really meant to, but I think a part of me was desperate to find someone who didn't think either Harry was amazing for putting his own name in, or a cheater for putting his own name in. I needed someone to realize that either claim was absolutely insane.

"What?" Oliver asked. "How is that possible? I thought there was an age restriction. I thought only three champions total were allowed."

"You're right, but they got picked anyway."

"How?" Oliver asked. "Did someone else put their names in for them?"

I hesitated.

"Lilah," Oliver said warningly. "Come on, spill. What do you know?"

I swallowed. "I don't know what happened with Harry, but as for the twins...I did it. I put their names in."

Oliver's eyebrows shot up. "You _what_?"

I looked at him pleadingly. "Oliver, they asked me to do it. And at first I refused, but then they tried themselves anyway and they got beards and-" I stopped my rambling briefly enough to take a deep breath. "I just want to help them so badly. I want them to have enough money to open their shop so they can show everyone that they can do it. But maybe it was irrational to enter them in the tournament illegally, and I've been practically regretting it ever since. And now that they've been chosen..." I shook my head as I trailed off.

"It wasn't irrational to put their names in, Liles," Oliver said. "It was _insane_. You _know_ that was illegal, don't you?"

"_Yes_!" I exclaimed, throwing my hands up and taking a few steps away from him. When I looked up again and met his eyes, I could tell from his reaction that my emotions were plainly etched on my face. His expression had softened and he didn't look as upset anymore. "I'm scared, " I whispered.

Oliver sighed. "Oh, Liles," he said, taking a step towards me and gingerly pulling me into a hug. "I know you were just trying to help, because that's what you do. But putting the twins' names in just wasn't a good idea. The tournament is dangerous. I'm not going to lie to you. And I can't predict the future, so I don't know what the outcome will be. But I do know that the twins are a lot smarter than everyone gives them credit for. You know that too, so all we can do now is hope for the best, I suppose."

I nodded against his chest. "And what about Harry? I actually think we all _really_ need to be worried about him. He looked freaked out beyond belief. If you'd only seen his face...you can't fake that. And he says he didn't put his own name in. But no one believes him. No one believes that Harry wouldn't—and didn't—do this to himself."

"I do," Oliver said quietly. "If Harry said he didn't put his name in, then I believe him."

I nodded before breaking into a smile. "Good answer."

Oliver laughed and leaned forward to kiss my forehead. "I should be getting back," he admitted with a sigh.

I sighed. "Okay. Don't miss me too much." I smiled and looked up at him playfully.

Oliver leaned down to kiss me. "Only if _you_ don't miss _me_ too much."

"Can't you just come back to Hogwarts?" I teased.

Oliver shook his head vigorously. "No way. No matter how much I miss you, I'm kind of glad to be done with school. Sure, there are things I miss about this place, but I certainly don't miss the homework or the exams."

"What do you miss most?" I asked coyly, batting my eyelashes at him as I began playing with the collar of his shirt.

Oliver smiled before leaning in to kiss me. "You," he muttered against my lips.

I giggled. "I was hoping you'd say that."

Oliver laughed. "I really have to go," he said. "Or else McGonagall is going to come looking for me herself to shoo me back into her fireplace."

I groaned and rested my head against his chest. "No," I whispered.

Gently, Oliver pulled away, kissing my forehead as he did so. "I'm sure that if Fred and George got their way, there's a huge party going on in the common room right now. You should go join it."

"I'm not really in the mood," I sighed. "I'm not as thrilled about all of this as everyone else seems to be."

"Yeah, but it's not right to turn down a party," Oliver said. "Free food, free drinks..." He smiled and shrugged.

"Yeah, maybe that's important to _you,_" I giggled.

Oliver smiled. "Go celebrate," he said quietly. "At this point, everything is out of your hands, so you might as well try to relax. What's done is done and if we're lucky, we could come out of this with a Hogwarts champion. And a _Gryffindor_, no less." He leaned forward and gave me a quick kiss on the forehead. "I'll see you Sunday."

I nodded and kissed him goodbye one last time before bending down and gathering up the fallen Quidditch tickets and shirt. Then, I headed for the portrait hole, where I gave the password and paused in the doorway, turning to look at Oliver one last time. "Bye," I whispered with a smile.

"Bye," he answered. "I love you."

"I love you too," I smiled. I gave him one last wave before finally stepping back inside the common room and letting the fat lady's portrait swing shut behind me.

* * *

"So, Lilah, George and I never got to ask you a very important question," Fred said.

It was the first of November, the day after my birthday and the champion selection. The champions were supposed to go to a wand weighing ceremony later on, so the twins and I were passing the time until then with a walk down to the lake.

"You mean how my birthday was?" I asked. "Pretty good, thanks." I smiled cheekily at them.

Fred chuckled. "Well, yeah, there's that, but there's also something else."

"Yes?" I asked.

"We were wondering," George began.

"About your little reunion with Oliver," Fred finished. "You looked happy when you came back into the common room."

"Well, yeah, of course I was," I answered with a laugh as we made ourselves comfortable under a tree by the shimmering water. "My boyfriend surprised me by showing up here at school and he showered me with many very thoughtful gifts." I sighed dramatically and batted my eyelashes. "He's just so chivalrous. You two should take notes."

George laughed as Fred looked at me seriously. "He's been okay, then?" he asked. "He hasn't been neglecting you or anything since he's been out of school and playing professional Quidditch?"

I was quiet. "No," I finally said. "He hasn't neglected me. We see each other once a week and he came for my birthday, didn't he? He didn't have to do that."

"Hey, you were the one who thought he was going to forget," Fred said, holding up his hands.

"But he didn't," I argued.

"Julian said Oliver didn't come over all summer and he was really hoping he would so he could show off his new broom from Sam," Fred said. "I think he was hoping Oliver would be able to give him a few tips."

I scoffed. "I don't want Oliver anywhere near Sam." I paused. "Although, _you_ could always give Julian some tips. You two have been the ones who have played with him at the Burrow all these years. You and Charlie before he left for Romania."

"True," Fred said with a grin.

"How's your mother?" I asked sympathetically. Upon hearing the news about the twins, Mrs. Weasley had naturally been quite concerned. She had written to both the twins and Dumbledore constantly, trying to figure out what had happened and how to stop it. She had even sesnt the twins a Howler, berating them for doing something so completely idiotic. I had sunk as far down in my seat as I could, feeling as if she were actually yeling at me, seeing as it _was_ my fault. The twins however, had simply smiled and dusted the shredded remains of the Howler off the table when it was finished. As for Dumbledore, he had grimly told Mrs. Weasley that once a champion was picked, they had to compete. Those were the rules. And the twins, in an attempt to save my neck, had told their mother that they had managed to fool the Age Line and get their names in. I don't think she believed it. In fact, I knew she didn't believe it. It was only a matter of time before she found out it was me probably.

"She's still determined to figure out how George and I managed to enter," Fred shrugged. "But don't worry. She won't find out it was you. If she comes to the conclusion that an older student did it for us, we'll tell her it's someone she doesn't know. Don't worry, Liles." He glanced at me. "We've got you covered."

I sighed, not totally convinced, as Fred picked up a pebble and skipped it out across the lake. "I heard a reporter and a photographer are going to be at the wand weighing ceremony today," he said.

I smirked. "Aw, Freddie, you're nervous?" I picked up a pebble and tried to skip it over the water like Fred had, but it just plunked down once and sunk to the bottom as if I simply dropped it there. I made a face and Fred chuckled.

"You've never been able to do that," he said, tossing another pebble across the water where it bounced one, two, three, four times across the shimmering surface. "Anyway, no, I'm not nervous. Kind of excited, really."

"Figured you would be," I said. "This is all kind of, well-you're just-you're in your element in a way, I suppose."

Before Fred could answer, I happened to glance over towards the castle's front doors and gasped when I saw who was walking out of them.

"Lilah?" George asked. "Lie, what's wrong?"

"I don't believe this," I said. "Sam's here."

"What?" the twins asked, turning to see where I was looking. I pointed anyway, towards Sam, who was walking across the lawn now. He had his camera and was nodding at something the woman he was walking with was saying. The woman had blonde hair, perfectly twisted in some kind of updo. She had on red-framed glasses, and clutched a matching red handbag that also matched her red shoes.

"That must be the reporter," I said. "Sam's carrying his camera, which means he must be here photographing the champions." I ducked my head as he glanced our way. "Don't let him see me."

"Really, Lilah?" Fred asked with a roll of his eyes.

"He's going to try and keep an eye on me," I muttered.

"What's that?" Fred asked.

I was quiet. "Nothing, forget it," I said hurriedly, grabbing my bag and standing up. "I'm going to head back. Lots of studying to do. I'll see you guys at dinner later."

And with that, I slung my bag over my shoulder and hurried back towards the castle before Sam would have time to notice me. Part of me wondered whether he really was here on an assigment or if he had come here trying to make sure I really did keep my toes in line. Well, too bad for him, I was doing just fine and he wasn't going to find anything bad to write about me. Not if I could help it. I avoided him at home, so I could surely avoid him just as well, if not better, here at Hogwarts.

* * *

About a week later, the article on the tournament appeared in the paper. It was written by a woman named Rita Skeeter, who I assumed was the woman I had seen with Sam the previous week.

And actually, the article was more about Harry being chosen as champion than anything else. It didn't help his case at all. In fact, it only made everyone who had been irritated at him become even more irritated.

The moment I read the article, I got an immediate sense of the kind of person Rita was. She was anything but truthful, that was for sure. You could just tell she embellished. And then the way she squeezed in Fleur and Krum's names in the last sentence (and even misspelled them)! Fred and George weren't mentioned at all which made them mad at first. After that, they took to poking fun at the article and all was well. With them anyway.

I didn't like that Rita Skeeter was not only making up lies but drawing attention to the fact that three underage wizards had made it into the tournament, and two of them had been chosen because of me. I wanted it to all die down, even though I was fully aware that it would be impossible. And to make things worse, Sam was associating himself with this woman. Figured. She'd probably gladly write rubbish article after rubbish article about me if he asked her. He probably wanted me to realize this, too, in order to scare me. Well, I wasn't scared. I didn't think I had much to worry about. Besides the times I snuck down to the kitchens with Fred and George, I supposed. Or when we snuck down to Honeydukes. Or when we pulled pranks on Slytherins or Filch or Mrs. Norris. Or when I illegally put their names in the Goblet of Fire.

This was going to be difficult. I was fairly certain the twins wouldn't rat me out to Sam, but I was definitely worried. Also, I was going to have to make sure Sam never saw me out after hours with the twins. Or I'd just have to stay in the common room all the time, which I didn't want to do. I loved spending time with Fred and George. Besides, if I stopped spending time with them, they'd start asking questions and I didn't know if I wanted to or even should tell them about what Sam was doing. The good thing, though, was that he'd really only be here during the tasks. He wasn't staying at Hogwarts or anything. I'd heard he and Rita were staying in Hogsmeade, which still wasn't ideal, but at least it meant he wouldn't be in the castle all the time.

"Listen to this," Fred said now as he held the paper up in front of his face. It was breakfast and the mail had just arrived about fifteen minutes ago. "'I suppose I get my strength from my parents'," he read. "'I know they'd be very proud of me if they could see me now. Yes, sometimes at night I still cry about them, I'm not ashamed to admit it. I know nothing during the tournament will hurt me because they'll be watching over me'." He set the paper down with a loud laugh. "Oh Merlin, that's ridiculous."

"It's not funny, Fred," I told him, scowling at the paper.

"You know this isn't true, right?" Fred asked, still laughing. "Harry doesn't really cry over his parents every night. You don't need to go sit with him and make sure he's okay and take him under your wing or anything."

I glared at him. "Of course I know it's not true! It's entirely fabricated and only talks about Harry! She's only making people hate him more."

"Rubbish, everyone knows this isn't real," Fred scoffed. "You'd have to be an idiot to not see that. I mean, come on, '_I know nothing during the tournament will hurt me because they'll be watching over me_'? Harry would never say something like that."

"I know that just as much as you know that and the people who know Harry know that. But people who don't know Harry well don't know that. And everyone is going to eat it all up because they're upset that Harry got chosen when he wasn't supposed to."

"We were too," George said, "And I don't see an article about us."

"It's because we aren't _famous_, Georgie," Fred sighed.

"Yet," George added, sticking a piece of bacon in his mouth.

Fred smiled before switching the subject back to the article. "What'd you think about the bit where she brought Granger into things?"

George laughed into his cereal. "The only thing that made it better was how livid Granger was about it."

Fred cleared his throat dramatically before he picked up the newspaper and resumed reading. "'Harry has at last found love at Hogwarts. His close friend, Colin Creevey, says that Harry is rarely seen out of the company of one Hermione Granger, a stunningly pretty Muggle-born girl, who, like Harry, is one of the top students in the school'." Fred chuckled again and set the paper down. "Wow, that's…something."

I rolled my eyes. "It's really not funny, Fred. She fabricated all that stuff about them. How do you think they feel?"

"No one really thinks they're dating. We all see them every day. Harry and Hermione are about as in love with each other as Snape is with me and George. It's obvious."

"Well, it's clearly not obvious to these same people that Harry didn't put his own name in!" I exclaimed. "Have you seen how awkward and uncomfortable this whole thing has made him?"

"How could a tournament like this make anyone awkward and uncomfortable?" Fred asked with a snort. "Honestly, Lie, it's entirely possible that Harry did this himself or that he asked an older student to do it for him. That's what George and I did and it worked, didn't it?"

"Yes, but who would he ask? It's not like Harry has many close friends over seventeen."

Fred shrugged. "Who cares? Lilah, what's done is done. Harry's competing. George and I are competing. Why don't you just...sit back and watch the show?"

Letting out a huff of frustration, I stood up. "I don't understand why you can't grasp that this is weird! If you'd just grow up for a moment, you'd see that this tournament isn't just about the adrenaline and the eternal glory!"

"Merlin, Lilah, stop sucking the fun out of everything," Fred sighed, resting his chin on his hand.

I sighed. "Oh, honestly." With that, I sighed and marched out of the room.

* * *

**A/N: I realize this may be one of my longest chapters yet, but a lot goes on. Hopefully everyone likes it. I realize I've done something very, very different with this chapter and I'm still a bit nervous about it, but I'm also excited. I hope everyone else is too!**


	38. Chapter 38

Angelina didn't speak to Fred for a whole two days. She was furious that they had not only gotten their names in the Goblet of Fire, but also a little peeved that they had gotten chosen over her. She told me all of this in quite a huge rant the day after the twins had been picked. Why itt ook her a whole day, I didn't know. Maybe she was just so mad, it took her a day to sort her thoughts out. Anyway, after she was done, I had finally caved and told her the truth. That I had put the twins' names in. She blinked at me before laughing in my face. When I told her it was true, she went off on me and worked herself up again. She didn't talk to me for a whole day after that until she finally calmed down and took a whole new approach.

"I'm not even going to work myself up about this," she said calmly the next night as we sat in front of the fireplace. "Not even going to worry. It happened, it's done, and I'm not going to worry. You all made your choices and now you'll have to live with them. In fact, I'm even glad I didn't get picked because that would be more stress on my plate. Now, I can sit back, relax and enjoy the show." She let out a sigh and leaned back in the couch as she gave us an overly calm-and eighty percent forced-smile.

Fred rolled his eyes. "Please, Ange, you won't enjoy it. You worry too much to enjoy it. You and Lilah are going to make yourselves sick over it all."

"Shut up," Ange and I said together, sending glares Fred's way. After we both spoke, we glanced at each other and smiled briefly. I knew Ange was still a bit mad at me for what I had done, but I think she was more angry with the twins. She knew it was their idea in the first place and while she didn't like that I had listened to them, she was upset that the twins obviously couldn't see what a big deal the tournament was and what competing would mean.

"Someone needs to worry about this enough for you and your brother," Angelina said wearily, rubbing her eyes. "You know, since you're not concerned at all."

"We want this, Ange," Fred whispered pleadingly. "And like you said, it's done. Can't you just support us at this point? You can't change what happened now. It's too late. So you might as well cheer us on. Start working on your banners for the first task now." He smiled and nudged her, successfully getting the tiniest of smiles out of his girlfriend.

"I have to say, it really would be nice if you won," she said.

"Dumbledore said since our names came out together," George began, "Fred and I will compete together."

"Which a lot of people aren't going to like," I said.

"No, but rules are rules," George singsonged.

I rolled my eyes. "You've never believed that."

"No, but this time it means George and I could win," Fred said. "Two heads are better than one."

"Or none," George added.

I shot them a look and shook my head. "Weirdos," I said under my breath before going back to my Charms essay.

"We could really win this, Lie," George said excitedly. "Fred and I have lots of skills. We're good Quidditch players. We're good at inventing and thinking outside the box."

"But you don't pay attention in any class and rely on other people to help you," Angelina said.

"Not true," George said. "We've never failed a class, remember? We _do_ do our own work. We're just choosy about which subjects we care about the most. Whatever will help us open our joke shop. And since opening our joke shop now involves us winning this prize money-and also eternal glory-we're going to do whatever it takes to win."

"Even go to the library?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Fred and George both hesitated and looked at each other with wide eyed faces. They clearly hadn't considered the library an option. They were just talking off the top of their heads. Or they had other ideas to prepare themselves for the tasks. Ideas I probably didn't want to know about.

"If that's what it takes," Fred finally said, setting his jaw and nodding once.

"Wow," Angelina said with a laugh. "You must really want that money."

"_Need_," Fred corrected. "We _need _that money."

* * *

The next Saturday, Julian and I found ourselves standing in front of Dumbledore's desk while he turned an old quill into a Portkey. We were about to head to Oliver's match against the Holyhead Harpies and I was about to jump out of my skin with excitement. I had seen Oliver play Quidditch loads of times at school, but today was different. Today, I'd be watching him play professionally, as part of a real team. I couldn't wait. I was wearing the shirt Oliver had gotten for me, as well as the necklace, which I hadn't taken off since my birthday. I couldn't wait to meet up with Oliver after the match and for him to see it.

"We have arranged it with Mr. Wood," Dumbledore began now, finishing up with the Portkey, "that he will send you back through the Floo network. We've had his fireplace connected with Professor McGonagall's for tonight so that he will be able to send you back this evening. We'll expect you just after dinner."

I nodded. "Thank you, sir."

Dumbledore smiled. "I do hope you two enjoy yourselves. It should be a very good match."

"I hope so, Professor," Julian said, bouncing up and down a bit.

Dumbledore gestured towards the Portkey. "Whenever you're ready."

I looked at Julian and took a deep breath. "On the count of three?"

He nodded. "Okay."

"One…two…three!"

We both reached out and touched our fingers to the old quill. Immediately, I felt a jerking sensation before we were being hurriedly whisked miles away to the pitch where the match would take place. Like at the World Cup, there were areas nearby where Portkeys were cleared to appear, but it was nowhere near as crowded as the World Cup had been. There was still a pretty decent crowd though, and I found myself staring around in wonder as Julian and I made our way to our seats. They were as amazing as Oliver had said. They were right near the Puddlemere goalposts. I'd be able to see Oliver perfectly and also have a pretty decent view of most of the match.

"I can't believe Oliver gave you these tickets," Julian finally said, staring around. "This is great."

"He knew I wanted to see him play at least one professional match," I said. "But hopefully I'll be able to come to many more once school's out."

We didn't have to wait very long until the match began. The commentator introduced both teams as they walked out onto the pitch. He then read off each individual name. Every name was met with a loud cheer—the Puddlemere players even more so since it was a home game—and I couldn't decide how I felt when the commentator announced Oliver's name and the loud sound of cheers filled the air.

Part of me loved it. I was so proud of him and I knew even from my spot in the stands that he was beaming at the response from the fans. That part of me wanted to tell everyone who would listen that he was my boyfriend. But another part of me didn't want to share him. I didn't want so many people to be so thrilled to see him and I didn't want him to be happy about it. Part of me—the selfish part that I knew everyone had—wanted him all to myself.

And ultimately, I knew that was what he was trying to protect _me_ from, too. He didn't want lies printed about us and he didn't want our relationship to be pried into. I guess now, seeing him in the midst of all his fans, I could understand it a bit more.

The match began and Oliver flew to his spot at the goalposts. As the referee took his position in the middle of the pitch and prepared to toss the Quaffle up to the Chasers, I stared right at Oliver, who was looking in my direction, searching the stands for me. He knew where our seats were, so he found us pretty quickly. When our eyes met, I saw him smile even wider. I smiled back and gave him a tiny wave. He winked in response before grinning at Julian, who was cheering wildly and waving a tiny Puddlemere United flag. I saw Oliver chuckle to himself before he turned to focus on the match.

Down on the pitch, the referee threw the Quaffle into the air. Another referee opened the box of Quidditch supplies. The Bludgers and the Snitch were released and the match officially began.

* * *

Puddlemere won, two hundred and forty to one hundred. Puddlemere's Seeker had caught the Snitch after a few close misses due to a few well aimed Bludgers.

Oliver played amazingly. I could see him wince with every goal he missed, though. Ten winces total. But he had saved nine goals before the Snitch was caught. So he saved one less than he let in. Not a big deal at all. I personally thought he did wonderfully.

Julian and I filed out of the stands with the others. When we got down to the ground, we looked at each other. We weren't exactly sure where we were meeting Oliver. We hadn't been told and we had forgotten to ask, which seemed silly now.

"Let's follow them," Julian suggested, pointing to a group of girls, who looked to be in their late teens. They were giggling and were headed back around to the opposite side of the pitch.

"I'll bet the changing rooms are back there," I said, nodding. "Oliver mentioned that fans will go line up for autographs after matches."

"All teenage girls?" Julian whispered, nudging me and smirking.

"Shut up," I muttered, looking away as my stomach twisted unpleasantly. "And no, he said fans of all ages."

"Probably just to make you feel better," Julian said with a grin.

I let out a huff. "Come on," I said, marching away after the group of girls.

Eventually, we came to the little attachment that connected to the side of the pitch. It looked like a slightly large garden shed, but I think Oliver had said there was an Undetectable Enlargement charm on it that made the inside a bit bigger and more comfortable. They just couldn't have the outside be too big. It was also connected to the pitch so that they could just walk right out onto the grass from the changing rooms, but there was also another back door that they entered and exited from when they arrived and left matches.

There were actually already quite a few fans waiting outside the changing rooms. There were a few older fans and a few guys, but not many. Most of them were girls who were as young as seventeen or eighteen, fresh out of school. Anyone younger would actually be in school, I figured. Except Julian and me. It made me feel good to be the exception because I was dating one of the players.

I noticed then that there were some reporters and photographers waiting for the team to come out as well. Just seeing them made me automatically think of Sam and I scanned their group, terrified that he might be there. He wasn't. Thankfully.

Julian and I found a spot at the end of the row of fans, right up front next to the rope blocking us from getting too close to the changing rooms. And then we began to wait. We even pulled our tickets back out so we'd look natural like we were really just waiting for the team to sign something for us.

"What does your shirt say?"

I turned to see a girl standing next to me. She was tall, with long, curly blonde hair, lots of freckles, and crystal clear blue eyes. She looked to be about eighteen and she was smiling at me.

"Er," I began, uncertainly turning towards her so that she could read it. I didn't really want her to know I was the girlfriend of a player and I didn't think that Oliver wanted that either from what he'd said. But I couldn't think of a good excuse not to show her at the moment. I hated being put on the spot like that. My head would just go blank and I'd only think of something I could have said way after the fact.

"'My boyfriend is a Keeper'," she read. "Cute. What school does he play at? Hogwarts?"

"Uh…yeah, Hogwarts," I said. It wasn't exactly a lie.

"He must be so mad that you're already done with school and have the free time to come here while he has to be stuck learning how to change a match into a needle." She rolled her eyes. Then, she smiled at me again. "Although, he did score with an older girl who's already out of school, so he must feel pretty lucky."

"Yeah," I said slowly, staring at her as I tried to keep up. She thought my shirt referenced another boy back at Hogwarts. She assumed I was out of school already. I guess it wasn't too far off for her to guess that. I would be eighteen next year after all. I was older than most of my classmates because of where my birthday fell. I was actually a bit surprised that she didn't ask about Julian, but maybe she didn't care. Maybe all she did care about was talking to another girl about how cute the players were.

"You a fan of Oliver Wood?" she asked, tilting her head towards the changing rooms. "I'm guessing that's why you had the shirt made. Your boyfriend's a Keeper and so is Oliver, so it'll be a good way to start a conversation with him while he's signing your ticket, right?" She laughed. "You could ask him for some tips to give your boyfriend."

I looked at Julian, who was looking in the other direction, holding back a laugh.

"I'd do the same thing, if I had thought of it," the girl continued. "I've been trying to think of something normal to say to him for days. I'm having trouble coming up with something other than incoherent gushing or just telling him that I love him. I mean, I don't want to embarrass myself."

I gaped at her. It was so strange to hear that coming from a stranger. Strange to hear her say she loved him. I knew she didn't really love him like I did, but still…it was weird that she even loved him in any way at all. It was finally hitting me that he had real live _fans_.

I didn't get to talk to the girl anymore because a shriek sounded from the other end of the row. The back door had opened and the team was filing out. The reporters immediately started yelling to get the players' attention and the photographers' cameras were going off with multiple flashes.

I smiled when I saw Oliver was first. He shyly smiled at the fans, his cheeks turning red as he made his way over and started signing the backs of tickets. I watched him relax a bit after a moment and smile more naturally as he laughed and conversed with the fans, signing tickets and leaning in closer as a fan would spell her name for him so he could, I'm assuming, use her name in the autograph and make it more personal. _For So-and-So, Best wishes, Oliver Wood_, or something equally as generic. Personal, but generic. I hoped.

I couldn't think that way, though. Oliver loved me. Sure, he was clearly very thankful for his fans and he was obviously treating them with a lot of genuine kindness, which made me happy and extremely proud. I expected nothing less from him. But as I said, I was still new to the concept of sharing him with all of these strangers.

I found myself holding my breath as Oliver came closer and closer. I suddenly felt ridiculous. I felt foolish. Standing here in a line of screaming girls just to see my boyfriend. I felt strange and just wanted him to be done so we could go back to his flat and we could feel normal again.

Soon, Oliver was standing in front of the blonde girl who had spoken to me.

"Hi," she said, her voice coming out in a dreamy sigh. She was gushing, doing exactly what she hadn't wanted to do. Ha.

"Hi," Oliver answered with a smile, gently taking her ticket from her hand. "Did you enjoy the match?"

"Oh, yes," the girl said. She was practically giving him googly eyes. I wanted to push her out of the way, jump over the rope and pointedly kiss my boyfriend. But I couldn't.

"I'm glad," Oliver was saying now. "Who should I make this out to?" He held up the ticket.

"Vanessa," she answered, watching with a goofy grin as Oliver began to sign the ticket.

"Vanessa," he repeated. "Pretty name."

At this, I loudly cleared my throat. Vanessa glanced at me. "Allergy season," I muttered, looking the other way. As I did so, I glanced at Oliver, who was busy signing away. His mouth twitched into a smile, though and I saw his shoulders shake once with silent laughter, but then he composed himself and looked back at Vanessa.

"Here you go," he said, presenting her ticket back to her. "Thanks for coming today."

"You're such a great player," Vanessa blurted out. "I wish I could play Quidditch like you do."

Oliver smiled. "Takes practice," he said. "Even I wasn't born playing like this, as much as I'd like to say I was."

Vanessa giggled. "Well, thanks," she said, holding up her ticket.

"You're welcome," Oliver answered.

Vanessa turned and looked down the line as Nick, Oliver's roommate made his way towards her. He was still a few people down, though, but Vanessa was clearly waiting anxiously. I fought the urge to laugh before looking at Oliver, who had turned to me.

"Hey," I said, suddenly feeling nervous. Gross, the fans were rubbing off on me.

"Hey," Oliver said with a smile. "Did you enjoy the match?"

I nodded. "You were amazing. As usual."

"Thanks," Oliver said, taking my ticket from my hands. "Who should I make this out to?"

I snorted and rolled my eyes. "Funny, Olls."

Oliver just stared at me and blinked. I blinked back. Hold on. He was serious? My stomach dropped.

"Who should I make it out to?" he repeated. This time, he glanced at not only Vanessa, but the reporters and photographers who had turned up. The reporters were still trying to get the attention of some of the players while the photographers were still taking pictures. There was no way that they—even the ones looking at Oliver—could hear us talking in ways that suggested we knew each other. We would whisper if we had to.

But here Oliver was, pretending he didn't know me so that nobody would overhear. Asking me the same question he asked Vanessa, not because he cared about my answer but because it made him look friendly. I was his girlfriend. He was supposed to be in love with me and now he was acting like I was a stranger—as if I were one of these overeager fans.

I blinked at him a few more times, my mouth hanging open in shock as I felt all my hurt emotions well up behind my eyes. "I—uh-," I stammered. I closed my mouth and swallowed. "Forget it, I have to go," I said, turning and rapidly walking away from Oliver. I made it halfway back to the front of the pitch before I heard footsteps behind me and Julian calling my name.

"Lilah, wait for me!"

I didn't wait, though. I kept going until I reached the front of the pitch, now deserted. I plunked down in the empty chair of the man who had been collecting Portkeys earlier and rested my chin in my hands as I finally waited for my brother to catch up.

"I see you got your autograph," I muttered bitterly, pointing at Julian's ticket where I could see Oliver's familiar handwriting. The curl at the top of the 'O', the upward slant on the line at the top of the 'J' in Julian's name. I knew that handwriting better than anyone here. I'd seen that handwriting filling up pages of notes and filling in answers to study guides for exams. I'd seen that handwriting on multiple letters addressed to me. I'd memorized the way he wrote every letter of my name, all straight lines and edges, a nice contrast to the curved, rounded ones of my own handwriting.

It was, I realized, just another thing about him I had to share. Girls from all over would be staring at their autographs, committing the way he wrote their name to memory, tracing their fingers over the straight lines of each and every letter. It made me no different from them. I could practically feel myself fading away into the large pool of fans who were getting some of the same privileges I had. Even if it was something as small as memorizing Oliver's handwriting.

Now, Julian thrust my own ticket back at me and I could see now that it also had writing on it.

_Wait for me at the front of the pitch,_ it said.

"Why should we?" I snapped.

"Because he's our way back to school, remember? We're taking the Floo back from his fireplace, but we can't even go until after dinner."

"We can go, we're just not expected," I told him. "If we want to go back early, we can. We're allowed."

"But _we_ don't want to," Julian argued. "You want to."

"What do _you_ want to do?" I asked.

"I want to spend the rest of the day with Oliver," Julian said. "He should be here soon. He had to answer a few questions from the reporters and take a few pictures with teammates."

"Oh and you found all this out because he talked to you?" I asked. "He acted like he knew you? He didn't ask you for your name when he definitely already knows it?"

Julian sighed and opened his mouth to speak, but then I heard rapid footsteps coming towards us. I looked up to see Oliver running in our direction.

Scowling, I stood and began walking away as quickly as possible.

"Lilah, wait!" Oliver pleaded from behind me.

I ignored him and instead chose to keep walking. I didn't know where I was walking to, but it was definitely not towards Oliver.

"Lilah…stop for a minute!" Oliver called, closer this time. He reached out and grabbed my arm.

I swallowed the lump in my throat as I turned to look at him. "Why did you do that?" I whispered. "What you did back there."

Oliver reached out and took my hand. "Can we talk back at my flat?"

I hesitated and looked at Julian, who met my eyes and nodded slowly, urging me to say yes.

"Fine," I said, looking back at Oliver.

Oliver nodded and looked over both shoulders to make sure no one was around before he pulled me to a spot in the shade of the pitch.

"Oh, this is ridiculous," I muttered as Julian followed us over.

Oliver pursed his lips and took my hand as Julian grabbed his other wrist. A second later, we had Apparated to a spot outside Oliver's flat. But not just any spot—an alleyway. He stuck his head out into the street and looked around before quickly leading us inside the building.

Once we were in, he looked at Julian. "Why don't you go grab the chess set in my room and set it up in the living room? I need to talk to your sister alone, but when we're done talking, you and I can play a game. Then we'll have dinner, okay?"

"Okay," Julian said with a smile. He started to race down the hallway before he paused and turned back towards us. "Which one's your room?" he asked.

Oliver smiled. "Last one on the right," he said. Once Julian had left again, he turned back to me, his smile fading. "Do you want a drink? Water? Pumpkin juice?"

"Water's fine," I said curtly.

I followed him to the kitchen, where he poured two glasses of water and handed one to me. I saw him swallow. "Lilah…" he began with a sigh.

I let out a bitter laugh. "I don't get it, Oliver," I said. I took a sip of my water and set the glass on the counter before leaning back against it and crossing my arms over my chest. "I don't get why you had to treat me like I meant nothing to you."

Oliver's face fell. He shook his head. "The look on your face when I asked who I should make the autograph out to. It practically broke my heart."

"Then why did you say it?" I asked.

Oliver sighed and set his own water glass down before rubbing his hands over his face and sighing. Eventually, he looked back up at me. "People could've heard. If I acted like I knew you, they would have caught on. I'm trying to protect you."

"From what?" I asked, even though I knew perfectly well what.

Oliver let out a laugh of disbelief. "Aren't you the one who was complaining about Rita Skeeter's article last weekend? Aren't you the one who said how her lies are making things tough for Harry?"

"Yeah," I said, "I did say that and I do feel that way."

"Do you want that to be you?" Oliver asked. "Do you want some reporter to make something up about you? About us? Do you want Sam to find out that you came today and turn it into a story about how you skipped school?"

"I got permission."

"Reporters don't care! None of them do. All they care about is a story. And Sam's at Hogwarts now! He's _right there_. You have to be careful. I wouldn't test him on his promise. Do you want to risk him following through? Do you want to risk him finding out about you putting the twins' names in the Goblet of Fire?"

I flushed a deep red and looked away. "No," I murmured. "I don't."

"That's what I'm trying to protect you from," Oliver whispered. "Not only him, but all the other reporters, too. We have to be careful." He paused. "You probably shouldn't have worn that shirt today either."

"Then why did you give it to me?" I snapped, looking up at him in agitation. "Why did you give it to me and why did you tell me to wear it?"

He turned away and ran his hands through his hair, clearly frustrated with me. I felt bad because I knew he was only doing this because he cared. But the bigger part of me was just as frustrated with him as he was with me. I hated having to watch everything I did. I didn't want to act like I didn't know Oliver. And he had caught me off guard earlier.

"I gave it to you because...I love you and knew you'd enjoy it. Maybe I wasn't thinking clearly because at the same time, I want to keep you safe and protected and away from those people, especially the ones like Rita Skeeter," Oliver finally said, turning around and looking at me pleadingly. "They can be nasty. And especially with Sam bribing you."

"I'm a big girl, Oliver," I said quietly.

He shook his head. "I know that, but you've seen what Harry's been going through. And now even Hermione's being dragged into it. Just because they've been _seen _together, people assume they're dating."

"But you and I _are_ dating," I said.

"Yes, but they'll drag you into the limelight if they find out. That's the other point," Oliver answered. "It'll be crazy enough as it is and then if they decide to write anything untrue about you…it's maddening. I want your life to stay the way it is. Private and no one's business but yours." He hesitated. "And I worry about how those fans would react if they found out I had a girlfriend. A lot of them are wonderful, but some of them can get…crazy. I've heard stories…."

"Like what?" I asked.

Oliver paused. "I've told you. Nick said his ex-girlfriend was getting some nasty letters in the mail. Fans didn't like it. They were jealous."

"Why, because they seriously thought they could have Nick to themselves? I mean, they have to think logically."

"Deep down I think they know it's not logical," Oliver shrugged. "But…they look up to us, especially some of the younger ones. And I guess part of them gets disappointed."

"I'll say," I snorted. I paused. "That Vanessa girl seemed pretty into you today." I gave him a look, raising my eyebrow as I did so. "_And_ she has a pretty name."

Oliver smiled shyly and blushed. "I just said that to mess with you and ruffle your feathers a little bit."

"So in other words, you said it to be an ass," I said, smiling a bit myself.

Oliver gave me a guilty smile. "If it helps, she was too tall for my liking. She was almost as tall as me." He looked me up and down. "Your height is much better."

I stared back at him as my smile faded. "So, what are we going to do, Olls?" I whispered. "We can't just pretend we don't know each other in public and hide out in your flat the rest of the time."

Oliver stared back at me, biting his lip. "I don't know."

"Were you going to take me and Julian out for dinner or were we just going to hide out here?"

Oliver swallowed. "You want to go out?"

I shrugged, flinging my arms out a bit before letting them clap down against my sides again. "Yeah, I'd like to. I understand where you're coming from. I really do. But I don't want to have to hide all the time. We can't do that. It's not logical and it's not fair. We can't live in fear."

Oliver nodded as he sighed. "I know, and I'm sorry…but I just. I can't let you get hurt."

"I'm a big girl, Olls," I insisted again, more firmly this time. "I can handle it. I've been hurt before."

"I know," he whispered, "but I don't want you to be hurt again. Not on my watch." He paused. "But…let's just stay in for dinner tonight. I'll cook for you. Anything you'd like. We actually have lots of food. Way too much if you ask me. Totally not what you'd expect of two guys." When he saw my raised eyebrow, he smiled. "My mother. Insists we go shopping for food once a week and if we don't—or even if we do—she sends over little care packages of more stuff. It's like she doesn't trust us!"

I smiled. "Can you make grilled cheese?"

"Grilled cheese?" Oliver repeated. "I could make you anything you'd like. Honestly, Liles, I could make you the fanciest dinner you could imagine. My mother sent over _steak_ the other day. Last week, she sent _lobster_. Can you imagine me and Nick sitting around eating _lobster_?"

I giggled. "Did she send over a tablecloth and candlesticks too? And some romantic music to set the mood?"

Oliver groaned. "I half expected her to. But seriously, we still have the lobster and the steak….I have candles. No tablecloth though. And as for music…lots of fast paced song options. Nothing romantic."

"We can't get too romantic," I said. "We still have Julian here, remember? And he's probably waiting for you in the living room to play chess with him."

Oliver smiled. "Merlin, he's been so quiet and patient this whole time." He paused. "He's a good kid, Lilah."

I sighed and smiled. "I know." It was quiet between us for a moment before I spoke again. "You don't have to make up for anything, Olls," I finally said with a heavy sigh. "You don't have to make this fancy just because you want to make up for not going out. It's fine. I get why you don't want to."

Oliver shook his head and looked down at his hand, now resting on the countertop. He slowly drummed his fingers against it. "No, it's not okay," he whispered. "I know where you're coming from, too." He looked back up at me. "Lilah, I love you and I don't know what to do. I want to keep you safe, but I want you to be happy."

I shrugged my shoulders half-heartedly. "Look, I am happy, just as long as I'm with you. Here, out in public, it doesn't really matter. Maybe I was overreacting."

Oliver let out a breathy laugh as he smiled and shook his head. "No, you weren't. You've put up with me and my crap since day one. My Quidditch craziness back at school, my inability to balance things properly…and now all of this. Being a professional. Being….famous." He swallowed and shook his head as if the word were foreign to him. "The way I treated you earlier…you didn't deserve that. I'm so sorry." He half-smiled. "I did make a promise that I wouldn't forget about you, didn't I?"

I smiled and looked away for a second before looking back up at him. "I'm sorry, too. I know you're trying to protect me. I appreciate it. Honestly. You're so amazing, Oliver, and I'm lucky to have you."

Oliver smiled. He stepped forward until he was standing in front of me. He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, his movements slow and deliberate and gentle like always. His eyes searched my face as he slid his hand down my cheek, brushing his thumb over my lower lip. His eyes darted downwards as my lips parted before he looked up to meet my eyes again.

"Oliver?" I said quietly, trying to keep my breathing level.

"Yeah?" he whispered back hoarsely.

"Just kiss me already."

There was a moment of complete and utter stillness, as if life around us had been paused. And then Oliver moved forward, his lips meeting mine in one swift, but still gentle movement. I wrapped my arms around his neck as his hands found my waist. He hoisted me up onto the counter without breaking the kiss and stood in between my legs, his hands reaching up to cup my cheeks in his hands.

"Oliver, I thought you were going to come play chess with me!" Julian suddenly called from the next room. "And instead you're too busy snogging my sister!"

Oliver pulled away from me and turned his head slightly towards the living room as I giggled into his neck.

"How do you know that's what we're doing?" Oliver called back.

"I'm not stupid!" Julian answered.

"Go," I said, leaning forward to kiss his cheek. "I'll worry about dinner. I can make my own grilled cheese…and one for you, too. If you want one that is. Maybe you're too _famous_ for them now. Maybe the celebrity Quidditch player _is_ in fact all about eating lobster and steak every night."

Oliver snorted. "Are you any good at making them?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Grilled cheeses, I mean."

I smirked and nodded my head slowly. "Very, _very_ good."

Oliver smiled and leaned a bit closer. "If I'm being honest here...I'd love a grilled cheese more than anything."

I rolled my eyes and gave him another quick kiss before gently pushing against his chest. "Go," I urged. "I'll take care of it. You go bond with Jules some more."

"We're okay?" Oliver asked, picking up my hand and kissing the back of it, keeping his eyes on mine the whole time.

I nodded. "We're fine."

"Okay," Oliver said with a smile, dropping my hand and backing out of the room. "Have fun." He gestured around the kitchen.

"You too," I said, tilting my head towards the living room.

Oliver grinned and continued to slowly back out of the room. At the doorway, he leaned against it and just smiled at me.

"What?" I asked with a giggle.

He shook his head as he continued to smile. "Nothing," he said with a shrug.

And with that, he backed the rest of the way out of the room, still smiling and leaving me in charge of dinner.

* * *

I was doing my best to steer clear of Sam while at school. So far, I hadn't really seen him since the wand weighing ceremony considering he wasn't really hanging around school. He had come to help cover the ceremony, and now there wouldn't be anything to cover until the first task. But we had seen him in Hogsmeade on this month's trip and I had panicked and avoided him, confusing my friends in the process, especially the twins, who had already met him and found nothing all that bizarre about him. According to them, he'd been cool when they met at my house and he'd been cool at the wand weighing ceremony, even asking about me. But I figured he would He was making sure I was staying out of trouble.

As for the tournament, the first task was drawing nearer and nearer, but the thing was that none of the champions had been given any clue as to what it was, which sounded ridiclous to me. How could they expect them to wing something that was sure to be so dangerous? But then, at least the way I saw it, luck struck on the Thursday before the task. Professor McGonagall caught up to the Weasleys-all of them. Ron, Ginny and the twins-at dinner and told them to follow her.

I met the twins' eyes as they walked away. They looked just as confused as I did, which meant they had no idea what they had done. I didn't have any idea either. McGonagall hadn't looked angry when she had spoken to them, so it didn't seem like they were in trouble. But I had no idea what else she could have possibly wanted from them. It couldn't have been about them being chosen as champions because she had asked Ginny and Ron to go with her too. So all I could do was sit and wait anxiously for their return.

They were gone for about an hour or two and when they finally entered the common room later, they looked happy. They were laughing, actually, which was a relief. They hadn't gotten into trouble. Nothing bad had happened.

"What's up?" I asked as the twins made their way over to the table Angelina, Katie, Alicia, Lee and I were sitting at. "What'd McGonagall want with you?"

"Charlie's here," Fred said with a grin, sitting down next to Angelina and giving her a kiss.

"He's here?" I asked, raising my eyebrows and setting my quill down. "Why?"

"To help with the first task," George said.

"What do you mean to help with the first task?" Angelina asked. "Did you get to see what it is?"

The twins shook their heads. "No, we had to meet him alone, over near the lake," George said. "It wouldn't be fair if we got to find out the first task before it arrives, or before any of the other champions. We weren't even supposed to meet Charlie, but he managed to convince McGonagall into letting us see him beforehand. I mean, he knew we'd be upset if we found out he was here on Tuesday and didn't get the opportunity to talk to him. They're leaving pretty much right after the task ends on Tuesday."

I started chewing on my lip as my brain started whizzing. Charlie was here to help with the first task. _Charlie_. "Oh my goodness, it's obvious isn't it?" I asked as it all suddenly clicked. Everyone looked at me. I looked back at them, wide eyed. "I mean, it _seems_ totally…outrageous, but there's no other reason for _Charlie_ to be here."

"I don't get it," Lee said.

I looked at Angelina, Alicia and Katie, who had all caught on and were staring at me with their mouths hanging open.

"Where does Charlie work, Lee?" I asked with a sigh, turning to look at him.

"In Romania," Lee answered, still confused. "With…dragons." His eyes widened comically and he dropped his quill onto the table.

"There you go," I said with a tiny smile. I looked over at the twins, who were staring at me wide-eyed.

"Come on, Lilah, that's ridiculous," Fred said with a roll of his eyes. But I could tell from the look on his face that he knew I was right.

"Why else would Charlie be here to help?" I asked. "Unless it was part of his job." I let out a bitter laugh. "This is insane. How can they expect four seventeen year olds and a fourteen year old to fight off dragons? They're so dangerous."

"Lilah, Charlie works with dragons _every day_," Fred pointed out. "He's alive, he has all his limbs, and he _loves_ it. The worst that's happened to him is that he got a few burns."

"He's been trained, Fred," I argued. "_Extensively_ trained. You haven't. The other champions haven't. And the others-they're not going to even know what they're facing until they walk out there on Tuesday! It's like this tournament was designed to kill them! To kill all of you."

"You need to calm down," George told me, letting out a snort of laughter. "_That_ would be ridiculous. The tournament is designed to be difficult and scary, sure. But what fun would it be if all the champions were eaten in the first task? It'd be such a letdown. No, they have to wait until the third task before they let anyone die."

"That's not funny," I said as Fred and Lee snorted with laughter.

"No one's going to die, Liles," Fred assured me. "They're not going to let that happen. Believe me."

"Well...I still don't think it's fair that you two know what the task is already and the others don't," I said.

"You're the one who figured it out and practically told us," Fred snorted. But when he saw my face, he sighed. "What do you want us to do about it? I'm fairly certain Harry will be finding out any day now because, don't forget, Ron knows Charlie's here, too."

"If he even manages to put the pieces together," George snorted.

"But he and Harry aren't speaking," I said.

"He'll tell him." Fred said. "He's not _really _all that mad at Harry. Just being a baby and sulking for a bit until it's acceptable to make up again."

I stared at him. "Whatever you say. What about Fleur and Krum?"

"What about them?" Fred asked. "We're not _telling_ them if that's what you want. They're the opponents."

"Harry is too, technically," I said.

"Yeah, but he's from Hogwarts. Not _really_ an opponent," Fred argued.

I let out a huff. "I just don't think it's fair is all."

"Technically, this whole thing hasn't been fair from the start, George said. "And you had a part in it. So if you want to get technical and talk about fair, Lilah..." He trailed off and smiled.

I glared at him. "Don't start, George. Don't start."

"Come on, Lie, smile a bit," Fred teased, tickling my side. "It wouldn't kill you."

I tried fighting him off, but he was insistent and kept trying to tickle me. Eventually, I caved involuntarily and let out a giggle. "Stop," I said, trying to grab his hand.

"Now that I've seen you smile, I can and I can die in peace," Fred said, leaning back in his chair and lacing his hands behind his head.

I shook my head and tossed a quill at him, but not before flashing him a second smile. It was a wonder how the twins could always get me to do that, no matter how much I was determined not to let them.

* * *

"I really don't believe this," I fumed. "_How_ can they expect you to fight dragons? That's totally illogical and dangerous!"

I was sitting with the twins in the library on Saturday night, trying to help them think of a way to fight off their dragon. So far, I had suggested things like the Cunjunctivitus Curse or a Sleeping Charm, but the twins had simply said they were _options. _If they could, they'd like to find a more _exciting _way. Leave it to them to make tings difficult. No matter how many times I told them the point was simply to fight off the dragon and complete the task, to hell with excitement, they just wouldn't listen. I suppose it just wasn't in them to do things without a little bit of flare.

"We think it's pretty wicked, actually," George said now with a smile, tapping his quill against a page of the book open in front of him.

"Yeah, of course you do," I said, dismissively flapping my hand around. "But that doesn't mean anything. You think a lot of illogical and dangerous things are wicked. The fact of the matter is that you two are going to be expected to fight off a dragon!"

"Yeah, but we'll be doing it together," Fred pointed out. "And as they say, two heads are better than one."

"Or none," George said with a cheeky grin. "Isn't that right, Lie?"

I sighed. That joke was even dumber than the first time they'd used it. "That's exactly why people in other houses and people from the other schools aren't happy that you got chosen," I said. "It's not fair. You two get to work together and everyone else is working alone. Honestly, I didn't even think of that when I put your names in."

A stony and slightly hurt look came over Fred's face. "Are you regretting it?"

"Don't back me into a corner, Fred," I said quietly. "I really do want to help you, but I don't want to be responsible for ruining your life in other ways." I swallowed. "Or even taking it away from you completely."

Fred's expression softened. "Lilah, if anything happens to us, it's not going to be your fault at all."

"Yes it will. I'm the one who put your names in."

"But we asked you to," George said.

"And I did it! It doesn't matter that you asked, if I had only stood my ground and refused, we wouldn't be in this mess. Granted, you'd have zero chances of winning any prize money, but you wouldn't be fighting for your lives!"

"Don't you think you're being a wee bit dramatic?" Fred asked with an amused smile. "Fighting for our lives isn't the object of the tournament. We're supposed to just complete the tasks."

"Yeah, and fighting a dragon is a walk in the park, is it?" I snapped.

Fred sighed and rubbed his eyes. "If you're going to start being counterproductive, you can leave."

I gaped at him. "I am not being counterproductive!"

"Yes, you are," Fred answered, raising an eyebrow and staring at me. "Instead of helping us figure out what to do, you're going off about everything that could go wrong! You're making everything worse."

"I don't _have_ to be here, Fred," I hissed. "In fact, I'm not even _supposed_ to be helping you."

"And you're not anymore, so..." Fred trailed off and shrugged before glancing pointedly towards the doors.

I scowled and slammed my book closed. "Don't you dare tell me-"

"Hey, hey, calm down you two," George said quickly as Madame Pince loudly shushed us from her desk.

"Lilah's being counterproductive," Fred said with a huff.

"And Fred's being an idiot," I answered. "As usual."

"Listen," George said with a sigh. "Fred, Lilah's just looking out for us. And Lilah, Fred does have a point too. We're in this no matter what now and we really could use all the help we could get. So are you in or out? If you're out, you can leave, like Fred said. But if you're in, you've got to get over yourself and shut your trap."

Fred began clapping. "Well said, Georgie."

I pursed my lips and let out an exaggerated sigh through my nose before forcefully opening my book again, fighting the urge to throw my books at Fred's face.

"That's what I thought," George laughed.

"Shut up," I snapped back, only resulting in more laughter from George. When he finally stopped, it was quiet for a moment as we all pored over out books before George let out a sigh.

"Fred, I'm beginning to think we should go into this just doing what we do best."

"Winging it?" Fred asked, looking up at his brother blearily.

"Absolutely not," I said.

"Calm down, Lie," George said with a laugh. He turned back to Fred. "While that is an excellent idea, it's not quite what I had in mind. I was thinking more along the lines of the _other _thing we do best."

Fred perked up at that. "Pranking?" he asked hopefully.

George nodded and smiled. "Pranking," he answered.

I looked at them in disbelief. "You're going to _prank_ a fully grown dragon?"

"Why not?" George asked with a shrug.

"Because it sounds mental," I answered, looking at him wide-eyed. There was a pause as I glanced between him and Fred."Do you think it could work?"

The twins both laughed. "There's the Lilah we know," Fred said with a grin. "I was beginning to think we'd lost you for a second."

I blushed and smiled. "No, of course you haven't," I sighed. "Besides, maybe I'm starting to get as desperate as you at this point. Especially considering all of _my_ ideas are too boring for you."

"Not boring," George said, patting my arm sympathetically, "just...predictable."

I laughed. "Perfect, George. Thank you, really."

George smiled. "Want to stay and help us plan our attack? I'm sure it'll be a lot more fun than reading about the Cunjunctivitus Curse."

I rolled my eyes before breaking into a grin. "Sure, but I hope you two come up with something good. I don't want to see you roasted to a crisp on Tuesday."


	39. Chapter 39

When the first task finally arrived, I was a nervous wreck. I spent the whole morning a pale, ghostly white, pacing around my dorm. Back and forth, back and forth.

"I will bet you anything that you're more nervous than the twins," Angelina said with a wry, forced smile as she threw her Gryffindor scarf around her neck. I had been dressed for an hour already, which had unfortunately left me to wallow in my nerves and worry.

"I'll bet that as well," I answered absentmindedly, continuing to pace. "Defeats the purpose of a bet, though, if I agree with you."

"I'll also bet you're regretting what you did," Angelina added smugly.

"Again, I agree," I sighed. "What you're telling me is nothing I don't already know or haven't already felt, Ange, so save it." When I glanced up, Angelina was raising her eyebrows at me. I gave her a small smile. "Sorry. I'm just nervous. I want the twins to win so badly, but..." I trailed off and shrugged. "You must see how badly they want to open a joke shop. And to do that, they need money."

"I still don't understand why they can't save up like normal people," she responded as Katie and Alicia came out of the bathroom, bundled up and ready to go.

"Because it would take ages," I said.

"They weren't that far off from their goal over the summer," Angelina answered. "It shouldn't be that much longer. But I suppose the twins _are_ rather impatient."

There was a pause. "Yeah, I suppose," I finally answered half-heartedly. I couldn't bring myself to tell her the truth about what had happened to the twins' money. Even though she was my friend, I couldn't do it. It was the twins' problem to deal with and it was their duty to tell her themselves. Not mine.

The four of us met up with Julian, Ron and Hermione in the common room and began a walk down to the arena where the task would take place. There wasn't any time to meet up with the twins because the champions had been instructed to head down to the arena early. So I wouldn't even get to see them before the task began, which was only making things worse for me right now.

"Someone's nervous," Julian commented, his voice an undertone as an amusesd smirk took over his features and he leaned closer to me.

"Everyone needs to stop pointing that out," I muttered. "You're only making it worse."

"Well, maybe you should have thought of that before-"

"I know, Jules, I know!" I said, my voice coming out harsher than I intended. I immediately felt bad. I rarely yelled at him. Hardly ever, actually. I couldn't even remember the last time.

But apparently I shouldn't have worried. Julian blinked and recoiled for only about a split second before he smiled again. "Oh, good, so I'm guessing you've heard that speech before. That means I don't have to be the unlucky person who has to give it to you."

"Shut up," I muttered. "But if you must know, yes, I'm well aware that I got the twins into this mess and I fully intend on doing whatever I can to get them out."

"You're not supposed to," Julian said. "It's against the rules for anyone to give the champions help."

"Jules, look me in the eye and tell me you didn't help Harry research how to fight a dragon," I said, looking at him exasperatedly. "And, yes, I know he found out about the task beforehand. I figured anyway."

Julian turned a light shade of red and rubbed his neck. "Fine, I cracked open a few library books, okay?"

"I'm sure you did more than that," I said with a snort.

"Whatever," Julian said. "Anyway, Dumbledore still hasn't accused you of putting the twins' names in?"

I shook my head. "They told him no one did it for them, but he's too smart for that. That's another thing I've got on my mind. I'm waiting for him to expel me any minute."

"Maybe he's too smart for you sometimes, too," Julian said slowly, shrugging as he stuck his hands deep in his pockets.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I looked at my brother quizically.

"Maybe he knows you did it, but maybe he knows why."

"Because the twins brainwashed me?" I asked.

"No, because he-" Julian stopped and let a puff of air out of his mouth. "He knows why you were able to be convinced. He knows how much you want to help everyone. He knows you did it to help them get more money for their shop."

"Well, he can't know that the twins are broke," I said bitterly.

"The twins are broke?" Julian asked, raising an eyebrow. "I thought they were close to their goal after winning the bet with Bagman."

I closed my eyes and sighed. Oops. I hadn't meant to spill the beans, but I was so used to always telling my brother everything that I had just let it slip. "Yeah, they're broke. Bagman gave them leprechaun gold. It all disappeared. Please don't say anything, though. I'm the only one that knows." I lowered my voice even more. "Angelina doesn't even know."

Julian let out a low whistle. "That's rough. All of it. Don't you think the twins _should_ tell people? Get help? Instead of dealing with it alone?"

"When have you ever known them to be like that?" I sighed. "Plus, who can do anything?"

"True," Julian sighed. We walked in silence for a bit longer. I could see the arena coming into view now and I found myself shivering at the sight.

"By the way," Julian finally said, "how are you about Sam being here? Are you okay?"

I set my jaw and nodded, my eyes still on the stadium in front of us. "Fine," I said. "I fully plan on ignoring him completely. Or as much as I can, really."

"Okay," Julian said slowly. "Well...if he bothers you, let me know. I'll keep an eye on him, too, but...please. If he says or does anything, tell me. Promise?"

I was quiet for a moment as I examined my hands. Finally, I nodded. "Okay, promise."

Julian reached across my back and squeezed my shoulder, pulling me to him in a brief, messy hug as he planted a quick kiss on my temple. By now we had reached the arena and were climbing to our seats. We immediately saw that a dragon was already there, standing in the middle of the space provided, chained up and actually being relatively quiet.

"What's that in front of its legs?" Alicia asked, pointing. "It's…shiny."

"Looks like an egg," Lee answered, squinting. "Look, there are other ones grouped there too, just like it, only not gold. Wonder what they're for."

We finally reached our seats. Bagman was announcing and I fought back a scowl as his magnified voice rang throughout the arena. What a git. He welcomed us all and began explaining the rules. We finally got to find out what the golden egg's purpose was. The champions had to collect it from the dragon, which would be fiercely trying to protect it. He announced that the twins would be going first. Great. Now I could get put out of my misery faster.

Immediately after the announcement, a cannon went off and the twins walked slowly into the arena to a wave of cheers, especially from the Gryffindors, decked out in maroon and gold and waving signs around. Some of the people from other houses booed, but not many. The twins were actually really well liked for the most part. Sure they had some enemies and people throughout the school that weren't their biggest fans, but for the most part, they were pretty likable and popular. Not surprising, to say the least.

The dragon hadn't moved yet, but it was obviously following the twins with its eyes, making sure they didn't come near the egg. People were cheering their names now and their eyes left the dragon for a fraction of a second to gaze towards the stands. Their mouths simultaneously turned up into the briefest of identical smiles.

Suddenly, they stopped, just out of the dragon's reach and just stared up at it. The crowd had gone totally silent.

"I can't watch this," Angelina squeaked covering her eyes.

"Nothing's happened...yet," I half-heartedly reassured her, my voice a whisper. It was true. Nothing had happened yet. But it was both a good and bad nothing. It was good the dragon hadn't fried my friends to a crisp yet, but the twins hadn't made a move towards capturing the golden egg, which was bad. Once deciding on the idea to use a prank to get through this task, the three of us had thrown some ideas around, but the twins had never settled on one. Eventually, they had come to a decision on their own. They wouldn't let me in on anything, which meant I had no idea what they had decided to do. I was as much in the dark as everyone else. I hated it.

Just then, Fred reached into his pocket, so slowly, it was hard to even tell he was doing it at all. He pulled something out-a small box-and crouched down, his movements still incredibly slow and deliberate, and his eyes never leaving the dragon. He set the box on the rocky ground and slowly stood back up, his hand still outstreched and his eyes on the dragon, who was watching him just as closely.

When Fred had stood back up, they both put on glasses. Glasses like the ones they had given me when I put their names into the goblet. And then I knew what they were going to do. I gulped as George pulled out his wand. I could just about make out the fact that he took in a deep breath before he pointed his wand at the box, which grew to be about the size of the nighstand in my dorm-only a couple of feet high. The dragon saw this too and the sudden movement caused the giant creature to rear backwards and stretch out its ginormous wings, flapping them rapidly. I squeaked and grabbed hold of my brother's arm.

But before the dragon had the chance to do anything else, Fred pointed his wand at the box, which opened and immediately emitted a puff of black smoke that began to rapidly grow larger and larger, quickly engulfing the entire arena. Before long, I couldn't see anything. I could feel Julian's arm, still being clutched between my hands, but as for my vision...all I could see was complete and utter darkness. It was a little unsettling at first, but then I felt myself relax. After all, I did know what this was. It was Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, but no one but the twins were wearing the special glasses. Which meant we'd have to suffer in the darkness for now. And suffer through the twins' part of the task without being able to see what they had done.

I had to admit, though, I was a little disappointed by their decision. I had wanted to be able to see exactly how they got their egg. I was sure everyone else felt the same way, and I'd have thought that the twins certainly would have felt that way. But I supposed that out of all the inventions the twins had so far, the Instant Darkness Powder was the best way to go. The dragon wouldn't be able to see the twins, and they could-hopefully-get to the egg easier because of this. It was a choice between being too showy and risking losing-or worse, being killed-or doing what it took to win. And while the twins did love showing off, they wanted to win even more. Besides, using one of their own pranks in general was a good method of self-promotion anyway, despite everyone not being able to see the twins carry out their plan in front of us.

"What the bloody hell are they _doing_?" I heard Julian cry out. Similar shouts of panic could be heard all over the arena. I could only imagine how everyone else (except for the handful of people that had been in the entrance hall when Fred and George had used the powder the last time) felt to be unexpectedly submerged in complete darkness in an open arena in broad daylight. They had no idea what this product even was.

"It's Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder," I yelled back to Julian. "They want to sell it in their shop one day. It makes it so it's impossible to see."

"Obviously," Julian answered.

"But they invented these glasses that if you wear them, you can see," I explained. "It's incredible, really. Do you know how much intelligence and planning and-"

"Lilah," Julian interrupted. "I don't know if now's the best time for you to be rambling about this instant darkness powder. We're in the middle of the first task of the Triwizard Tournament and we've been ambushed by this powder that makes it so we can't see a thing. I can't see two feet in front of me right now. I can't see you and you're right next to me."

"You asked about it," I answered with a shrug, even though I knew Julian couldn't see the movement. "Besides, I need to keep myself talking, or doing something to take my mind off of what's going on-or not-in front of my eyes."

Just then, we heard the sound of loud stomping as the ground shook beneath us. There was a roar. The dragon was clearly moving, but none of us could see what it was doing. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. I couldn't see what the dragon was doing to the twins. It could have lit them on fire by now and I'd have no clue.

"I wish I could _see_ what was going on," Lee complained from the other side of Angelina. "You know, you'd have thought that the twins would have wanted everyone to see them accomplish something like this."

"We will once it all clears," I said. "When it's all gone, we'll see if they have the egg or not. That's all they want right now. A victory in the end." There was a pause. "That's what we all want, I think," I said quietly.

No sooner had I finished speaking than there was another loud roar and a few strangled yells that sounded like the twins. I let out a swear and I heard Julian laugh.

"Hearing you swear never gets old," he said with a chuckle. "I'm used to you keeping your tone and language polite and comforting-always for my benefit. But you swearing makes me laugh, so maybe you should have started sooner." I could practically hear him grinning.

"Shut your bloody trap, you arse," I shot back, a smile curling up the corners of my mouth. But it disappeared quickly given that the arena was silent again. There were no sounds from the dragon, no sounds from the twins, and no sounds from the crowd. I had no idea what that meant and I wasn't sure if I wanted to find out.

Before I could make my decision, however, the darkeness cleared away to reveal the bright daylight once again. I squinted and recoiled from the brightness, shielding my eyes until they could adjust. When they did, the first thing I saw was the dragon-understandable since was the biggest thing in the arena. It was on the opposite side from where it had started, growling madly and standing feet from the people sitting in the stands, who screamed at the sudden sight of the irritated dragon so close to them. Now that I knew where the dragon was, I immediately searched the arena below me for the twins. I suddenly saw them a few feet to the left of the giant. George was lying flat on his back and Fred was kneeling over him, looking concerned, which made my stomach clench in panic.

But then I saw what Fred had under his arm: the egg.

They had the egg.

The crowd seemed to have noticed this as well and they were going absolutely crazy, cheering and stomping their feet. The Gryffindors were the loudest and wildest and I found myself joining in as the realization that the twins had done it finally sunk in. They did it. They had successfully completed the first task.

A group of people came out into the arena then and started switching out Fred and George's dragon for another one as the twins were led away to get their injuries checked out. It was clear they had them. George was conscious, but looked like he'd had the wind knocked out of him. They also had a few burns. I could tell. Their clothes were covered in soot and I could see some red marks on their arms from where I was. Luckily, it wasn't anything more serious.

While we waited for the next champion to come out, the judges announced Fred and George's scores. Dumbledore, Barty Crouch and Madame Maxime all gave sevens. Points were taken off for the burns and apparently for the fact that the Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder had prevented the judges from seeing the twins technique. Annoying, but I suppposed it was fair. It was unfair, however, to take off as many points as Karkaroff did. He gave the twins a three. Bitter old git. Ludo Bagman, however, gave the twins a nine. Weird. I'd expect him to actually lower the score out of pure annoyance at the twins. Or even out of fairness. I mean, even Dumbledore hadn't given the twins a nine.

Fleur was the second champion to face her dragon. She tried this weird charm that made the dragon kind of drowsy. It looked as if were falling asleep, which was a very good idea and she did get a quick start towards her egg. But she also had a very unfortunate mishap. Her dragon let out a giant snore and sent flames shooting from its nose. Fleur's skirt caught fire, but she quickly put it out with a jet of water from her wand before snatching up her egg.

As for Krum, who went third, he hit the dragon square in the eyes with what I'm assuming was a Conjunctivitis Curse. I smirked as I remembered that this was what I originally had suggested the twins use. Krum's dragon went stumbling around the enclosure and luckily moved away from the golden egg, but not before trampling some of the other eggs that had been grouped around the golden egg. I supposed their only purpose was to make it seem more like a real dragon nest, and it was good that the dragon didn't squish the golden egg, but Bagman had said that no damage was to be done to the other eggs or else points would be taken off.

Finally, it was Harry's turn and it was time for the Gryffindors to go wild...again. I admit that I let myself get caught up in it too, but it took me a bit because Harry looked about ready to wet himself when he first walked out into the arena.

"What do you think he's doing?" I asked Angelina as the cheers died down. Everyone was waiting for Harry to do something, but he seemed frozen in place.

"No idea," she answered with a shrug.

"Your wand, Harry!" Hermione suddenly screamed.

Harry actually seemed to have heard her and immediately snapped out of his trance and into action. He held up his wand and used a Summoning Charm to summon his broomstick. It took a bit for the broom to arrive and when it did, he jumped on it and began to distract the dragon. It was a brilliant idea, especially because he owned a Firebolt, which was currently the fastest broom in existence. It gave him more speed than he would have by using his legs and it also gave him more speed than if he were using an average broom.

At first, Harry began by just flying around the dragon in a random pattern. It sort of worked. The dragon was certainly following him and certainly getting angry, but it wasn't enough to completely lure it away from the eggs. Instead, it kept shooting out streams of fire and thrashing its tail around. At one point, the spiked tail swung upwards and Harry tried to get out of the way, but he didn't make it in time. The edge of the tail hit his shoulder, giving him a nasty cut that I could see from where I was sitting.

Gasps could be heard from every corner of the arena. Julian visibly winced as I chewed on my lip.

"You're gnawing your lip to bits, you know," Julian suddenly pointed out. "And if you don't move your hand, your finger will be next." He reached out and pulled my hand away from where it was hovering in front my mouth, my fingernails waiting to by my teeth's next victim once they were done with my bottom lip.

"Shut up, I'm nervous," I retaliated, moving my hand back up towards my mouth.

Harry suddenly began circling upwards in a spiral motion. The dragon followed him with not only its eyes but its entire head and I suddenly understood what Harry was trying to do: make it dizzy.

The dragon was getting annoyed now, that was obvious. It kept shooting streams of fire at Harry, which he kept expertly avoiding, all while flying higher and higher. The crowd was in an uproar, cheering him on wildly.

Finally, the dragon's wings flapped out as it reared up on his hind legs, leaving the golden egg almost perfectly clear.

And then Harry dived.

I gasped and dug my nails into Julian's arm for the second time in an hour. He yelped and I wasn't sure if it was because of Harry or because of me. I didn't care though. Harry was pressing his Firebolt to go faster, speeding down towards the ground before the dragon knew what was going on. He took both hands off the broom and reached forward. And then he grabbed the golden egg and flew in the opposite direction.

The stands erupted into some of the loudest cheers yet. I let out a squeal and turned to hug Julian, then Angelina. Even Lee got caught up in the excitement and grabbed me in a bone crushing hug.

"He's done it!" Alicia said, clapping wildly.

"I bet Krum is mentally kicking himself for not thinking about flying himself," Lee said. "But I'm glad he didn't because Harry was amazing."

"They all were," I said.

"I suppose in Harry, Fred and George's honor, we should have a party in the common room later," Lee said casually, a grin spreading over his face.

I sighed, but grinned as well. "I guess. That's what the twins are going to want, at least." I hesitated. "You guys go up to the common room. I'll meet up with the twins and handle the food."

As the arena began to clear out and people began heading for the castle, I headed for the tent that the twins had disappeared into. After a quick search, I saw them sitting side by side on an exam table on the opposite side of the tent. They were both sitting up, grinning and talking to each other. Fred had the golden egg in his lap, holding it tightly as if he were afraid someone would snatch it away.

With a smile, I ran over to the table and threw my arms around first Fred, then George. "Congratulations!" I cried as the twins let out identical yelps of surprise and pain.

"Hey, watch the burns, Lie," Fred said, gesturing to the weird paste covering spots of their arms, necks, and, in George's case, cheek.

"Sorry," I said, blushing and looking them over. "You're okay, though, right? Besides the burns?"

"Okay?" George asked with a snort.

"We're brilliant!" Fred exclaimed. "We got a decent score and we got the golden egg!"

"You're still behind Harry, though," I said. "And tied with Krum, who used the Cunjuntivitus Curse, by the way, so with my idea you wouldn't have been any worse off, huh?" I teased with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, but not any better off either," Fred said, gently punching my shoulder as I rolled my eyes.

"Anyway, sure, we're behind Harry," George said, "but we're in second place. That's great and we still have two more tasks to bump us up into first. Don't sweat it, Lie, we'll be fine."

"Are you okay to leave?" I asked, looking around.

"Yeah," Fred said. "Madame Pomfrey already treated our burns, so we're okay."

"I told the others we'd be in charge of getting the food for the party."

The twins both broke into grins. "You automatically assumed we were going to have a party?" Fred asked. "How sweet, Lie, you know us so well."

"I love it," George said.

I smiled. "So, if you're free to go...then let's get a move on, shall we?"

The twins both nodded and hopped off the exam table.

I peered over at the egg Fred was holding. "Can I hold it?" I asked him as we walked, gesturing with my chin.

Fred nodded and passed it to me. It was lighter than I expected. "Wow," I whispered, running my fingers over the smooth gold surface, turning it over and over in my hands. "It's beautiful."

"Bagman came in and talked to us all before you did," Fred said quietly. "He told us the clue for the next task was in the egg. We have to figure out how to open it, then we'll find the clue, then from there we figure out what the next task is and can plan accordingly."

"Did you manage to talk to him about you-know-what?" I asked, glancing around to see if anyone else was around.

"No," George said bitterly. "We tried, but he pointedly avoided us. Talked over us, ignored us, then hurried out of the tent."

"What a coward!" I exclaimed.

"Easy, Liles," Fred chuckled. "If we have our way, we'll be getting our money soon enough."

"He probably knows that's what you're trying to do," I said. "Bagman, I mean. I wonder if he's upset."

"No, he's probably glad in a way," Fred said. "Maybe he thinks that if we have a shot at getting this prize money, we'll leave him alone."

"Maybe that's why he gave you such a high score," I said, looking at him wide eyed as the thought came to me. "Maybe he thinks that if you win, you'll have your money and can, like you said, leave him alone."

"The end of the tournament is still months away, though," George said. "And we aren't giving up on him so soon. It's too early to get too confident about the prize money. We have to remember that there are multiple ways this tournament could end. Besides, what Bagman did still isn't right and we don't want him to get away with it, or at the very least, walk away thinking it's okay."

I nodded. "Makes sense to me." There was a pause. "So what happened in the middle of all that Instant Darkness Powder? Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see."

The twins smiled. "What's life without a little mystery?" George asked with a wink.

"Exactly," Fred grinned. "So, unfortnately, that's classified information, Miss Fitzgerald," Fred said. "All you need to know is that acheived what we were supposed to, and that George took a wicked hit to the side by the dragon's tail."

"And that you got some burns," I said, glancing at them.

"And some burns," Fred said. "But we're alive and moving on to the next task!" He grinned and let out a whoop as he raised a fist in the air.

I smiled and let out a giggle, but it quickly died in my throat as someone stepped into our path. Sam. Crap, I hadn't been paying attention, which meant that I couldn't go through the lengths I would have normally taken to avoid him.

"Lilah," he said, with a giant smile-most definitely fake. "I was wondering when I'd be running into you."

"Hi," I said, forcing a quick smile onto my own face.

"Hello, boys," Sam said, turning to grin at the twins. "Nice to see you again."

"Yeah, it's great to see you, too," Fred said as he and George shook Sam's hand. I fought back a scowl.

"That was really great work back there," Sam said. "What was that trick you used?"

"Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder," Fred said. "It's fairly new for us. Hoping to sell it in our joke shop one day."

"Ah, interesting," Sam said. "Anyway, very well done and very clever. Surprised you didn't get top scores from everyone." He smiled. "So, speaking of joke shops, have you pulled any great pranks lately?"

"A few," Fred admitted. "Mostly we've just been working on new products and perfecting them enough to sell to the public."

"Products like those Toad Tablets?" Sam asked knowingly.

"Exactly," George said.

"What about Lilah? Does she help you with these pranks or does she keep quiet and behave like a good girl?" He chuckled again and winked at me while I fought the urge go gag. I knew exactly what he was doing. Collecting information.

"Depends on the prank," Fred said. "Some of them George and I will just handle on our own, but we've managed to convince Lilah to join in on a few. We got her to prank the Slytherins with us once. But that was mostly because they called her stupid. But we've got to increase her number of detentions from two. Honestly, it's pathetic." He nudged me and shook his head, while I tried to send him a look telling him to shut up. Which was stupid considering he didn't know why he shouldn't say what he said. Normally I wouldn't have even minded, but in this case, I did.

"Ah, so you're not as much of a good girl as everyone might think," Sam said, looking at me.

"I'm a lot better than most people," I said. "I don't behave like...Flint or Montague, for instance."

"And how do they behave?" Sam asked in amusement.

"Like trolls," Fred jumped in as I nodded.

"Ah. I see." Sam stared at me for a bit longer. He opened his mouth to say something else when Rita Skeeter appeared at his elbow.

"Sam, where have you been?" She asked. "We've got to try to get post-task interviews with the champions, so we've got to catch them before they leave to head back to the castle."

"Just catching up with Lilah here and her friends," Sam said. "Rita, this is Lilah, Joanna's daughter. Lilah, this is Rita Skeeter. I'm sure you've heard of her."

"I have," I said, pursing my lips and giving Rita a once over.

"You're Joanna's daughter?" she asked, giving me a once over as well. "The one who started that program at St. Mungo's?"

I nodded. "Yeah, that's her. That's my mother."

Rita smiled and nodded as she continued to stare at me. She opened her mouth to say something but then noticed the twins. "Aha! Two of the champions! And two of the _illegal_ ones I might add!" She looked at them eagerly. "Tell me, what's the reason you really entered the tournament. Why are you so desperate to compete underaged? Fame? Fortune?" She looked at me and smirked. "True love?"

Fred and George both rolled their eyes at her. "We really have to get back up to school," Fred said. "There's a party being thrown and George and I are two of the guests of honor. We can't be late. Excuse us." And with that, he grabbed my wrist and brushed past them, leading the way back up towards the castle with George on our heels. I was honestly relieved by the way he had handled that whole situation. I knew the twins were aware of the kind of reporter Rita was, but I was worried of how little of a deal they had made her article about Harry out to be. I wasn't looking to be dragged into any of her articles, especially if Sam was her photographer. So if I never had to run into those two slimy gits for the rest of the year, I'd be happy.

* * *

The second task wasn't going to be until the end of February, so everyone has a bit of a break until then. I was sure the champions were relieved, but they still weren't going to be able to completely relax for the next three months.

Harry had been the first of the Gryffindor champions to open his golden egg. It was during the party in the common room that had followed the task. The entire room had urged one of the three champions in the room to open their egg. Fred and George actually made a huge show of letting Harry do it. But the instant he did, everyone regretting asking for the eggs to be opened in te first place. The egg let out the loudest, strangest, most horrific screeching sound I had ever heard. It was awful and I didn't have a clue about what it could be.

"It sounds like a banshee, Harry," Seamus had said. "Maybe you have to fight off one of those!"

"I think it sounds like someone being tortured," Neville said. "Maybe you have to see how long you can stand the Cruciatus Curse!"

"Don't be thick, Neville," Fred snorted, opening a butterbeer and taking a sip. "That's illegal."

"I think it sounds like Percy singing in the shower," George pointed out. "Maybe we have to attack him while he's in there and get him to stop."

"I'm going to tell Percy you said that," I joked, nudging him as I rifled through the pile of chocolate frogs before carefully selecting one.

"Whose side are you even on, Lie?" George asked with a snort as he smiled at me.

"Anyone's but yours," I teased, snagging another chocolate frog and tossing it at his head before laughing and walking away.

As November began drawing to a close, we were given even more interesting news: as part of the tournament, a Yule Ball was going to be held on Christmas Eve.

It was actually very exciting. The dance was only open to students in years four and up, but they could take a younger student if they wanted to. This meant that a lot of the younger students were kissing up to any older friends, aquaintences, or even strangers if they were brave enough, hoping for a date to the ball.

"Why would thirteen year olds care about a ball anyway?" George mused on the way to Charms one morning. We were passing a group of thirteen year old girls, who immediately giggled when they saw us—well, Fred and George, technically—and began whispering amongst themselves.

"We're not asking you to the ball!" Fred said loudly, causing the girls to stare at him, taken aback.

"Fred, you don't have to be so mean!" I scolded, shooting him a glare before looking back at the girls, who only looked dejected for a second before huddling together and whispering so more.

"They're thirteen," Fred insisted. "First of all, George and I aren't taking a thirteen year old to the ball. Even if I didn't have Angelina, I wouldn't do that. Secondly, third years should be spending Christmas Eve writing their Christmas lists and listening for any reindeer on the roof."

"Don't be a jerk," I told him. "It's fine if you don't want to take a thirteen year old to the ball—I wouldn't either—but you don't have to be mean."

Fred simply shrugged nonchalantly. "They weren't even phased. They're too busy planning out who their next victim is."

As November finally completely gave way to December, the Yule Ball was all anyone seemed to talk about. Even I had gotten initially excited at first only to realize two things. One, I probably couldn't go due to my mother's Christmas party. And two, even if I could, Oliver probably wouldn't be able to come.

"Okay, here's what you do," George instructed me after I had voiced my concerns one night in the common room. "You write to your mother and tell her you aren't coming home for Christmas this year. Plain and simple. Then, you ask McGonagall if you can invite Oliver to the ball."

"I'm not sure that'll work," I said shaking my head. "First of all, I doubt she can make an exception for me. If she let me invite him, she'd have to give everyone the option of inviting someone outside the school. Secondly, even if she agreed, Oliver probably can't come. He usually goes to his own family's party."

"He didn't last year and his Mum survived," George pointed out.

"Well then maybe he's busy anyway," I shrugged. "Interviews or something."

"He won't have an interview on Christmas Eve," George scoffed. "And if he did, it would probably be in the morning, not at the time of the Yule Ball." He paused and stared at me as I shrugged and continued working on my Transfiguration essay. "Look, you want to go to the ball, don't you?"

I shrugged again. "I mean, it's not the most important thing in the world and I bet I won't miss much and-"

"Lilah." I looked up to see both twins giving me a look that told me to shut up because they didn't believe me one bit.

"Yes," I finally sighed. "I want to go."

The twins smiled, clearly satisfied. "And you want Oliver to go with you?"

I nodded. "Of course."

"Then that's what'll happen," Fred said firmly.

"Be realistic, Fred," I whispered.

"I am," he told me with a shrug. "Ange, Katie and Leesh are already planning on going dress shopping on the next Hogsmeade visit. You should go with them."

"Do they have dates?" I asked.

"Katie and Alicia don't. Not yet. But someone is bound to ask them. And if not, they'll go solo, which you could totally do as well if Oliver really can't come."

"And if my mother lets _me_ come," I added.

"Yeah, that too," Fred said with a smile. "But she will because you're going to stand your ground. You're not getting on the train home. She can't do anything unless she shows up at school and forces you to go with her."

"Which she wouldn't do anyway, even if Dumbledore let it happen," George said.

"Because she cares too much about what people think," I said with a nod.

"Except us," Fred grinned, gesturing to himself and George. "We're the exception." He looked at his brother. "I always knew we were special, George."

I smiled. "Of course you did. That's not surprising in the least. You two have enough confidence to last a lifetime."

"Not a bad thing, is it?" Fred asked with a grin.

"Depends," I answered with a smile of my own. "But usually...no, it's actually kind of nice."

Fred and George pretended to blush. "You're embarrassing us, Lie, quit it," George said.

I snorted and rolled my eyes before turning back to my textbook.

* * *

"That's total bullshit," Fred exclaimed when I broke the news about Oliver in the common room later.

I had gone to ask McGonagall if Oliver could come to the ball, like the twins had suggested, but she had given me the answer I had expected. If she let one person out of Hogwarts come for me, she'd have to allow it for everyone. I totally understood and I had totally expected it.

"Language, Freddie," Angelina said from where she was sitting on the floor, leaning up against his legs. He was absentmindedly playing with her hair as he looked at me in frustration.

"Sorry," he said, glancing at Angelina briefly before looking back at me. "That's total bullshit."

"Fred!" Angelina exclaimed, twisting to look up at him.

"What?" he shrugged, looking down at her. "I said I was sorry that I said something you didn't like, but I didn't say that I'd stop saying it."

Angelina rolled her eyes and smiled slightly before turning back to her homework.

"Anyway," Fred continued, "Lilah, you should be able to have your boyfriend here."

"No, it's okay. Really."

"It's not okay," Fred argued. "All I'm saying is that if you want Oliver here, you should be able to have him here." He paused and looked at me. "_Do _you want him here?" he asked quietly and there was something in his expression that I couldn't quite read.

"Of course," I said. "But I don't even know if Oliver would be able to make it anyway." I paused. "Or if he'd even want to come."

"What do you mean?" Angelina asked immediately, turning to look up at me in alarm. "He loves you. Why wouldn't he?"

"Have you guys been fighting a lot?" Katie asked.

"No, not a _lot_…." I said. "We got into an argument the day I went to his Quidditch match, though." I sighed. "He wants to protect me from all the reporters and fans and the only way he can do that is by keeping us a secret and pretending he doesn't know me and not taking us out in public. He pretended he didn't know who I was! I don't really like doing it, but I do get what he's trying to do. So, I don't think he'd want to come here and be my date. Especially with reporters around for the tournament."

"None of the reporters are coming to the ball," Angelina said. "McGonagall told us that Dumbledore isn't allowing it."

"Still," I shrugged. "Everyone else will be here…."

"What, all the students and teachers?" George scoffed. "Most of the people here know that you and Oliver are dating from seeing you together last year. And I doubt anyone here is a crazed fan. We all know him too well."

"Not everyone," I said. "I bet some of the younger kids love him."

"But the majority of people at the ball will be fourth years and up," George said. "You'll be fine. Just tell him that and he'd be fine."

"McGonagall said no, George, just drop it, okay?" I said firmly, glancing at him. He fell quiet and for a moment the only sounds were the jumble of voices from the others in the common room and the fire crackling in front of us.

"But you'll still come, right?" Fred finally asked. "You'll still tell your mother you want to come and then you can go solo or join up with any of us who don't end up with dates and go as a group."

"You'll all end up with dates," I said.

"Okay, but you can still come with us," Fred said. "We promise to not make it weird. Lee, George and I will all take turns dancing with you during the slow dances."

I smiled at that and let out a laugh. "Thanks, Fred, I appreciate that." I paused. "I'll think about going, okay?"

"Well, think fast because the ball is only in a couple of weeks."

"Okay, now shut up and let me finish my homework," I said, throwing a crumpled up first draft of my essay at him. He picked it up and flung it back at me as I giggled and swatted it away.

* * *

It was Sunday. I was sitting across from Oliver in a corner of the St. Mungo's cafeteria on our usual Sunday afternoon lunch date. Believe it or not, he was actually wearing a hat and sunglasses, both of which I had looked at disapprovingly when he slipped them on after we had met up in front of Grace's room.

And now, I had just finished telling him about the Yule Ball. "I mean, I asked McGonagall if you would be able to come, but she said she couldn't make any exceptions for me, which I totally understand. I was expecting her to say that, really." I shrugged and picked at my food a bit. "Besides, I figured you wouldn't want to come anyway," I mumbled.

"It's not that I don't want to go," Oliver said quietly. "I'd love to go. Are you kidding? If it makes you happy and if I get to spend time with you…not to mention see you in a beautiful dress…I'd love to. But I don't think it's a good idea."

"Angelina said reporters aren't allowed to come to the ball and Fred and George said that none of the students will bother you. They aren't as weird about you being famous because a lot of them were still at school when you were. They know you already and they'll think it's just you. Because, really, it is just you. You're the same person."

Oliver shook his head. "That may apply to some of them, but you'd be surprised how fake people can be. They may not have cared about me in school, but now that I'm famous, they might be all over me. And who knows, maybe the people we thought knew me will get all caught up in it….I wouldn't want them to ruin the night."

"Can you do me a favor?" I asked. When Oliver nodded, I continued. "Can you deflate your ego just a little bit?"

Oliver blinked at me. "Lilah, I—"

"You really think that the second you walk in the doors of the great hall, everyone in there is going to swarm around you and ask for your autograph or for a picture?"

"Well, maybe not _everyone_," Oliver stuttered, "but—"

"Sure, maybe some people, but I doubt everyone will. They're going to be too wrapped up in having fun themselves. And believe it or not, there are some people there who don't give a shit about you or Quidditch." I paused. "And can you at the very least take off those stupid glasses?"

Oliver's mouth dropped open. "Where is this coming from?" he asked.

Part of me understood his surprise and felt a bit guilty. I never talked to him like that. But I was reaching my wit's end. Sighing, I reached across the table and slowly pulled the glasses off of his face. "I want to see your eyes," I whispered. "I want to remember that I'm talking to Oliver Wood, the kind, caring, passionate boy I fell in love with who, with those eyes, looks at me like I'm special and like I can do anything."

"You _are_ special and you _can_ do anything," Oliver whispered.

I smiled. "And I want to go to the Yule Ball with you more than anything if I'm being honest."

"But what about what McGonagall said?" Oliver asked.

I shook my head. "I know what she said, but I need you to know that I'm disappointed about it and I don't want you to tell me it's for the best. I don't want you to tell me it's better this way. Part of me wants you to be disappointed too because you'll be missing out on spending time with me and taking me to an actual ball." I smiled. "It's every girl's dream, you know, to go to one."

Oliver chuckled. "I don't want—"

"I know," I insisted. "But forget about protecting me for one second," I said. "Just…can we think about being a normal couple for a bit?"

Oliver sighed and ran a hand over his face. "But we can't be normal, Liles. You don't understand. If reporters find out I have a girlfriend and if they find out it's you, they won't leave you alone." He swallowed before looking up at me. "Just so you know, though, I _am_ disappointed that we can't go."

"How can you be if you wouldn't have even gone anyway?" I whispered.

"Because I desperately wish things were normal so that I could go with you without having to worry."

"Reporters aren't going to be there, Oliver," I said. "And everyone at school already knows we're dating. It's no secret there."

"Still…." Oliver sighed and shook his head. "I am disappointed because I would love to go with you. You have to believe me. If McGonagall had said yes and if I wasn't playing Quidditch professionally, I would've been there in a second. And even now…I have to admit, you'd probably have ended up making me crack." He rubbed both hands over his face again. "It's so hard to continuously say no to you and stand my ground when you persist. And when you look so sad."

I smiled. "Good to know. I'll have to use that power more often."

Oliver sighed. "Sometimes I wonder if I made the right career choice. If I hadn't become a professional athlete, we wouldn't have this problem."

"Don't think that way," I insisted. "Playing Quidditch for Puddlemere has been your dream for years. You've wanted to do that since way before you met me."

"So what do you want from me, then?" Oliver asked quietly.

I sighed. "I want you to play Quidditch. You're happy doing it, I know you are. Despite the difficulties it's caused between me and you, I know you love it. But I also wish things were different between us. I don't like to sneak around because, personally, I don't mind if people find out about us. I can handle whatever happens because I love you and I want the whole world to know it. But I do appreciate you protecting me and I can recognize that it's your way of doing something good." I shrugged. "I just needed to hear you say that you're disappointed you couldn't go to the ball with me. It may sound…weird, but I needed to know that I wasn't losing you. Between the disguises and how careful and almost…paranoid you've been, I wanted to know that you still care."

Oliver looked at me sympathetically as he reached across the table and took my hand. "Oh, Lilah, of course I still care. I never stopped. I love you, okay?"

I nodded and gave him a tiny smile. "I love you, too."

"I think you should still go to the ball anyway," Oliver said, smiling back. "Go, have fun. I know your friends will take good care of you."

"They promised to take turns dancing with me," I said with a giggle.

"Well, there you go," Oliver said, grinning and leaning back in his chair. "Go. Take a few pictures and show them to me later so I can see how beautiful you'll look. Make me sorry that I didn't force McGonagall at wand point to let me go. Make me sorry I made you worry that I didn't care."

I laughed and narrowed my eyes at him. "You have a point. I'm going to look _so_ good, you'll regret this for the rest of your life."

Oliver groaned. "I shouldn't have said anything."

I laughed again and leaned forward on my elbows across the table. "Come here," I said, reaching out and pulling him forward by the brim of his hat. "And take this off." I pulled the hat off and tossed it on the floor before running my hand through his hair, making it stick up in multiple directions. "Much better." I smiled and leaned in to kiss him. Oliver kissed me right back without protesting once about the removal of his disguise and a flash of triumph shot through me. It was progress.

* * *

A week before the Yule Ball, Angelina, Katie, Alicia, Tess and I found ourselves in Hogsmeade, searching for dresses.

"You okay, Lie?" Angelina asked as we sifted through a rack. "You look kind of sad."

I shook my head. "I'm fine. It's just…everyone's so excited and a part of me is, too. I just…wish Oliver was coming."

Angelina smiled. "I know. But it's okay. We won't make you feel left out." She paused. "So what kind of dress are you looking for?"

I shrugged. "I don't know."

"We have to pick something pretty and classy, but something that will also make Oliver's eyes fall out of his head when he sees pictures," Angelina advised.

"What about you? You still need to find something. I'd say you look for something that fits into those categories, too." I smirked at her as she blushed.

She and Fred were obviously going to the ball together, but the thing was that up until the night before, he had just assumed they were going together. So I had made him officially ask her because I knew that it was secretly bothering her, even if she never mentioned anything. Despite the fact that his method of asking her wasn't what I had in mind (I hadn't realized throwing crumbled up pieces of paper at a girl to get her attention was romantic), Angelina had blushed, smiled and said yes. I could tell she was happy, even though the question hadn't been stereotypically perfect. It was very Fred, though, and I knew she understood that.

Alicia was going with a boy from Durmstrang. We were watching Hagrid drag a Christmas tree across the lawn and trying to estimate how tall it was when the boy had come up to us, introduced himself as Dimitri and given Ange, Katie and I quick nods before turning to Alicia. He actually bowed before straightening and asking her if she wanted to go to the ball with him. Alicia's jaw almost hit the ground and she made an odd noise between a squeak and a choking sound.

Smirking, and deciding to be a bit cheeky, I clapped her on the back and to everyone's surprise, when I did so, a breathy, high pitched _yes_ spilled from Alicia's mouth. It was all we could do to not dissolve into giggles right there. We still teased her about it daily.

Surprisingly, George had asked Katie. He was sweet about it. Well, sort of. He had started off giving her flowers and asking her that way, but then five seconds later, the flowers had turned into a bunch of feathers with a pop.

As for Lee, Tess had been nice enough to set him up with a Hufflepuff girl in our year named Vivian. She was in Tess' dorm and they were actually good friends. She assured Lee that she was very nice and had even introduced them to each other so that they could talk before the ball and wouldn't have to meet for the first time that night.

As for Tess herself, she had been asked by a boy named Connor, who was actually one of Cedric's best friends. I had seen him and Tess together on a lot of occasions and had tried to figure out if there was anything going on. Tess had always denied it, saying they were just friends, a claim she still stood firm on now that he had asked her to the ball. But I was fairly certain that that wasn't exactly true. I was sure of it on his part, at least. He definitely liked her. How could anyone not?

"What's Oliver's favorite color?" Angelina asked now, chewing her lip as she flipped through dress after dress, the hangers clacking against each other as she did so.

"Why?" I snorted. "Shouldn't some part of my dress be for me? I can't dress totally for Oliver, especially considering he's not coming."

Angelina looked at me and smiled. "Which is exactly why you have to look amazing! So he'll know what he missed."

"It's red," I finally said. "But _my _favorite color is green."

Angelina looked at me thoughtfully. "Either way, you'll look very Christmas-y," she pointed out. "You could even wear both colors and go all out."

"No," I said, widening my eyes. "That would look way too corny. I'm not six. I can't pull that off."

"I actually think you should go with a dark green dress," Angelina said. "It'll bring out the bit of green in your eyes."

I nodded. "And I think _you_ should go in gold. You've always looked good in gold."

"You think?" Angelina asked.

I nodded. "Trust me." Just then, I noticed a flash of green, nearly buried in the rack of dresses we were looking at. Feeling hopeful, I reached in and grasped the hanger, pulling the dress out.

Angelina's mouth dropped open. "Try that on. Now."

"Why? Shouldn't I be looking for other ones in case this one doesn't—"

"It's perfect for you!" Angelina cried. "It's sophisticated but still fun and it's green!"

I laughed. "Ange, maybe you should be a fashion consultant." I hastily checked the tag on the dress for the size. "Anyway, it's not my size. It's a size too big."

Angelina stared at me for a moment before looking over her shoulder and pulling me into an empty corner of the shop. "I don't know what it is, but I can envision this dress on you so perfectly."

"Ange, it's not my size," I repeated, looking at her as if she had ten heads. I didn't know what she was up to and it was throwing me off.

Angelina smiled before taking the dress from me and holding it up in front of her. She chewed her lip as she looked it over, then looked up at me and squinted. "Hmm," she said.

"Ange, what are you doing?" I asked.

She didn't answer. Instead, she looked around the area again to make sure we were alone before she pulled out her wand and waved it at the dress, which visibly shrunk a bit.

"There, now it should fit," she said, handing it back to me. "If it doesn't, let me know and I'll make some adjustments." She smirked and twirled her wand in her hand.

I gaped at her. "You can't be serious. Ange, I don't think you can just transfigure dresses. Especially ones you haven't bought yet. Plus, what if this looks awful on me? I haven't even tried it on and you're so sure it'll look good."

"It will, Liles," she insisted. "Especially now that it's your size. Now, come on let's go put it on!" She ushered me towards the changing rooms.

"You've been hanging around the twins too much!" I exclaimed, stumbling into the room Angelina essentially pushed me into and turning to shoot her a look as she swished the curtain closed.

"Put the dress on!" she exclaimed from the other side.

Sighing, I stripped out of my clothes and slipped into the dress. It was green, obviously, but a deep hunter green color, and the top was made out of lace. There was a sweetheart neckline bit underneath it, making the only see through part of the lace the bit above the sweetheart neckline, which extended up to my collarbone, and the sleeves, which extended down to my elbows. The skirt wasn't quite a ball gown, but it did flare out a bit. It fell to the floor in beautiful waves of soft green material. And it fit perfectly. I don't know how Angelina had done it. I supposed with an impressive eye for guessing how much to shrink a dress.

"Is it on?" Angelina asked, tapping her fingers against the curtain and making it ripple a bit.

"Yeah," I answered slowly, still looking at myseslf in the mirror.

"Okay, from the way you answered, it can either be really, really good or really, really bad," Angelina answered. "Come out so we can see."

"We?" I asked with a smile, turning my head slightly to look over my shoulder at the closed curtain.

"Yeah, I rounded up Katie, Alicia and Tess."

"Don't you all have dresses of your own to be trying on?"

"We're already in them," Angelina said. "And it's very important that we all give and receive opinions on what we're wearing. Girl code."

I giggled. "Really?" I asked running my hands over the skirt of my dress as I tilted my head.

"Yes, really, now get out here," Angelina demanded.

Sighing, I turned and pushed open the curtain. Angelina was standing immediately outside of it, wearing a metallic gold, floor length, dress. It had a high neckline and short sleeves, but the back dipped dangerously low.

I let out a whistle. "Merlin, Ange, you almost killed _me_ right now, so Fred's going to kick the bucket for sure when he sees you."

"I haven't decided on anything yet," Angelina said, blushing.

"Yes, you have," I nodded. "That one." I pointed to what she was wearing.

"Only if you get that one," she replied, gesturing to my dress. "It's perfect." She lowered her voice. "And it's _exactly_ your size. Fits just the way it should."

I smirked. "You like it?"

"It's beautiful!" Tess exclaimed, nodding earnestly. She had on a yellow dress, very fitting to her personality. It had cap sleeves and a thin white ribbon around the waist.

Katie and Alicia both expressed their love of my dress, which made it unanimous. It was settled. I was going to buy the dress and after that, I couldn't go back. I would have no choice but to attend the ball without Oliver by my side, which wasn't exactly ideal for me. But on the other hand, I would have the best group of friends in the world at my side, which was equally as good, if not better.


	40. Chapter 40

"Lilah? Can I ask you something?"

The quiet voice caused me to look up and when I did, I saw my brother taking a seat on the table in front of the fire, facing the armchair I was lounging in and resting his elbows on his knees. He looked nervous and that immediately set me on edge.

"Sure, Jules. Anything. You know that," I said, closing my textbook and sitting up, swinging my legs off the arm of the chair and planting them on the floor in front of me.

Julian looked over his shoulders-first one, then the other-to make sure no one was around. No one was. It was late. All my friends were either in bed, or in the twins' case, testing out their newst batch of Ton-Tongue Toffees on Mrs. Norris. I had the entire area in front of the fire to myself.

"Jules, what is it?" I asked gently, leaning forward.

Julian swallowed and looked down at his hands before looking back up at me. "What's the best way to ask a girl out?"

I stared at him for a moment, blinking in surprise. "That's it? That's all you wanted to ask?"

"Yeah," he said slowly, wrinkling his eyebrows in confusion. "Why?"

"It's just-you looked so secretive," I said with a laugh. I shrugged and leaned back in my chair. "But even still, this is a big deal. You want to ask a girl out?"

"Just to the Yule Ball," Julian said with a blush.

"Who is she?" I asked. "Do you like her or just want to take her as a friend? Is she smart? What house is she in?" I leaned forward again as I tilted my head and looked at my brother. I was asking all the questions because I was truly interested, but at the same time I was being protective too. My little brother was interested in a girl for the first time. It was important.

"Lilah, relax," Julian said with a roll of his eyes. "Her name's Heather, she's in Ravenclaw. She's in my Charms class and that's where I met her. She sits across the aisle from me. We've talked a few times and she's really nice. I guess we're sort of friends. I guess I wouldn't mind getting to know her better." He sighed and brushed his hand upwards through the light brown hair over his forehead, which stuck out haphazardly from him repeating the action too many times over the course of a day. He dropped his hand and looked up at me.

I smiled. "You're really nervous about this, aren't you?"

"Shut up, Lilah," he muttered, looking away. "I'm not."

"You are."

"If you're going to tease me, maybe I'll go to the twins for advice," Julian snapped.

"Think about what you just said, Jules," I laughed. "You threatened to go to the twins for advice and to avoid teasing." I snorted. "Really? Come on."

Julian gave me a look. "I came to you because you're my sister. And a girl. I need help asking Heather to the Yule Ball. How do I do it? Flowers? Fireworks? I don't know."

"The twins would tell you to do flowers and fireworks probably," I said. "Or tell you to yell it out across the room. But those are kind of the two extremes of asking someone to a dance." I paused. "I guess it really comes down to how this Heather girl would like to be asked. But you do want to be sweet, but not too cheesy. Thoughtful, but not too extravagant. Not _too_ over the top. Unless she likes that, of course."

"Okay, so you're really not helping me at all," Julian said with a raised eyebrow.

"It's hard since I don't know this girl," I said. "I told you to think about what she likes. What _does _she like?"

"She wouldn't like anything too extravagant," Julian said. "I know that much."

"Okay, so just do flowers, then," I said with a shrug. "Can't go wrong with that. But...make sure they aren't trick flowers. Just to be safe, go with regular ones."

"Do you think she'll say yes?" Julian whispered.

"How could she refuse you?" I asked, reaching out and ruffling his hair. "You're adorable."

"I'm not _adorable_," Julian scoffed, playfully shoving my arm away. "I'm not a baby anymore."

"I know," I sighed. "You're all grown up. Asking a girl out and everything." I smiled at him affectionately.

"Stop looking at me like that," Julian responded with a scoff. "You're creeping me out."

"How rude!" I called after him as he got up and walked away. "I give you advice out of the goodness of my heart and that's how you repay me?" When Julian didn't answer, I smiled and shook my head before returning to my homework.

* * *

Finally, it was Christmas Eve. Angelina, Alicia, Katie, the twins and I started the day with a snowball fight on the front lawn. We even invited Harry, Ron, Julian and Tess, who invited Connor, her date to the ball.

"The more the merrier," the twins had claimed when Tess had introduced Connor to them.

We were outside most of the morning, then went in for lunch. And after that we even went back out again, all of us thrilled to have no worries for the time being. No classes, no homework, no Triwizard tournament. Just Christmas, the Yule ball, freshly fallen snow and each other.

I let out a shriek as Fred snuck up behind me and slipped a handful of snow down my coat.

"That is cheating, Fred Weasley!" I screamed, whirling around as Fred laughed and ran away. "You're supposed to _throw_ the snowballs!" I picked up a bit of snow of my own and packed it into a tight ball. Then I flung it with all my might at Fred. I was sure it was going to hit him until the very last second when it fell short and hit Angelina in the face instead.

"Oh, you'll pay for that," she laughed, bending down to scoop up her own snowball.

"It's Fred's fault, it's Fred's fault," I squealed, attempting to run and dodge the snowball. But Angelina had very good aim. Probably from being a Chaser for the past four years. The snowball hit me directly in the neck and snow dripped all down the front of my coat. Now I was freezing in the front and the back. Perfect.

Everyone was laughing hysterically at my misfortune. I scowled at first only to burst into laughter a second later and try to go after Angelina with my own snowball. Unfortunately, my aim wasn't as good as hers. I kept missing or hitting the wrong people.

"You're terrible at this, Lilah," Fred told me as my snowball sailed completely over his head.

"I can't hear you," I joked, sticking my fingers in my ears. Fred took the opportunity to try to stick more snow down my coat, but I saw him coming and aimed a kick at his shins that he dodged. I took my fingers out of my ears and picked up two handfuls of snow. I didn't even bother making them into snowballs before I threw both handfuls at him.

"Now who's cheating?" he yelped, darting away from the flying snow. "The purpose of a snowball fight is to throw _snowballs_."

"You cheated first," I said, sticking my tongue out at him.

We stayed outside for another ten minutes before Angelina, Katie, Alicia, Tess, Hermione and I announced we were going back to the castle to get ready for the ball.

"The ball's not for another two and a half hours!" Ron yelled.

"Exactly," I called back, turning to wave at the boys. "See you all in two and a half hours!"

* * *

Finally, the time had come. Angelina, Katie, Alicia and I were all gathered in the entrance hall, trying to find the boys in the crowd of people.

"There they are," Katie said, pointing.

Sure enough, I could see the tops of the twins heads, their flaming red hair standing out vibrantly against everyone else. They were standing over near the front doors, so we made our way over there. Lee was standing with Vivian already and Tess was already there with Connor as well. They were all lost in conversation and hadn't noticed us yet.

It was George who looked up and saw us first. He immediately broke into a grin when he saw Katie and it was enough to make Fred look up too. I giggled when I saw his mouth nearly fall open when he saw Angelina and it made me miss Oliver more than ever.

"Wow, you certainly clean up well," Fred said to Angelina when we were close enough.

She laughed. "So do you."

Fred chuckled and leaned in for a kiss. That's when he saw me and blinked a few times.

"Wow," he said, giving me a lopsided smile.

I met his eyes and I felt myself start to blush at the way he was looking at me. But then, in typical Fred fashion, he had to go and ruin it.

"Who knew Lilah could ever look this good?" he teased.

"Shut up," I cried, punching him in the arm. "I'll have you know, Fred Weasley, that I do not rely on your approval for how I look."

"Tell him, Lie," Angelina said, holding her hand up for a high five. I slapped my hand against hers and giggled.

"In all honesty, though," Fred continued, "you should wear green more often. It brings out the green in your eyes."

"That's what Angelina said too," I whispered with a shy smile.

"Ah, see? That must mean I'm not a total idiot," Fred laughed, smiling at Angelina.

After that, I had to head into the great hall with the others, while the twins and their dates waited outside in the entrance hall. McGonagall would be lining them up with the other champions so that they could start the first dance. I was actually glad it wasn't me. I would have hated having to do that. The twins didn't care, though. They weren't great dancers, but they weren't terrible either. But it didn't matter. In any case, they'd enjoy themselves.

As I waited in the crowd of people trying to get into the great hall, I took in all the people around me, dressed up and looking their absolute best. I spotted Harry, Ron and their dates (the Patil sisters) across the room. Harry looked nervous, probably about starting off the dancing, and Ron looked miserable. Maybe his dress robes were the problem. They did look rather…old.

Julian was also standing nearby with Heather, who had immediately said yes to going to the ball with Julian, just as I knew she would. I had also met her the other day at dinner and she seemed very nice. Julian sure seemed happy, which was all I could ask for.

The entrance hall began to empty out as we filed into the great hall. I took a deep breath and let it out as I took in all the beautiful decorations. It did kind of make me sad that I was here without Oliver, but at the same time I was determined to not let it ruin my night. I had to tell myseslf that the sole reason he wasn't here was because I hadn't been able to get permission. If I had been able to, he would have come. I knew he would. I couldn't let myself feel badly. It would only lead to a horrible night. So with that, I pushed my disappointment out of my mind and focused on having fun with my friends.

* * *

"Are you sure you'll be okay?"

I smiled as Alicia peered at me guiltily. The champions had just started off the first dance and now it was open to everyone else to join in. Which meant that I was going to be left without anyone to dance with right off the bat. Not ideal, but I could manage.

"I'll be fine," I said, staring around at my guilty looking friends. "You all came here with dates and you should enjoy yourselves. I'm not going to steal the first dance away from any of you."

"You're positive?" Alicia asked.

"Positive," I answered. I forced a tiny smile before gesturing for my other friends to go dance. They did and I took a seat at an empty table as I watched everyone dance. Even some of the teachers were dancing, which was pretty interesting to watch.

I did feel a twinge of loneliness as I watched everyone and I wished Oliver could be there, but at the same time I kept myself entertained by simply people watching. Looking at who was here with who and that sort of thing.

I noticed Hermione dancing with Viktor Krum and smiled. I hadn't been able to believe my eyes earlier when they had walked in together. For one thing, Hermione looked totally different. A good different, though. She had on a lovely blue dress and had put something in her hair to make it shiny and straight as opposed to the usual curls. And of course, she had gone and scored Viktor Krum as her date. I wondered how he had asked her. I'd have to ask Julian about it later.

Finally, a faster song came on and seconds later, Fred was fighting his way through the crowd and running towards me.

"Up," he said, grabbing my hands and pulling me to my feet. "Your time of being a wallflower is over."

I let him drag me into the mob of people grouped on the dance floor, laughing the whole way. Of course, my friends were located at the very center, something that I suspected might have been Fred and George's doing.

Once we came to a stop, Fred dropped one of my hands and spun me around with the other. I giggled and shook my head as I blushed.

"What's the matter?" Fred asked with a laugh of his own as he dropped my hand and continued dancing by himself, looking completely ridiculous. He was bouncing up and down and his hair was already starting to stick up every which way.

I only started to laugh harder. "I just...don't dance much for one thing," I said. "And you look ridiculous."

"That's the point!" Fred exclaimed, shouting to be heard over the music. "Come on, live a little, Lilah!" He reached out and tickled me, causing me to laugh and squirm away.

After that, I let myself loosen up. I stopped being nervous about what I looked like and found that I didn't even really care whatsoever. Besides, everyone else looked just as silly.

After dancing for a while, we took a break and for drinks, sitting down to drink them at one of the many round tables that had been set up around the room. Then Angelina had us all pose for pictures. She furiously clicked away on her camera until we forced her to ask Professor McGonagall to take one of all of us so that she could be included too.

And then another slow song came on. Fred set down his drink and held out his hand to me. He looked at Angelina. "You don't mind, do you?"

"No, go ahead!" she said with a smile.

Fred turned back to me and tilted his head towards the dance floor. "Come on," he said. "I did promise, didn't I?"

I looked down at his hand, then back up at his face. I smiled and placed my palm in his, letting him lead me to the dance floor. I found myself blushing as we came to a stop and Fred turned to face me, sliding his free hand around my waist.

"Why are you blushing?" he asked, letting out a chuckle.

"I just feel...strange dancing with my friend's boyfriend while my own boyfriend is back at his own flat probably hanging around in his pajamas."

Fred laughed. "You make him out to be such a sorry person, Lilah," he said.

"He was until he met me, wasn't he?" I joked with a smile of my own.

Fred practically guffawed at that. "Wow, Lilah," he said as his laughter slowed. "And you say _I_ have a big head."

I looked away to hide my smile. "I don't know," I said. "He might have just gone to his parents' party. He didn't really say what he was going to do tonight. Either way he's not here with me because first and foremost, he wasn't allowed. And we talked about it and he said he really wanted to come, but...I don't even know if he did."

"Why would you say that?" Fred asked.

I hesitated. "He's just been so paranoid about...fans and reporters. He doesn't want anyone to find out he and I are together. I know it's not because he's ashamed, but it kind of feels that way sometimes."

"Someone would have to be a complete and utter idiot to be ashamed of _you_," Fred said.

"He says he's protecting me," I said. "From the media, from the fans...and from Sam."

"Sam?" Fred asked in surprise, looking down at me as I stared back at him nervously. I hadn't told anyone besides Oliver about what Sam had been doing. I had been meaning to, but I had no idea how. Telling my friends tonight certainly wasn't my plan, but it had kind of slipped out.

"He's been bribing me," I said. "He's been saying that if I do anything wrong, he'll put it in the paper and essentially make it so everything written is a twisted version of the truth or a flat out lie. I think he's waiting for me to do something big before he publishes something though. Because when my mother was upset about my Acceptable Potions OWL, he didn't do anything. Just reminded me about his stupid little bribe and said he was watching. And now he's here and I thought he was going to be watching me, but I've hardly seen him so far. Just in Hogsmeade and after the first task. But who's to say he's not talking to people about me? You heard him asking you all those questions after the first task. About what pranks I've been involved in and if I behave...He's gathering information."

Fred was quiet for a moment. "Are you serious?" he finally asked.

I nodded. We had stopped dancing at this point, but we hadn't broken apart. Our arms were still around each other and we were still standing only inches apart.

"He wants to make people feel sorry for my mother so that they'll donate more to her new St. Mungo's program and probably give her publishing company more business," I said. "Maybe he thinks people will buy more books published by that company as well so that she'll succeed even more from my failures. If he puts out an article about how much I act out and make things hard on her-a single mother with two kids-people will feel sorry for her. Although, I don't even know why...he basically admitted he doesn't care about us. And at the same time, I think he kind of wants to out me and Oliver because he knows that's not what we've decided on. He wants to hurt me as much as possible I guess. It's like he wants my relationship with my mother to suffer even more than it already does."

"How dare he," Fred hissed. "How could he think any of this is okay? And why didn't you _tell_ me?"

I shrugged. "I didn't want to drag you into it. I couldn't do that."

"So why now?" he asked.

I shrugged. "I guess I didn't keep it a secret from you anymore. It just kind of came out."

Fred looked at me in utter disbelief. I stared back at him wordlessly for a few seconds until the song changed to a fast one and I pulled away. Angelina appeared at our sides a second later and I forced a smile on my face. "I'm going to take a walk outside," I said. "It's hot in here."

Without waiting for a response, I squeezed my way through the dancing crowd, out into the entrance hall and through the front doors. It wasn't until I had reached a stone bench situated in between two shrubs decorated with strings of lights that I heard footsteps behind me.

"Lilah, wait a minute," Fred called from behind me. He grabbed my arm and gently turned me to face him.

"Fred, just go back inside," I said quietly. "Angelina's waiting. I don't want her to think something's wrong."

"But something _is _wrong," Fred said. "You can't just tell me something like that and then walk away!"

"I had to. Angelina was right there and we're in the middle of the Yule Ball and-"

"Lilah, just stop for a second," Fred said. He was quiet as he studied my face. For some reason, I found myself blushing under his gaze and I looked away. I had to stop doing that around him. It was just Fred.

"Go back inside, Fred. Go have fun. I'll be fine. I just need a minute."

I turned to pull away, but Fred grabbed my arm again.

"Did you tell Oliver?" He asked.

I nodded. "He wasn't happy. And I told you exactly how he reacted, which wasn't much of a help. In fact, it's only caused more problems!"

Fred snorted. "Was he unhappy because it could ruin his precious Quidditch career or because he actually cares about you?"

I shot him a glare that was also mixed with a bit of surprise. "Why would you say such a thing? You're friends with Oliver and you've never had a problem before! You know how much he cares about me."

Fred shrugged. "But I worry about how fame can change a person."

"It hasn't changed Harry," I pointed out.

"He didn't want or ask for it," Fred answered. "None of it."

"Oliver doesn't either."

Fred snorted. "He _chose_ his own career."

"He doesn't _want_ to be famous," I argued. Then I paused. "But I actually did worry about the same thing you're worried about. I asked him about it. He said it wasn't true."

"Well, he's certainly not going to just _admit it_," Fred said. He paused and shook his head. "I just know how he is. He loves Quidditch. I'm afraid he'll..." He trailed off and ran a hand through his hair.

"You're afraid he'll get so wrapped up in his career he'll neglect me?" I asked. "That's what you worried about when he and I first started dating. And it turned out well."

"This is different," Fred answered. "This is about fame and fans and reporters and no privacy and..." He trailed off again. "I just hope he's worried about you and not only his career."

"He is," I assured him. "Like I said, he's been...extra careful. Whenever we saw each other over the summer, we stayed in. We never went out for fear of running into reporters. He doesn't want to talk to _any_ of them about our relationship. He says we can't trust them and he wants to keep me safe and keep me out of the spotlight. So yeah, I'd say he's pretty concerned about me."

Fred gave me a look. "But is that what you want for the rest of your life? To stay inside and hide all the time? To pretend you aren't a couple? To watch Oliver go be famous all day and do his thing while you hide and constantly look over your shoulder?"

I hesitated. "No," I admitted. "That's the whole problem! But Oliver does have a point. I don't want my life being pried into and I don't want our relationship to be ruined."

"He chose this," Fred said. "He chose to be famous and he can't have it all, no matter how much he wants to."

"Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?" I whispered. "You say things about how you know Oliver loves me, but then you attack him and express all these concerns that he doesn't."

"I don't think he doesn't _love _you," Fred said. "I just think he's going about adjusting to changes the wrong way and I worry that it's going to be at your expense, Lilah. Believe it or not, I want to protect you, too."

I swallowed. "Fred..." I trailed off. "That's sweet."

"It's been known to happen," he chuckled quietly. He paused. "I'm just trying to look out for you."

"Wow, I guess you do love me," I snorted. "Half the time I was under the impression you didn't. Telling the house elves I look ugly when I'm angry, teasing me to no end..."

"All signs of affection in my book," Fred said with a smile. He grinned wider and shook his head. "Of course I love you, Lilah." He paused. "You're one of my best friends. But if you tell anyone else that, I'll deny it. Can't have Angelina and Oliver getting jealous."

I giggled and smiled up at him. We just stared at each other in silence for a bit before Fred smiled again. "Come here," he whispered, pulling me into a hug and resting his chin on the top of my head.

I closed my eyes and let his arms envelope me as I sighed. The embrace felt good, not only in the cold weather, but at a time like this. When I was so confused and stressed and desperate to see my boyfriend, who now apparently wore disguises and only wanted to hide out in St. Mungo's or his flat when we were together. It wasn't really what I wanted, but I didn't think we had any other options. Besides, he wanted to protect me. Fred had to be wrong. Of course, Oliver did probably want to protect his career. That was normal. But this was mostly about me. It always had been. He was good that way.

"So, what's the plan?" Fred asked as we pulled away from each other.

I shrugged. "I think I'm going to hang out here for a bit, but you should go in and spend time with Angelina," I said. "She's probably wondering where you are."

Fred shrugged and walked over to the stone bench. He wrinkled his nose and flicked a bug off the bench before sitting down. "I think I'm going to break up with her," he said.

"What?" I gasped, my mouth dropping open as my stomach sank to my knees. "Why? You can't do that to her."

Fred actually laughed. "Why not?"

"It'll break her heart!"

Fred shrugged. "Yeah, that's not a fun thing to look forward to, but..." He let a puff of air out of his mouth. "I have to think about me as well, don't I? Don't get me wrong, Ange is great and I love her. But she doesn't understand me as well as I thought she did."

"Is this about the joke shop?" I asked. "Because you can work through that. You can-"

"Lilah," Fred said, shaking his head. "We argue about it all the time. It's getting exhausting. She wants me to have a backup plan in case the joke shop falls through. And before you say it, I know she's just looking out for me. But that's the thing. If she understood me, she'd know that I don't need one because George and I will do _anything_ to make the joke shop work. It's what we want and it's the best suited career for us."

"Which is what I've always told you," I said.

"Exactly," Fred whispered, meeting my eyes and half-smiling. "Exactly."

"But Ange really does care, Fred," I answered pleadingly.

"I know she does. Really," Fred insisted. He shrugged. "But she was right about something. There _are _certain things that you can't make work, no matter how much you want or need to. It's all a matter of knowing what's best for you in the long run and then fighting for it. The joke shop is good for me and George in the long run. And honestly? Even if-_when_-George and I succeed in our joke shop plans and prove her wrong about her backup careers...she and I would still clash. We would never fully see eye to eye about jokes and pranks. She'd never understand us. Not totally. Not really. Not like-" He broke off and looked away. "Not like you."

I stared at him in silence, trying to process all of this. "Fred, what are you trying to say?" I whispered.

Fred looked back at me and smiled. "I'm not trying to confess my undying love for you or anything if that's what you think," he said. "Not quite. But I am saying that I guess I feel...closer to you than I do to Angelina. I connect with you more."

"So just to be clear...you are not doubting your relationship with Angelina because of me," I said, holding up my hands. "Because I will not be responsible for that."

Fred laughed. "No," he said. "I'm doubting my relationship with Angelina because I truly believe it ran its course and is coming to an end."

I stared at him before swallowing and nodding my head. "Okay." I paused. "Just...don't break up with her tonight, okay?"

Fred scoffed as he stood up. "Come on, Lilah, I'm not _that_ heartless and insensitive."

I laughed. "Just making sure. I'd never forgive you if one of my best friends cried all over this dress." I gestured to my gown. "I'm rather fond of it, you know."

"It looks good on you," Fred smiled. "Good enough to make guys dump their girlfriends for you." He winked jokingly.

"Fred!" I scolded, swatting his arm as he laughed and darted back towards the doors. Letting out a laugh of my own, I picked up my skirt slightly so I wouldn't trip and hurried up the steps and into the entrance hall after him.

* * *

Two days later, I slept longer than usual and because of that, I naturally ended up heading down to breakfast a bit later. I spotted George, Katie and Alicia sitting towards the middle of the Gryffindor table and made my way towards them.

"Morning," I said, sitting down across from George.

Instead of replying, he slid the Daily Prophet over to me. It was already flipped open to a page and I looked at George in confusion. His face was glum.

"What's this? And where's Fred? And Ange?" I asked, noticing that Fred and Angelina were both missing from the table. My stomach clenched when I remembered that Fred had mentioned wanting to break up with her.

"Probably arguing," George said quietly.

"Arguing? About what?" I asked in alarm.

"That," George said, pointing to the paper. "Just read it and you'll see."

I stared at him a moment longer before turning my gaze to the paper. When I saw the headline, my jaw dropped.

**New Puddlemere Keeper Keeps Bad Company****_. By Rita Skeeter_****.**

I looked up at George in disbelief as I fought the urge to panic. Rita Skeeter. Never a good sign. "What is this? And why would it cause Fred and Ange to argue?"

"Just read the article," George said. "You'll see."

I looked back down at the paper and began to read the article, bracing myself for the worst.

_Everyone's been dying to know more about the new Puddlemere United Keeper, Oliver_ Wood, the article began._ Mr. Wood replaced Jamie Willis this past summer after Willis had a run in with the law._

"Run in with the law?" I snorted. "He fractured his spine for Merlin's sake!"

"That's not even the worst bit," George whispered. "Keep going."

_After Oliver Wood was chosen to replace Jamie Willis, the team played better than ever. They've won all but one of their home games so far and this is probably largely due to the fantastic skills of the new Keeper._

_"We're lucky to have him," says Chaser Nick Russell about his newest teammate. "He's been a wonderful asset to the team."_

_But apparently, not everyone is so thrilled about their relationship with the popular Mr. Wood. An anonymous source has informed me that Mr. Wood has been in nearly a year long relationship with a Miss Lilah Fitzgerald, who is still currently at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The source tells me that the couple seemed happy, but new developments bring that into question._

I nearly fell off the bench I was sitting on. Her source had to be Sam, for starters. But the new developments? What did she mean by that? Had Sam told her something? But I hadn't done anything wrong! Sadly, the only way to figure it out was to keep reading, so I did.

_On Christmas Eve, Miss Fitzgerald attended the Yule Ball, a traditional dance that is held as part of the Triwizard Tournament, being held at Hogwarts this year. While Mr. Wood is no longer a Hogwarts student, he was still not in attendance to accompany his girlfriend to the ball. Could it be because there is trouble in paradise? Perhaps because Miss Fitzgerald is seeing not one, but two men?_

_Halfway through the ball, Miss Fitzgerald was seen by many witnesses slow dancing with a certain Fred Weasley, one of the many, many children of Molly and Arthur Weasley and one of the illegal champions selected for the Triwizard Tournament this year._

_"Certainly a downgrade if you ask me," says Millicent Bulstrode, a fellow classmate. "He's only in the tournament for attention. He has no chanc of winning. So why date poor filth like the Weasleys when you can have a rich and famous Quidditch player? But maybe she's so desperate and lonely being at school when her boyfriend's not around that she'll take anyone."_

_Moments after being spotted in the great hall, the couple stepped outside for some fresh air, where Mr. Weasley expressed great dislike for Mr. Wood and confessed his own love for Miss Fitzgerald. "Of course I love you," he told her. "But don't tell anyone or I'll deny it." _

_Additionally, it turns out that two-timing people isn't the only offense Miss Fitzgerald has to her name. She's had a record for acting out ever since her parents divorced when she was eleven. Her mother, Joanna Matthews, divorced Christopher Fitzgerald a little over six years ago for being a bad influence on her children, but it was clearly already too late for Miss Fitzgerald._

_"That's when it all started," a source tells me. "The sneaking out, the disobedience, talking back, the lack of motivation to do schoolwork, the disregard for most rules. It's a bit out of hand. I really feel for Joanna, who's been bending over backwards trying to support these two kids on her own since the divorce. She did the right thing and got out of her toxic, unhealthy relationship, but has been struggling ever since. She has to work hard and long hours and has taken on so much, including starting up a new reading program at St. Mungo's. All to help put food on the table. And it clearly goes unappreciated."_

_Sources also tell me that Miss Fitzerald is known for sneaking around school and planning pranks on innocent bystanders alongside none other than Fred Weasley and his twin brother, Greg. It has also come to my attention that these trouble-making twins were also friends with Mr. Wood during his time at school, but that relationship has clearly gone south now that Miss Fitzgerald has come between them._

_Obviously, Mr. Wood has found himself in a toxic relationship of his own. Will it hurt his career in the long run? Or will he get out before it's too late? Let's all hope that whatever happens, Puddlemere's newest Keeper will be around for years to come._

I stopped reading and gingerly set the paper back down on the table. I was nauseated. "George," I whispered, unsure of what to say.

"Didn't you hear? I go by Greg now," George said with a faint smile.

"Any other time and I would have laughed," I whispered.

George let out a dry, quiet laugh of his own before swallowing. "There's actually more," he continued. "Unfold it."

I unfolded the paper so that it was now a full page instead of a half. Underneath the article was a picture. A picture of me and Fred outside during the Yule Ball. It was when Fred had pulled me in for a hug. His chin was on my head and my eyes were closed as he wrapped his arms around me.

I watched the picture in front of me move over and over again. Fred's arms reached out and pulled me to him again and again, laid out before me in black and white. I shook my head. And that was when I noticed it. Underneath the photo, in small print, it said: _Photo credit: Sam Mackenzie._

My head snapped up and I stared at George in shock as all the oxygen seemed to be sucked from the room. I hadn't thought it could get any worse, but apparently it could. Sam had been spying on me and had taken a picture of me without my knowledge. And he had seen me and Fred together, spotted his opportunity and ran with it.

"How could he even hear us?" I asked. "The picture is taken too far away for him to have heard."

"Heard what?" George asked in confusion. "The part where Fred said he loves you? That's the only quote in the article from when you were outside and I doubt Fred said that."

"He did. They took it out of context, but he did. He meant as a friend. But they left that part out."

"Ah," George replied.

I sighed. "I don't know if I should find Fred first or try to get to Oliver," I said after a moment. "I mean, I have to talk to them both."

"And probably Ange," George said apologetically. "She's pretty upset."

"Why?" I hesitated. "Well, I know why, but does she-does she actually _believe_ this rubbish? Is that why she and Fred are arguing? She thinks he's actually in love with me?"

"Well he is always saying how he feels he can tell you things without being judged," George said. "I feel the same, but Fred has to bring it up every time he and Ange argue so she's always hearing your name thrown around. And obviously the three of us spend a lot of time together because we sneak down to the kitchens and into Hogsmeade. Ange isn't always up for the kitchens and she doesn't know about the Hogsmeade tunnel, so...But speaking of secrets, the whole Bagman thing came out before I came down to breakfast this morning so throw that into the mix and it's a pretty nasty argument. Even I couldn't stick around for it. It's between them after all. Ange also found out that you've known about Bagman this whole time too."

"How?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Fred just blurted it out," George said. "Nutter with bad timing. But I suppose maybe he wanted to get it all out in the open. He was going to break up with her anyway."

"I know," I nodded. "He told me."

"See?" George said. "He tells you things that he would've just told me had you not been in the equation."

"He doesn't like me," I said. "Not like that. He basically said so at the Yule Ball. And _that's_ the truth."

Before George could answer, we heard the flapping of wings over our heads. I looked up to see Casper descending towards me, a bright red envelope in his beak.

George and I both swore. We knew what that was.

Casper gently landed in front of me on the table and dropped the red envelope, which immediately started smoking. I gulped as my owl gently nudged my arm as if to comfort me.

"Open it," George whispered. "Just get it over with."

I met his eyes and nodded. I could feel the eyes of everyone at the Gryffindor table on me as I reached for the envelope. They had all seen the Howler as well.

With a shaking hand, I slipped a finger under the flap and sliced through the paper, ripping it open. And then the torture began.

"LILAH MICHELLE FITZGERALD," my mother's voice boomed. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? TALKING TO REPORTERS ABOUT PERSONAL BUSINESS IS BAD ENOUGH, BUT TO GET ROMANTICALLY INVOLVED WITH ANOTHER BOY-ONE OF THOSE NONSENSICAL, PRANK PULLING JOKESTERS NO LESS-WHILE YOU ALREADY HAVE A PERFECT RELATIONSHIP GOING ALREADY! I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, BUT I SUGGEST YOU GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER! IT'S GOING TO TAKE A LOT OF WORK ON MY PART TO FIX WHAT YOU'VE DONE AND REMEDY THE SHAME YOU'VE BROUGHT TO THIS FAMILY. I AM INCREDIBLY DISAPPOINTED! IT'S BEEN ONE FAILURE AFTER ANOTHER AND WHILE I HOPE YOU HAVE A GOOD EXCUSE, AT THE SAME TIME, I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT! I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY WITH YOURSELF!"

With that, the envelope ripped itself into shreds and fell to the table in a heap. The great hall was silent and everyone was staring at me. I had never been more embarrassed and ashamed in my entire life. My lip started to tremble as my eyes filled with tears. I wanted to disappear. I wanted to evaporate right then and there. But since that wasn't possible, I stood up from the table and ran from the room.

I ran all the way to McGonagall's office. As upset as I was and as much as I didn't feel like taking on Oliver at this point (because surely he'd be angry too), I knew it was better to do it now than to wait and it was better to do it in person. I needed to sort this all out. Now.

Since McGonagall was still at breakfast, I sat outside of her office door and waited for her to return. A few minutes later, she did, and she didn't look surprised to see me.

"I expect you'd like to use the fireplace," she said, taking in the sight of me, sitting on the floor in front of her office, my knees pulled to my chest and tears still falling down my cheeks.

I nodded. "Mhm," I said quietly with a watery sniff as I rubbed my hand across my cheeks. Merlin, I looked pathetic.

Professor McGonagall gave me a sympathetic look and pushed open her office door. "Up you get," she said briskly, tilting her head towards the doorway.

I stood, made my way into the office and followed McGonagall to the fireplace. She handed me the pot of Floo Powder and I grabbed a handful before she set it back down on the mantle.

"For the record, Miss Fitzgerald," she began. I paused halfway to throwing down the Floo Powder to look at her. "Anyone with even half a brain knows that Rita Skeeter will do almost anything for a story. And anyone with half a brain should know that you aren't what you've been made out to seem." She paused and took in my still miserable expression. "You aren't what you've been made out to _feel_. By Rita Skeeter or anyone else."

I blinked at her in slight surprise. It was like she had read my mind. It was like she knew that out of everything, my mother's Howler had stung the most. _One_ _failure_ _after_ _another_, she had said.

"Thanks, Professor," I whispered, managing a small smile.

Professor McGonagall gave me a small smile of her own before nodding towards the fireplace. "Don't be too long," she said.

I nodded and threw down the Floo powder before stepping into the emerald green flames.

When I appeared inside Oliver's flat a moment later, it was quiet. I stepped out of the fireplace and looked around the living room. No one was there, so I made my way out into the hallway.

"Oliver?" I called.

There was a commotion from the kitchen and then Nick stuck his head out from inside the room. "You scared the living bloody daylights out of me," he said.

"Sorry," I responded with a shrug.

"What are you even doing here?" Nick asked, looking me up and down in distaste. I took his expression to mean that he had read the article.

"I needed to talk to Oliver, as you can imagine," I answered icily. This was ridiculous. Nick had always been nothing but nice to me ever since we had met and now he was believing rubbish that had been written by a foul woman named Rita Skeeter.

"Well, what makes you think he wants to talk to _you_?" Nick asked irritably. "After you did what you did...not only cheating on him, but going against his wishes and getting yourself in the paper. Outing your relationship after you agreed not to."

"He'll talk to me because any sane person would know this whole thing is a lie!" I exclaimed. I paused. "Or at least anyone who knows me like Oliver does would know that. I'm not that kind of a person."

"Well, then how do you explain that photo?" Nick asked. "It certainly looked like you were getting nice and cozy with that Weasley kid."

"He's one of my best friends and he was hugging me. There's nothing wrong with that. If that's a problem for Oliver, then-"

"Do you even know how much press he's going to have to deal with now?" Nick scoffed. "It's not all about your little romance. He's going to have to answer to reporters asking him to make statements about you and how he feels and if it'll affect his game." He snorted. "I seriously hope this doesn't affect his game. Because if he's off focus because he's too busy worrying about you, then-"

"Why do boys always only seem to care about Quidditch?" I asked, throwing up my hands. I paused. "You know what? Oliver really used to be like that. Quidditch was everything to him. But he's told me he cares about me more than he does Quidditch."

"You sure about that? Because this is his career," Nick said. "Being in love is great and all, but it doesn't pay the bills."

I glared at him. "How dare you," I hissed.

"Trust me," Nick said. "He's going to do whatever it takes to save his career. And if that includes feeding you to the wolves, then..." He shrugged and smiled at me, but it was a very unsettling smile.

"Wow, who knew that you were so gullible?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at him. "You were fine with me up until now. Up until you believed the lies written by that attention seeking woman."

"You've got to admit she's pretty," Nick said with a chuckle. "Pretty enough where I'd believe anything she told me."

"You're disgusting," I snapped.

Suddenly, there was a noise from behind me, down the hall. "What's going on out here?"

I turned to see Oliver emerging from his bedroom, still in his pajamas. Halfway down the hall, he saw me and froze, staring at me expressionless. While that didn't mean anything good or bad just yet, it broke my heart a bit. Oliver had always looked at me with some kind of expression on his face. Sure, it had been anger and frustration a few times, but a lot of the time it had been joy, awe, and pure love. I hated that now he wasn't looking at me any sort of way.

"Olls, please let me talk to you," I pleaded. "Please."

"Don't do it," Nick advised. "She'll only start wrapping you around her finger again and she'll get you to forfeit your entire career for good. She'll wreck it beyond repair for sure."

"Bugger off," I snapped, glaring at him.

"Looks like that bit about your backtalk was true after all," Nick said with a smile. "You've got a serious attitude problem, my friend."

"Go away, Nick," Oliver said. "You know nothing about her."

Nick held his hands up in defeat. "Fine, fine. But don't say I didn't warn you." With that, he retreated into the kitchen, leaving me and Oliver alone.

"We can talk in the living room," he said, his voice flat.

I sighed and headed back into the room I had just left, Oliver right behind me.

"Look, Olls, I am so sorry," I began, turning to face him. He stood by the door, his arms crossed and his jaw set. It looked odd in contrast to his pajamas and bedhead, but it still made me feel nervous.

"What happened?" He asked, grabbing a copy of the paper off of the end table beside the couch and tossing it down onto the coffee table between us. It was open to the article and the awful headline stared back up at me as menacingly as printed words could.

"Sam happened," I told him. "He's clearly that anonymous source and did you see his name under the photo?"

Oliver nodded. "But what did you do to make him mad? I hope you've been behaving and not sneaking around with the twins. But then again, this article leads me to believe you have."

I gaped at him. "Oliver...you _know_ this isn't true."

"I don't know what's true and what isn't or what's half true and has just been twisted around," Oliver replied. "What's with the picture? Why is Fred hugging you like that?"

"Like what?" I asked. "It's a regular hug. He's not hugging me any particular way," I said. "And I had just told him the truth about Sam."

"Why?" Oliver asked. "Why would you do that?"

"I wanted to," I told him with a shrug.

Oliver stared at me. "Did he really tell you he's in love with you?"

"He said he loves me as a friend. Skeeter left that part out."

Oliver stared at me again before nodding slightly. "What I want to know is how she overheard that," he said.

I shrugged. "I honestly don't know. I wondered the same thing. Sam couldn't have heard it while he was taking the photo. He's too far away."

"Exactly," Oliver said. He sighed in frustration.

"You want to know what happened?" I asked. "You want to know the truth? I told Fred about Sam because I wanted to. He's one of my best friends and we _were _dancing together-something you knew about. I told you they all offered to take turns dancing with me. Anyway, I needed to tell him. So I did and then I went outside to get some air and he came after me. He asked if you knew about Sam and I told him you did. He didn't bad mouth you. He just worried that you'd still be too obsessed with Quidditch in a time like this that you'd be more afraid of how Sam's bribe would affect you than it would me. And then he said he loved me as a friend. We hugged. And that was it." I looked at him earnestly as I shrugged. I left out the discussion about him breaking up with Angelina. I didn't need to add fuel to the fire and give Oliver any more crazy thoughts.

"He really thinks I love Quidditch more than you?" Oliver asked angrily.

"Is he wrong?" I asked quietly.

"Of course he is!" Oliver scoffed. "How can you believe him? How can you take his side?"

"I don't!" I exclaimed. "It's just-Nick said you'd have to fix this and that you'd have to choose Quidditch because it's your career now and it pays your bills."

"Forget Nick," Oliver said. "He can be an idiot sometimes. The point is that you know how I feel about you. How could you ever doubt me?"

"How could _you _ever doubt me?" I asked, pointing to the article. "I mean, you clearly do. Asking about the hug and all that. Giving me that blank, flat look."

"I'm just angry that you weren't careful enough!" Oliver cried. "You knew Sam was at Hogwarts! You knew Rita was there! You knew Hogwarts was under the eye of all the reporters because of the tournament and you were still careless!"

"I talked to my friend outside the front doors of the school! We did nothing wrong! Nothing was said that would be considered cheating! This was what Sam was waiting for. This was his opportunity. This was the perfect chance to take something and twist it around into the perfect negative story."

"Exactly," Oliver said. "How could you have not seen it?"

I gaped at him. Was he serious? Did he think I was some kind of miracle child who thought of every possible elaborate scheme my mother's twisted boyfriend could come up with? "How could I have?" I asked. "Plus, how was I supposed to know we were being listened to? As far as I could see, no one was around. And no one was in earshot! So I don't know how Rita heard what we said."

"I'm going to get asked about this, Lilah," Oliver said. "And I'm going to have to figure out what to say to fix this. It's true, I'm not looking to lose my job. Not many people are. But I also can't say anything that'll make me lose you." He sighed. "And besides, it'll stir up attention. If I say Rita Skeeters a liar, it'll bring up all these accusations about her, however true they might be and it'll put me in a negative spotlight. It'll give me negative attention I don't need or want."

"How do you know that?" I asked. "How do you know what everyone else will think? Sure, people might still think I'm crazy and a cheater no matter what, but not everyone. People will believe us if we tell the truth."

"Our word against Rita's?" Oliver asked. "Plenty of people will believe her over us. It'll be opening a can of worms. I want to defend you so badly because I meant what I said. You mean so much more to me than Quidditch, but Quidditch still means a lot. I love what I do. I don't _want_ to be kicked off the team." He looked up at the ceiling in frustration before rubbing the back of his neck. "This is exactly the kind of thing I wanted to avoid."

"Well, I don't know why you're getting all angry with me," I said. "I didn't do anything. I've already told you I don't know how Skeeter found out about all of this. I mean, she obviously talked to Sam and he obviously gave her the story and took the photo, but that quote from outside near the bench..."

"You keep telling me that, but you probably could have been more careful! Talking like you did with Fred out in the open wasn't a good idea. It was quieter with a better chance of being heard. And while the reporters weren't allowed into the ball, it doesn't mean they weren't allowed right outside. You defintely could have thought your actions through more." He shook his head at me. "All I've been doing all along is trying to protect _you_! I've been bending over backwards trying to make sure you stayed out of the limelight! Trying to make sure things like _this_," he grabbed the paper and shook it in my face, "didn't happen!"

"Really?" I snapped. "Are you _sure_? I'm not sure what you really want. You say you want to defend me, but then you're worried about your job! You keep going back and forth between them as if both ways aren't an option. As if it's either or. Me or Quidditch."

"Because it is now! Don't you get it?" Oliver yelled. "Trust me, I'm selfish! I do want it all! I want my job and my friends and you and I want to be public about our relationship but I want my privacy! And I can't have all of that! Sacrifices need to be made!"

"And I'm one of them?" I asked. "Being with me in public is one of them?" I looked at him sadly. "I get it. Quidditch comes first. Always has. And I just can't do anything right. One failure after another." I let out a bitter laugh as tears pooled in my eyes.

Oliver let out a sigh and pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. "Lilah," he said, his voice soft and firm and slow as if he were speaking to a child. He removed his hands from his eyes and looked at me. "I am not embarrassed by you. I love you. And you're not a failure. Like I said, I want it all. And in the end, I tried to do what I could to maintain both you and our privacy. I thought I was doing what's best for us. I want to protect you from all of this." He gestured to the paper. "I can't be protected anymore. You can."

"I've told you I appreciate that," I said. "But, as I've said, I don't like to hide. And now we don't even have to hide anymore and you still want to."

"I'm trying to keep you out of the spotlight! How many times do I have to say it?" Oliver asked. "This is what can happen!" He looked at the paper. "It can happen again. I want to fix it! Make it go away while we might still be able to! Prevent it from happening again! So how can you keep saying you don't want to hide?" He paused and looked at me. "I'm a famous Quidditch player and you're just an average, ordinary girl. I want to keep it that way."

I blinked and took another step backwards. I felt as if I had been slapped. I looked away as tears came to my eyes. "Really," I said flatly. I shook my head. "Well, the _famous_ Quidditch player is probably really busy, so I'll let you go do what you have to do. You probably don't even have the _time_ to talk to an _average_, _ordinary_ girl like me. A nobody. So, go ahead, save your career. Keep being the famous Quidditch player that you are while the rest of us commoners read about you in the papers." I glared at him. "I have to go now," I said quietly, stepping back towards the fireplace.

"No, Lilah, I didn't mean it like that," he said quickly, reaching out for my arm. "Wait."

I ignored him, jerked away and reached for the Floo Powder. And before he could protest any more, I had disappeared into the bright green flames.


	41. Chapter 41

I re-entered Gryffindor tower later with my stomach knotted in fear. I had faced Oliver and it had gone terribly. And now I had to face Fred and Angelina, which I didn't think would go over so well either.

I hadn't planned on Fred being as much of a problem as Ange and as soon as I entered the room, I saw that I was right. Angelina was sitting in a chair by the fire and I was surprised that the look she gave me didn't cause me to fall over dead.

I stood frozen in place as she snapped her textbook closed and stood up, marching over to me.

"I don't know what you think you're doing, Lilah," she said furiously.

"I can't believe you even think any of that rubbish is true," I responded, a lot calmer than I felt, to be honest. "We shouldn't even be having this problem right now."

"It didn't look like rubbish in the photo," Angelina snapped, scooping a copy of the paper up off a nearby table and brandishing it in my face.

"Merlin, that paper is _everywhere_ today," I muttered. "I didn't even think this many students even read it."

"They do when there's gossip!" Angelina said. She pointed at the photo of me and Fred. "You two look really cozy if you ask me."

"I don't know what you're seeing," I replied, folding my arms over my chest. "But as your best friend, I can tell you the truth better than any reporter or any photograph can. And the truth is that Fred is one of my best friends. He's always looking out for me and he always knows how to make me feel better. He knows how to make me laugh. He was comforting me. Nothing more."

"Comforting you about what?" Angelina scoffed. "You say I'm also one of your best friends, but you haven't told me whatever you told Fred! Why? Because you feel closer to him than you feel to me? You have a better _connection_? From what I gather, that's how he feels. Since he told you all about the-" she hesitated and lowered her voice to barely a whisper- "Bagman thing."

"Fred and I don't have a better connection. He chose you to be his girlfriend, didn't he?"

"Well I'm not anymore," she sniffed. "We broke up. He made it very clear that he felt our relationship wasn't working anymore. And I was pretty upset about all the secrets and the lying and I had a hunch I was losing him anyway so," she shrugged snd tried to play it off like she didn't care, "it's for the best."

"Don't pretend you're okay with it, Ange. You're hurt, I can tell and if you want to talk. _Really_ talk, I mean, then-"

"Don't give me that," Angelina snapped. "Don't act like you know how I feel when you're the reason we're in this whole mess!"

"Me?" I hissed. "Me? Ange, I didn't do anything wrong! Fred broke up with you because he didn't feel like you wholeheartedly supported him! He felt like you were pulling him down!"

Angelina gave me a look of complete and utter rage. "I can't believe you! The utter nerve of you to stand there and be so condescending and knowingly tell me why Fred broke up with me! You're proving this article to be more and more correct with every passing second!" She tossed the newspaper at me and stormed up the stairs to the girls' dormitory.

I just stood there, frozen for a moment, before turning and leaving the room, making my way down to the kitchens. I didn't want to stay in the common room anymore and I sure as hell wasn't about to follow Angelina up to the dorm.

I was miserable. Everything was such a mess. I was in a fight with my best friend and my boyfriend. My mother was even more angry with me than usual. And it was all because of a newspaper article that was entirely untrue. I knew firsthand what Oliver had meant now, but at the same time, I hadn't done anything to bring this on. I had meant what I said. How careful could I be? I couldn't shut myself up in my room every day and never speak a word to anyone ever again.

When I finally reached the kitchens, I was vaguely surprised to see the twins at our usual table in the corner, drinking firewhiskeys and talking in whispers. It was now that I realized I hadn't seen them in the common room and it would make sense for them to want to get out of the way, considering what Ange had told me about the breakup.

As I made my way across the room, Fred and George looked up and saw me, both giving me identical half-smiles.

"Hey, pull up a chair," Fred said, pulling a chair out beside him and pointing to it in a gesture for me to sit, which I did. "You hungry?" he continued, craning his neck to look at the door where the house elves usually went when they weren't out in the room we were in. "I'm sure Rosie or Dobby would gladly get you something."

I shook my head. "Fred, it's okay," I said. "I couldn't possibly eat anything." I rested my elbows on the table and let out a heavy sigh as I covered my face with my hands. "Today is probably one of the worst days ever," I whispered. "That article, the Howler...and then I had a huge fight with Oliver and then Angelina..." I peeked through my fingers at the twins. "Please tell me that you two aren't angry at me too," I said. "I couldn't bear it."

They both smiled. "No, of course not," Fred whispered, putting a hand on my arm comfortingly. "It's been a tough day. George told me about the Howler. Are you okay? That sounded terrible. I can't believe your mother said all that to you."

I scoffed and shook my head. "It's nothing new." I peered over at him. "It's been a tough day for you, too," I whispered. "How are you taking all of this?"

Fred shrugged and took a sip of his drink. "Personally, I'm not all that bothered."

My mouth dropped open in shock. "What do you _mean_ you're not all that bothered?" I asked. "Fred, that article was full of lies! Angelina believed it! Mainly because of that picture that Sam took! And because you kept the whole Bagman thing from her but told me."

Fred shrugged. "It gave me the push I needed to end things. I told you I was going to break up with her."

"Another reason she thinks the article is true," I scoffed. "Honestly, I can't believe that Skeeter woman! I _wish _I could figure out how she got close enough to hear what we were saying! I didn't see anyone around. Did you?" I peered at Fred questioningly.

He shook his head and took another sip of his drink. "No. But honestly I don't care. Let people think what they want. A lot of people know Skeeter is full of crap, and a lot of people don't. Either way, I don't care. The people I care about believing me are my closest friends and family and they'll believe me over Skeeter without a second glance."

"Angelina didn't," I pointed out.

"Yeah, but I think she was more thrown off by the photo than anything else," he said. "And the fact that I had been keeping that secret from her and she knew it. She has eyes. She could see George and I whispering in the corner of the common room every night and that we probably looked upset, which would mean that we weren't inventing. She was suspicious. She knew something was up. She also probably really does know that the article was rubbish, but the picture...Well, a picture is worth a thousand words, isn't it?"

I thought that over. He did have a point. But that didn't erase the fact that she was upset with both of us and that we could both potentially have lost a very good friend.

"What if she never speaks to either of us again?" I asked. "Don't tell me you don't care about that. At some point, Fred, you loved her. Whether or not you still even do is your business, but you dated for a year. You're very good friends...You can't say it's not hard because it is."

Fred stared down into his bottle of firewhiskey. I saw him glance at George, who shrugged and said nothing. "Sure, it stings a bit to have a relationship like that end," Fred finally said. "Even if I initiated it and if I was the one who wanted it." He paused. "Well, I didn't _want _it. Actually, technically...I did, but-" he broke off. "I just mean that it's sad it had to happen, but I knew that Angelina and I weren't meant to be. I loved her and I'll always care for her, but it just became clear to me that I couldn't see a future with her. Romantically, I mean. I couldn't see where it would go. I couldn't see her walking down the aisle towards me one day or standing beside me when we finally get the joke shop open."

"She still loves you," I said. "I could tell when I just argued with her."

Fred shook his head. "She'll get over it. She'll get over all of this. She'll get over me. I'm not right for her. She has everything mapped out to a science. Her whole life is one big plan with no flexibility and so many _backup_ plans that it'll drive you mad. It's like she has to have insurance for every decision she makes."

"Isn't that good?" I asked. "I mean, the logic kind of makes sense."

Fred looked at me and smiled before looking at George again, who was grinning too.

"It _seems_ like it'd make sense," George said. "And maybe sometimes it's a good idea. But to have _everything _figured out to that extent at seventeen? It's silly. Knowing what you want is good, but...people change."

"She may think she knows everything about what she wants and where she'll end up," Fred continued, "and she may think she knows what she'll do if those plans fall through, but will she feel the same way in five years? It's kind of like what you said to us weeks ago. Our brains haven't even developed yet."

"I get it," I said, "but..." I smirked.

"But what?" Fred asked with a teasing smile.

"I already know what you're going to say to this, but just to play devil's advocate here...If you flip that argument...you two are so confident in your joke shop plan. So if people can change, how do you know you won't change your mind about that?"

The twins both laughed. "We're the exception," Fred said. "Pulling pranks, making people laugh...it's seriously what George and I were born to do. We know it. It's another feeling, Lilah, right in here." He patted his chest like he had done at the World Cup when he was telling me about the bet with Bagman.

"Yeah, I think that's actually called a heartbeat, Fred," I said with a smile.

Fred shrugged one shoulder. "Heartbeat, reason for living, pranks, laughter...it's all synonomous to me."

I smiled before it quickly faded and I let out another sigh as I looked at the table.

"So...are you and Oliver okay?" George asked.

I looked up at the ceiling and raised both shoulders as I slowly took in a breath and let it out. "What's your definition of okay?" I asked. "We're still together, technically. But we got in a pretty nasty fight about the article. He was so bent on protecting me...and now that this happened he's angry that I let it. As if I slipped up and let this get out. I did nothing wrong. I didn't cheat on him and I didn't talk to any reporters. I mean, what does he want me to do? Lock myself away forever?"

"I meant what I said," Fred told me. "You can't live that way, Lilah. You can't live in fear. You can't live walking on eggshells just so your boyfriend can keep his perfect image, his perfect career and his perfect girlfriend." He winked at me over his firewhiskey bottle as I blushed. "Seriously," he continued, "his problem is that he wants too much."

"I told him that we should've come out to reporters sooner," I said. "Reporters that weren't Rita Skeeter. But he wouldn't listen. We had a few disagreements over it, actually. He wouldn't talk to them and I couldn't do it without his cooperation." I sighed. "I don't know, I thought I-I thought-" I shook my head as I tried to compose my thoughts into a sentence.

"You thought you changed him?" Fred asked. He paused. "You did. A lot. I'll give you that. You taught him that there was life outside of Quidditch and that he actually _could_ love another person. But Merlin, Lilah, I just-I've seen his face at practices. I've seen his face when he's drawing up new game plans. I've seen his face when we've lost big matches. I just worry that in an event like this-when his career is so threatened-he'll choose it over you in a heartbeat."

"You're wrong," I whispered, my lip trembling slightly. "Oliver loves me." I mentally cringed at how the words came out a lot less confident than I intended them to.

"I know," Fred answered. "I don't doubt that. But he unfortunately can't have everything he seems to want right now."

"He told me he was a famous Quidditch player and I was an ordinary average girl," I whispered, shaking my head. "I know how he meant it. He meant that I was still lucky enough to have my privacy while his life is pried into, but...it hurt."

The twins winced. "Ouch," George said.

"Someone needs an ego check and for once, it's not us," Fred muttered to his brother, who laughed.

"I know that's not what he meant, but that is how it sounded," I answered with a sigh. "He just...he's all torn up over this," I said. "And I don't know what he expects me to do."

Fred shook his head. "As I've said, I have no doubt he loves you, but he's going about this the wrong way and it's costing you your happiness."

"So what do you think I should do?" I asked.

"It's your call," Fred shrugged. "But I think you should do what I did with Angelina. Picture your future with him in it as best you can. Picture your options. What do you see? Do you like it? And if not, I think you've unfortunately got to get out, even if it hurts."

I nodded and sighed before standing up and stretching. "So, what else can we do to avoid the Gryffindor common room until dinner?"

"Hogsmeade visit? A walk around the lake?" George suggested.

"Both?" Fred asked.

I smiled. "Both. I like both. The more time that goes by where I can avoid Ange and let her cool down, the better."

The twins grinned and stood up too. Fred gestured for me to leave first. "Will you do the honors of leading the way?" he asked.

I giggled. "I will," I said with a curtsy.

Fred laughed and shoved my shoulder, causing me to stumble off balance. I frowned and tried to shove him back, but his step didn't even falter. I scowled as he laughed.

"Nice try, Liles, maybe next time," he said with a smirk.

I rolled my eyes and led the way out of the room. As much as they could be total pains, I had no idea what I would do if I didn't have the twins around at a time like this. They were honest with me, but they phrased it differently than they did with other people-people who weren't their friends. They were less blunt. They tried to be truly helpful. And then of course was the simple fact that they were not only perfectly willing to spend time with me so that I could avoid one of my friends for the time being, but that they had been able to make me smile and laugh within the short time I had been with them today, something I wasn't sure was possible. But considering I was with the twins, I should have known better.

* * *

_Rip. _"I-" _rip, _"can't-" _rip, _"believe this." _Riiiiip. _"I can't bloody be_lieve_ this!" _Rip_.

With a flourish, Julian finished ripping up the newspaper in his hands. Then, he crumpled it all up and threw it into the fire. He glared at the slowly disintegrating paper before starting to pace the area in front of the couch.

I stared up at my brother with raised eyebrows. My knees were pulled to my chest, the heels of my feet resting on the edge of the couch cushion. Fred was beside me and George sat on his other side. Harry, Hermione and Ron all occupied the armchairs surrounding the fire and our eyes followed my brother back and forth across the carpet.

"Don't hurt yourself, Jules," I said, almost in amusement as my brother whacked his shin on the coffee table on his way past. He stumbled a bit, but kept going, his expression steely.

"We're not talking about me here, Liles," Jules said. "We're talking about you and how Mum's bloody bastard of a boyfriend actually got a nasty, _untrue_ article printed about you!"

"I actually think you need to calm down," Fred said, his tone level and even.

"And watch your language," I added.

"Eh, I could care less about the bloody language," Fred said dismissively, waving his hand around and making a face. "It's weirder seeing him this furious."

"I have every right to be furious and I have every right to use bad language," Julian said, stopping in front of me and running a hand through his hair. "You're lucky it's not worse. You're lucky I don't sneak into Hogsmeade right now, find Sam and kill him."

The twins looked at each other. "If you need any help with that," Fred began, "we know the-"

"Shut up," I said, glaring at them. "Shut up now. Stop talking." I looked at my brother and sighed as I regained a calm, even look on my face. As calm as I could manage at least. "Jules, Fred's right. You're only fourteen. You-"

"You're only a few inches taller than Lilah," Fred piped up. He paused. "And still a bit scrawny. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure that'll change in a couple of years, but now..." He smiled. "You'd look silly trying to beat up a fully grown man."

Julian scowled. "My dad is six feet tall, so pretty soon I'll be towering over Lilah!"

I snorted as Fred laughed. "As I said, I don't doubt that."

Julian suddenly turned his glare to me. "Why aren't _you _upset?"

"She was plenty upset earlier, trust us," Fred said, looking at George, who nodded earnestly. "But we handled it."

"Yeah, Jules, we took good care of her," George added, giving Julian a sympathetic look.

"But still, she shouldn't have bounced back so quickly and-" He stopped short and looked at me. "I know what you're doing," he said. "You're doing it so you won't have to let me see you're upset. You're doing it for me. To look brave."

I shrugged and looked away. Maybe I was a little, but it was what I had always done. It was a habit. Plus, I didn't see any reason to get Julian all worked up over this. It didn't involve him. It wasn't his buisness. And I didn't want to drag him into such a mess.

"This doesn't concern you, Julian," I said quietly. "There's no reason for you to worry."

"Of course there is!" Julian whispered earnestly. He sat down on the coffee table and stared at me. "You're my _sister_. Anything that concerns you, concerns me. Anyone that has a go at you, has a go at me. And that piece of dirt helped to fabricate all this stuff about you for no reason! He's been torturing you since the day we met him! And why? No reason at all! That's not right."

Hermione cleared her throat and we all looked at her. "I do agree with you, but honestly, what are you going to do? I understand you want to retaliate, and you _should_ want to, but..." She trailed off and looked at me. "You have no idea what he'll do."

"Exactly!" I said. "Jules, listen, if you confront him, he'll ruin your life, or-"

"Do you think I care?" Julian yelled. "Do you think I care about having some rubbish article written about me because I pummeled the guy who made my sister's life a living hell?"

"He could retaliate by coming after me again. Or Mum. He'll do something to sabatage her, or do something to us to make her angry. Jules, you didn't hear that Howler this morning. It was-"

"It was scarier than _our_ Mum's yelling," George said. "Trust me. I was about to crawl under the table. Your mother is _intense_."

"She said I'm a failure," I whispered, staring absentmindedly at the carpet and shaking my head. "One failure after another...If anything I'm more hurt by her reaction than the article."

The others were quiet. The only sound was the crackling of the fire.

"Lilah, you aren't a failure, you know that, right?" George asked gently.

"What if I am?" I asked.

"You're _not_," Julian insisted fiercely, causing me to look up at him. When I did, he continued. "You played a big part in raising me, Lilah. You and Dad did it all yourselves. You helped make me who I am today. You were whatever I needed when I needed it. A mother, a sister, a best friend...And I know I accuse you of being overbearing, and maybe you are a little bit." He smiled wryly. "But I'd rather have that than you not care at all. I know you love me, Liles. And you've always looked out for me. So maybe you could let me return the favor sometimes?" He looked at me hopefully.

I stared at him for a moment before breaking into a smile and moving to sit beside him on the coffee table and wrapping my arms around him in a giant hug. "I appreciate that, Jules," I said, "but you are my little brother It's my responsibilty to watch out for you. And I can't let you get yourself into hot water with Sam. I can't make this mess bigger than it already is. Trust me, it'll pass. I'll get through it."

"Lilah," he began threateningly. "Don't-"

"Promise me-"

"No," he said firmly, pulling away and looking at me solemnly. "I'm not going to promise that I won't at least give him a piece of my mind the next time I see him."

I hesitated. "I really don't think that's a good idea. For anyone. I think we should show him we're not affected. That what he did isn't going to ruin anything."

"Keeping your head up high," George said with a grin. "I like it." He paused. "Although...Sam could do with some pummeling."

I sighed and buried my head in my hands. "No one is going to pummel Sam." I hesitated as a thought came to me. "If anyone pummels him, my mother will blame me." I looked at Julian. "She'd think I'm doing a bad job of looking out for you or that the twins are rubbing off on you..."

Julian was quiet. "As much as I hate to admit it, I think you might be right." He paused. "But can I at least make it even more obvious that I don't like him?"

"Can we prank him?" Fred and George asked eagerly. "Every chance we get?"

"Do you really think that's rational?" I sighed exasperatedly.

"No, but do you really think we care?" Fred asked with a raised eyebrow.

I groaned and dug the heels of my hands into my eyes as my groan melted into a half-laugh. "I don't _believe_ you two."

"I'm going to take that as consent from you," Fred said, patting my shoulder.

"Not that we need or want it anyway," George said. "No matter what you said, it's all systems go on the Sam front."

* * *

The next morning, breakfast started out the same as always except for the fact that Angelina was pointedly ignoring me. Our group sat together like we usually did, but she sat as far away from Fred and I as possible and didn't address us once. Not even indirectly.

Things had been strange between us since yesterday. Well, I guess strange was an understatement. I felt awful for Katie and Alicia, who had remained on good terms with both of us and were therefore _talking_ to both of us. But since Angelina wasn't speaking to me or Fred and we weren't speaking to her...it had put a bit of a strain on the others. I felt terribly about it, but what could I do?

When the owls showed up a moment later with the mail, it was just one more familiar thing about breakfast. Well, it should've been. But it instantly turned crazy when multiple letters began to be dropped at my place at the table.

"Are all of those yours?" Alicia asked incredulously.

"It looks like they all have my name on them," I said in confusion, sifting through the letters to see they were, in fact, all addressed to me.

"But from who?" Katie asked.

"I think I know," I grumbled. "Fans who read the article. Oliver warned me about this. We should just throw them all out. They can't possibly contain anything good."

"Ah, so they're a load of rubbish and poorly based insults," Fred said, nodding.

"Mhm," I said.

Fred grinned. "All the more reason to open them. We can all have a good laugh."

"At my expense?" I asked as my eyebrows shot up.

"No," Fred chuckled. "At the expense of the idiot people who wrote you angry letters because they believed Rita Skeeter."

"Well, have at it then," I said, shoving the pile of letters towards him.

Fred and George immediately began tearing into the pile of letters. I watched as their eyes scanned the pages in front of them.

"Anything good?" I asked, feeling a bit curious despite myself.

"This girl says you're an attention seeking cheater, then adds in parentheses that she'd use more vulgar language but isn't allowed to swear," Fred said with a loud laugh. "She must be what, then, ten? And sending you hate mail?" He snorted and tossed the letter over his shoulder. "Stupid," he sing-songed.

"Listen to this," George said with a chuckle, pointing at the letter in his own hand. "'Shame on you for two-timing such a sweetheart like Oliver Wood. I've read his interviews and he is always nothing but polite, respectful and charming. You don't deserve him...or anyone else if you ask me. Once a cheater always a cheater. It won't be long before you pull a stunt like this again. However, hopefully because of this article, people will be all the wiser'."

"Ouch," I winced. That one was painful to hear. The first one stung, but was bearable, considering, as Fred said, the writer seemed like a child. But this one. "I don't deserve Oliver or anyone else. Wow." I let out a bitter laugh and looked down at the table.

"Come on, Lilah," Fred said gently. "It's harsh, but the basis she wrote it on isn't even true. You aren't a cheater. She doesn't even know you. _None_ of these people do." He gestured to the letters. "I know you. And I think you deserve nothing but the best."

I looked up and smiled at him. "I guess you do have a point," I said.

"I know I do," Fred grinned. "So what do you say you help us open this pile of fan mail now, and later we can ceremoniously throw them all into the Gryffindor fire?"

I giggled. "Okay, fine," I replied, grabbing one of the envelopes. Even Alicia and Katie joined in, much to Angelina's annoyance from the looks of it.

I managed to loosen up a bit as we opened letter after letter. Eventually, we started reading them as dramatically as we could or in funny voices to get laughs out of the others. Fred and George were the best at it and had Alicia, Katie and I in stitches.

But then, halfway through Fred's dramatic reading of one of the final letters, he faltered and cleared his throat before folding the letter up again. "That was all," he said.

"No, what did it say?" I sighed. "Just tell me."

Fred stared solemnly down at the table before slowly opening the letter again and clearing his throat once more. "'Cheating scumbags like you don't deserve to walk this planet. It's bad enough that you took Oliver off the market for the rest of us, but now you broke his heart. You'd better hope I don't ever meet you on the street, because I'd make sure you got what's certainly already coming for you. I know quite a few hexes and I could easily make sure you'd never been born. Watch your back'." Fred looked up at me, his eyes full of fury. "That's a threat. A serious one."

"No it's not," I whispered. "It sounds serious, but it's an empty threat. She can't do anything. What are the chances of us ever meeting anyway? And if we did, it would be in public where everyone would see her attack me."

"I don't like it," Fred said. "The others were all silly insults that we could laugh at, but like I said, this...this is a threat. And I hate it, even if it is empty."

"I consider myself lucky. All this mail and only one threat. I'm surprised more people didn't jump on the bandwagon."

"Don't say that," Fred said quietly, folding the letter up again and placing it on the table. He swallowed. "Maybe it was wrong to make a joke out of something like this. Maybe I overstepped the line. I mean _really_ overstepped it this time. By a lot."

I shook my head. "No, you didn't. I needed you to make this funny, believe it or not. I needed to see how ridiculous these people were being. You were right. They have no basis for their arguments except for an article filled with lies. Without you two, I probably would have shut myself in my dorm and cried. So...thank you."

Fred smiled and looked up at me. "Don't mention it," he said. "But I hope you know that if I ever meet this"-he re-opened the letter in front of him and glanced at the signature-"Annie Hastings, I'm going to give her a piece of my mind." He paused. "Or better yet, a Ton-Tongue toffee. Or maybe a Skiving Snackbox."

"Or all of them at once," Katie suggested with a smirk.

The twins' mouths dropped open. "Katie!" George exclaimed. "That was incredibly mean and sneaky!" He paused. "It was brilliant!"

"And dangerous," Angelina piped up with a scoff of disgust. We all turned to stare at her. She just looked back at us and shrugged. "Just my opinion," she said. And with that, she gathered her things, stood up, and marched out of the great hall.

"Huh," Fred said thoughtfully. "I wonder what's got her wand in a knot."

I couldn't help myself. I let out a giggle. "Fred, you're awful."

"It's one of the reasons why you adore our friendship so much," Fred answered with a wink.

I smiled and shook my head. "So...what's on the agenda for today? We've only got a few more days of the holiday. We have to make them count."

"Snowball fight first," Fred said seriously. "And later," he pointed to the pile of letters still on the table in front of us, "we burn these in the fire."

I grinned again. "That's the best idea I've heard all day."

* * *

"So I think it only makes sense that we do this one last," Fred said, holding up the letter from Annie Hastings. "It's the most irritating."

"Agreed," I said, staring into the fire and watching as the rest of the letters I had received that morning slowly disintegrated in the bright flames.

Fred, George and I had just finished taking turns flinging one envelope after another into the fire. In a way, it had kind of felt good to do it. Fred had a point. These people didn't even know me. Why should I take anything they had to say to heart? Why should I do anything but dispose of every single letter?

"Do you want to do the honors?" Fred asked, holding the final envelope out to me.

I stared at it for a moment before taking it and ripping it in half, then ripping one of the halves in half. I distributed two of the pieces to the twins and kept one for myself. "On three?" I asked.

"On three," the twins repeated.

"One," George began.

"Two," Fred continued.

I waited a beat as I sucked in a deep breath and held it for a second. "Three," I finally whispered as I slowly exhaled.

Simultaneously, we tossed our pieces of the letter into the fire and watched the flames lap at it, eating away at the edges first, turning them black and slowly melting them away.

I suddenly felt something brush against my hand. I looked down to see Fred's fingertips slowly inching across my wrist and down over my thumb, gently reaching around the base of it with his pointer finger and tugging my hand further away from my side, his fingers attempting to worm their way in between my own. Smiling, I finished what he had started before he could do it himself and turned my hand, intertwining my fingers with his. His thumb brushed across my pointer finger before he gave my hand a squeeze and relaxed his grip again. I raised my eyes from our hands to his face. He wasn't looking at me. Instead, he was still watching the bits of parchment still burning in the fire. His expression was neutral, but the gesture of him reaching for my hand in the first place, then giving it the reassuring squeeze, was extremely sweet and made my heart melt.

So I stood there and kept my hand in his, our fingers now loosely intertwined, my skin lightly touching his. I refused to move, afraid to let go of his hand. While the rest of my world fell apart around me, Fred stayed. So did George, but Fred, whether he knew it or not, kind of became a sort of life raft in that moment. While I struggled to stay afloat in the middle of a giant storm, Fred had thrown out his hand for me to grab, literally and figuratively. He wasn't leaving me. In fact, he was drawing himself closer, which was exactly what I needed at a time like this, even if it was shown in the simplest of ways, like taking my hand so subtly that no one would ever know but us.

* * *

**A/N: I'm actually really glad I got to update with a new chapter today since I realized this morning that it's Lilah's birthday, so now updating today feels even more special.**

**Also, Happy Halloween to everyone who celebrates it!**


	42. Chapter 42

It turned out that Rita Skeeter had been busy. Not only had she had time to print an article about me, but she also had time to write one about Hagrid. Somehow, she had found out he was half giant and had written a nasty article about it, making him seem dangerous and unfit to be at Hogwarts around other people. But the odd thing was that, like my article, no one knew how Rita Skeeter had overheard. Harry and Ron had heard, only because they happened to wander outside during the Yule Ball right as Hagrid was telling Madame Maxime about his life. But according to Harry and Ron, Rita Skeeter was nowhere in sight. Hagrid was taking it all pretty hard from what I heard. He was refusing to teach classes once they started up again and wouldn't even leave his hut.

I couldn't say I was much better. I knew how it felt. Over the next few days, I didn't leave the common room all that regularly. It was still the Christmas holidays, so I didn't have a regular schedule or a reason to be out yet. But whenever I did leave to go to meals, the library, or out to the grounds for a snowball fight, I was met with teasing and nasty comments from other people, particularly the same old group of Slytherins that always seemed to get a rise out of bullying other people. Flint, Montague, Warrington. Even Malfoy and his friends got in on it.

They would not only whisper behind my back, but also make loud comments to my face. Such as, "If you ever get tired of Weasley and need someone else to fool around with on the down low, I'm free." The first time Montague said something along those lines, it actually resulted in a fist fight between him, Fred and George. Both twins had immediately jumped on the burly Slytherin and started hitting every inch of his face they could reach. They all received a week's worth of detentions. Montague didn't care, though. He wasn't bothered in the least.

Even Julian got into a fight over me. He tried to punch Crabbe in the face for saying how I was so attention hungry that I'd do anything to get noticed. When dating Oliver wasn't enough, I just had to go for something else. Julian had gotten a detention for his actions as well. I was just grateful no one had written to Mum about it. We'd both be toast. Mum would probably threaten to take us out of Hogwarts and send us somewhere else.

"You've all got to stop this," I demanded one night in the common room. "Fighting and hitting each other is not the way to solve this issue. Isn't that what I told you?To not pummel anyone?"

"You told us not to pummel _Sam_," Julian said.

"Still," I sighed. "It's pretty much the same thing."

"But Lilah," Fred said, "they've been treating you like dirt ever since the article came out."

"It'll blow over," I said firmly. "They'll forget about it eventually. They'll move on. But for now, let's ignore them and not give them the attention or the reactions they're looking for."

"That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard," George muttered. "We can't do that when they're practically harrassing our best friend and the professors don't seem to even care."

"They've gotten detentions," I shrugged. "And lots of points taken away from Slytherin."

"Not good enough," Julian muttered darkly.

"Not _nearly_ good enough," Fred added, punching his fist into his palm.

I rolled my eyes. "Just lay off them, okay? Be the bigger people."

"Lilah," Fred said, looking at me in exasperation. "That's just not who we are."

"Do it," I told them with a sigh. "Do it for me."

All I managed to get were three mumbled, barely coherent agreements from the twins and my brother. I smiled faintly.

"Dad wrote to me," I finally said. "He wanted to make sure I was okay. But _I _wanted to know if _he_ was okay. Skeeter bad mouthed him a bit in the article, too."

"Yeah, but barely," George reminded me.

"She called his relationship with my mother toxic and made him out to be some sort of bad guy and the reason why I turned out to be so 'terrible'!" I made quote marks in the air as I gave George a look.

"Something tells me your dad had a good laugh and then immediately shredded the paper to bits," George answered. "Besides, the article was mainly about you and how bad _you_ are."

I shrugged. He was probably right, but still, I hated that Skeeter had to drag so many people into this mess.

"Exactly," Julian said in response to George. "The article was mostly about Lilah and I don't think Dad would like that. Maybe he'd laugh about the stuff written about him, but not what's in there about Lilah. He's going to want to pummel Sam, too, Lie, and he's not going to listen to your pleas not to. You should know that."

I sighed heavily. He had a point. I just had to tell Dad I didn't want him to do anything and hope he decided to listen and not do anything rash. I didn't think any of us could afford that now. I didn't want anyone else to suffer like I did. We all knew now that Sam could and would follow through on any threats he made.

"Have you talked to Mum?" Julian asked, glancing at me.

"No, I never answered her Howler," I said. "I expect she's still angry, though. I'll probably hear it all in person come June."

"That's months away!" Fred exclaimed.

I shrugged. "Doesn't matter. She'll still let me have it. The Howler wasn't enough."

"I've talked to her," Julian said. "Sent a few letters back and forth. Sam told her that he didn't tell Rita Skeeter anything and that he didn't take the picture knowing it was going to be for her article. He thought it was going to be paired with an article about the tournament and Yule Ball in general."

"Like hell he did," Fred muttered darkly.

"I'm guessing she didn't leave him, then?" I asked, my stomach tightening with a mix of anxiety, anger and nausea at the fact that my mother was taking the side of that creep.

Julian shook his head sadly. "Nope." He paused. "She said he's been a big help and comfort to her during such a difficult time."

"Really?" I scoffed. "A _difficult_ time? It's not all about her."

"She's been trying to cover it all up," Julian said. "Sort of. She's still playing the sympathy card, but also trying to make you seem not as bad as Rita says. She's been saying how she has been struggling since the divorce and so have you. She says it's hard to be brought up without a regular, responsible father figure, especially at the start of your teenage years. She's making it out to be a real pity party."

"I wonder where she got that idea from?" I asked bitterly. "Sam probably told her to make people feel sorry for her. She's only trying to make me out to be the hurt, struggling teenager so that she can save her own neck in the process and not look like the weak, struggling parent. So instead, _I'm_ the one with the problem."

"I can't believe your mother's still with that loser," Fred said angrily. "If Sam is telling her to turn this into a pity party, how can she not think he was Skeeter's source? The one saying how sorry he felt for your mother."

"Who knows?" I sighed. "Somehow, I'm not surprised about any of it," I sighed. "It's always been about her."

"You should be when it comes to you," Fred argued. "Surprised, I mean. For a mother to treat her daughter the way your mother treats you...It's kind of shocking. That a mother would do that, you know?"

"Yeah, well, my mother isn't like other mothers," I sighed. "She's not like _yours, _that's for sure."

"Are you telling me you're not even angry about what she did?" Fred asked. "Because you don't seem angry."

"Of course I'm angry, Fred," I sighed. "I'm furious. But I'm not surprised. And what can I do about it?" I paused. "In fact, I _don't_ know what I'm going to do. If she doesn't come to her senses soon..."

"Soon?" Fred asked. "She's _already_ made her choice. I think you should leave if you ask me. You're of age. You can come live at the Burrow."

I laughed and sent him a smile. "I appreciate that, Fred," I said. "But I can't. First of all, you guys don't have the room or money to support me. I don't have money to support myself either. Just what little I have saved but that won't last long."

"We'll make it work," Fred said. "You can sleep in Ginny's room and we can cut back on things to make it work. I don't need to wear clothes. You'll be helping me do the world a favor, actually." He sent me a playful wink.

I shook my head and sent him a brief smile. "What about Jules?" I asked, looking at my brother. "I'm not going to leave him alone. Definitely not if my mother and Sam are still together."

"Bring him with you," Fred suggested. "I'm sure he'd like that, wouldn't you, Jules?" He reached out and gave my brother a playful shove.

Julian smiled. "Of course I would! That would actually be kind of awesome."

I smiled. Everything was so easily solved for Fred. Because that's how he was. He made decisions the split second the idea entered his mind without thinking through what it meant or even if it would be possible. Because to him, it _was_ possible. He always just did things and dealt with the consequences later. I had to wonder if that was going to get him into serious trouble one day, more serious than just a detention for a prank.

"He's underage," I said. "My mother could easily take him back. She'd do it too. Put up a fight to get him back and then she'd win because she's the mother and Julian isn't seventeen." I shrugged. "I'm not leaving him, Fred." I smiled at my brother, who sent me a small smile back. "Too much?" I asked. "Am I babying you?"

Julian was quiet for a moment as he twirled his quill in between his fingers. "Under any other circumstances, I'd say yes, but now...I'm thinking about how I'd feel if you left. I mean, I know you want to move out eventually, but truthfully? I'd miss you." He smiled at me again. "Especially now when Sam's still around."

It was quiet between us again until Katie spoke. "Have you talked to Oliver lately?" she asked hesitantly.

I shook my head. It had been two days since the article had come out and we had fought. "I've been ignoring his letters," I admitted. "Haven't even read them." I felt awful about it, but I just wasn't ready to speak to him at the moment. I was hurt and I couldn't deal with him flailing around trying to solve every issue and patch everything up.

"And that's another thing!" Julian piped up loudly. "What does he think he's playing at?" He looked at me and frowned. "You didn't do anything wrong. He has some nerve going off on you the way he did."

I smiled. "Wow, Jules, you've certainly gotten yourself all worked up on my behalf. It's been a few days and you're still angry."

"You're my sister!" Julian exclaimed. "Of course I'm worked up. You don't deserve any of this."

I smiled slightly. "Thanks, Jules, that's sweet."

"I'm not trying to be _sweet_," Julian said. "It's the truth! Oliver's delusional if he thinks he's going to talk to you that way!" He looked at me. "I know you love him and all that weird stuff, but Merlin, Lie, I think you need to give him a good punch in the nose."

"Why would I do that when I'm sure you'll offer to do it for me?" I said with a smile.

"Want me to?" Julian asked.

I laughed. "No, Jules, but thank you for the offer."

"I'm guessing you haven't read the paper since Skeeter's article?" Katie asked.

"Nope," I replied, not even glancing up from my textbook.

"Well, there was some mention of him this morning," Katie said. "Reporters were trying to ask him about you. Ambushed him as he was arriving at practice. He kept saying 'no comment' and then ran right into the changing rooms." When I didn't reply, she pressed on. "Your one year anniversary is coming up in three days. Thursday, right? What are you going to do? You're going to ignore him straight through it?"

I sighed. "I don't know," I groaned.

"He needs to get himself together and readjust before he has a girlfriend," Fred said, looking at me. "That's what I think." He met my eyes. "You _do_ deserve better."

I stared back at him for a beat longer before averting my gaze and blushing.

"I wonder if he knows about the hate mail you've been getting," Katie said.

"Don't remind me about that," Fred groaned, leaning back in his chair. "Or else I'm going to break my promise and start pummeling people again."

I had received a few more letters since the morning after the article came out. Two had arrived this morning, including sentiments like, '_You don't deserve someone like Oliver Wood. I hope he dumps you like the trash you are_' and '_I can't believe you so desperately need attention that you'd not only use Oliver but hurt him in the process. He deserves better than selfish, needy pieces of rubbish like you. P.S. I'll bet you aren't even pretty._

"It's for the best that he doesn't know," I said. "He'd freak out."

"As he should," Katie muttered. "Some of those people threatened you."

"It's not a big deal," I said. "They'll get over it. It'll end. Eventually. Right now, I just have to muddle through it and put up with how crappy I feel."

"I think you should talk to him," Alicia advised. "You can't just ignore him forever. You'll have to face it somehow."

"What a cheerful anniversary that'll be," I muttered.

"You'll work something out," Katie said confidently. "And you'll get through this, just like you get through everything else. Like you said, it'll end. It'll pass. Someday, hopefully soon, it'll be over. Just keep that in mind and you'll be okay."

* * *

"I don't understand why you two have been acting so urgent about this Hogsmeade visit," I said. "It's too cold to be doing this. And I have homework."

It was Thursday night and I was currently following Fred and George down the tunnel into Honeyduke's. They had ambushed me after dinner and said they needed me for important business. They did look serious, so naturally, I had followed. But they had barely told me a thing about what was going on.

Personally, I hadn't even wanted to leave the common room. I wasn't in the mood. An article had appeared in the paper about how Oliver was refusing interviews now. Saying _no comment_ when reporters came up to him. Flat out canceling scheduled interviews. According to the newspaper, he was so brokenhearted about what I had done to him, that he couldn't even talk about it publicly yet.

If he kept this up, he was going to sabotage his career over me. Which was not what I wanted. I wanted to find the balance that he had constantly struggled to find. Not that I knew any ways to easily find it either, but I was willing to try. And I also knew it wasn't by making such dramatic sacrifices.

"It can wait," George said now. "This is important."

I heard Fred mutter something that sounded like _off our backs_. "Get who off your backs?" I asked curiously.

"No one," Fred answered as we neared the end of the tunnel into Honeydukes. We snuck up into the main shop, but instead of heading for the aisles, the twins went into the back room.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Just come on," Fred said, leading the way out the back door and around the side of the building, into the alleyway created by Honeyduke's and the shop next door.

"Fred, just tell me what's up. You've been acting so weird," I said came to a stop in the middle of the dark alley. "You're kind of freaking me-" I stopped midsentence as I saw the reason Fred and George had led me all the way out here.

Oliver was leaning up against the wall of the Honeyduke's building, bundled up in a jacket, gloves and a knit hat. I could barely see him in the dark, but when he pushed off the wall, the moonlight lit up his face and I saw him immediately find my eyes with his own. He looked extremely nervous.

"What do you want, Oliver?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"I wanted to apologize to you," he said. "You weren't answering my letters, so I wrote to the twins-"

"Multiple times," Fred sighed, crossing his own arms in frustration, "asking us if we could talk to you for him, Lie. Eventually, we said we knew a way that you two could meet up."

"So they asked me to meet you here, outside Honeydukes," Oliver said.

"And why didn't any of you tell me?" I asked in annoyance.

"Because then you might not have come," Fred said, "and if I got one more letter from this lovesick pain in the neck, I would've gone crazy."

"Someone's certainly tense," I commented with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, well, I'm kind of upset with your idiot boyfriend at the moment," Fred muttered in my ear. "He's being a prat."

I smiled. "Thanks," I said, "but I think I can handle this." I paused. "I'll meet you back inside Honeydukes when I'm done?"

Fred nodded before gesturing to George. The two of them went back into Honeyduke's, leaving me and Oliver alone.

"Look, Lilah," he said with a sigh, "I love you and I'm sorry for what I said. It was rude and mean and uncalled for. It made me seem like I was better than you and that you were…boring. You're not. You know I don't think that about you. You know I don't think you're ordinary or boring."

"Then why did you say it?" I asked, meeting his eyes.

"I just meant to make a point that you have things that I can no longer have. You're still _normal_. That's a better choice of word. You still have privacy and all that good stuff that comes with being normal and out of the public eye."

"Okay, I can understand _that_," I said. "But that's not really what our fight was about. That's not _really_ why I'm so mad. Well, it is, but not completely." I paused. "I don't want you to sacrifice something so extremely in order to fix something else," I told him. "I don't want to be a mistake. I don't want anything we do together to be a mistake."

"You're not a mistake," Oliver assured me. "Dating you was the most correct thing I've ever done."

"I can't make you change," I whispered, looking up at him sadly. "I can't do any more than tell you how _I_ feel."

Oliver nodded. "I know." He walked forward until he was standing right in front of me. He reached out and took both of my hands in his. "I think I'm going to quit playing Quidditch."

My mouth dropped open. "Oliver, didn't you hear me? I don't want you to sacrifice something to fix something else. I don't want to be sacrificed for Quidditch and I don't want Quidditch to be sacrificed for me. That's the point. I'm not worth it."

"You are," Oliver said. "I can't let you think that you're a mistake and I can't let my fame take a toll on you. On _us_. If I'm going to spend all my time being famous worrying about putting you in the spotlight, then _I _need to get out of the spotlight."

"It's too late," I said. "For both of us. We're both already in it and we can't take it back. You can't undo your fame," I said. "And I can't undo that article."

"Look," Oliver said. "I have to make a choice and you come first. If I get to pick one thing to make work, it's you."

"That's not what I want, Oliver," I said. "Don't you get it? How many times do I have to tell you?" I laughed in exasperation. "And the last time we talked, you were telling me how you didn't _want_ to lose your job, but had to make sacrifices! So, I think that you _don't_ know what you want, Oliver."

"Yes, I do," he answered firmly.

"No, you don't." I shrugged. "You want everything, but that isn't how life always works. I know we've been talking about balancing things, but maybe this situation..." I trailed off and gestured between us. "Maybe it can't be balanced. Maybe it's just broken beyond repair. Maybe it got dropped and shattered on the ground and now there's no point in balancing it anymore."

"Lilah, don't..." Oliver whispered. "Please...I just want to prove to you that I _do_ love you and I'm not letting Quidditch get in the way. I just want to prove to you that I've changed since we've started dating and I'm not that guy who gets so wrapped up in Quidditch. I want to prove to you that I'm not Quidditch obsessed."

My expression softened. "Oliver, I know you love me," I said. "I've never had any doubts about that, okay? I just can't let you make a decision like this. I appreciate the fact that you love me more than you love Quidditch, but I know you love Quidditch a lot. I know you're so happy on that team. I can't ruin that for you."

"You're not. I can be just as happy working at St. Mungo's or at the Ministry if I get to be with you and not have to hide."

"Like I said, you can't undo your fame," I whispered. "And sure, maybe you can be happy that way, but not as happy as if you were playing Quidditch. It's just who you are, Olls. It's what suits you. Something would seem off about you working in a hospital or an office. You've wanted to play Quidditch since you were a child and that's what you need to do. You've worked so hard for it."

"Okay," Oliver said, "then you have to let me try to fix things with you. We'll go on proper dates now and we'll figure out how to live with the reporters. Sure, they can be aggressive and annoying and sure we'll probably get more lies printed about us, and sure my manager isn't a big fan of how you've been influencing me and the team, but-"

"What?" I asked. "You never told me that."

"I did mention it in a letter. One that you never even read," Oliver said with a sigh.

Now it was my turn to blush. "I'm sorry," I said. "But what do you mean by your manager not liking me?"

Oliver shook his head. "He thinks that the article kind of started a lot of drama that will only snowball if we stay together. Think about it. Because of that article, a lot of people believe that you cheated on me. Because I've been refusing interviews so I wouldn't have to lie about you-which my manager wanted by the way. He wanted me to say that I never even really knew you and that you were just a crazy fan. I wouldn't do that, so..." He shrugged. "Anyway, because I've been refusing and canceling interviews, people think I'm so heartbroken about something that didn't happen. So how would it look if we were photographed and seen out in public after all this?"

"Like we moved past everything?" I asked wearily. "I don't know."

"My manager just thinks it'll be bad for my image. And the team's image through association. But that's not the point. What he thinks doesn't matter. I just...I want to be with you. No matter the cost. I want to figure it out." He reached out and placed a hand on my cheek.

I sighed and leaned into his touch as my chest tightened and tears welled up in my eyes. "Olls..." I began, hating myself for the words that were about to come out of my mouth.

"I'm really glad I got to see you on our anniversary," Oliver continued, oblivious to my expression and the fact that I had been about to say something. "I thought it would be impossible anyway, but then you were ignoring me..." He trailed off and smiled as he stepped closer. "Happy anniversary."

"Happy anniversary," I answered weakly with a fleeting, forced smile. This was not how I imagined an event like this going. At all. Working through an argument with a boyfriend that I didn't feel my relationship was working with anymore. I just couldn't see how being together would make anyone happy. No matter what, one of us would be miserable or stressed. Oliver could say he chose me as many times as he wanted, but I knew he'd still care about publicity. He could offer to quit the team as much as he wanted, but I knew that's not _what_ he wanted. Quitting would break his heart, no matter how much he denied it. And I couldn't be happy having to hide and watch our backs and worry about what Oliver's manager and teammates were saying. It was too much. I loved Oliver, but I didn't think I could do this anymore. I had done what Fred had said and pictured our future together and it didn't look as happy as it could have been. Struggling to figure out how to make each other happy was not what I wanted or pictured for the two of us.

Oliver took my hands in his again. "I hope you know that you coming into my life was one of the best things that ever happened to me. _You_ are _the_ best thing that ever happened to me. And I'm incredibly glad I got to see you today because now this works out perfectly..." He trailed off. "I love you, Lilah, and I want to figure out how to make this work. I want you in my life no matter what happens...I _need_ you in my life. So..." He let go of one of my hands and reached into his jacket pocket as my heart began to pound. He pulled out a tiny black box and turned back towards me.

I almost fainted as he sunk down to one knee and pulled the box open, revealing a glittering diamond ring that probably cost a fortune. This was not happening. Tears were running down my face now. I couldn't breathe. After everything I had realized about how I felt about my relationship with Oliver, he was doing this.

"I love you, Lilah Fitzgerald," Oliver said. "And I want you to become my wife someday. Maybe not now or even anytime in the near future, but...sometime. So...will you marry me?"

That was it. My lip trembled for a second, then I burst into full on tears and covered my face with my hands. I heard Oliver stand up and then pull me into his arms.

"Shh, what's wrong?" he asked.

"I just d-don't th-think it's the best time to-to be asking me that," I stuttered out between my tears. "It's a really bad time, don't you think?" I didn't know what to do with myself. Saying I was shocked would be a complete understatement. I felt totally blindsided. Of all things I might have expected Oliver to do, proposing to me _now_ wasn't one of them.

"Well, I wasn't planning on asking you in the middle of making up after a fight, trust me," Oliver said. "But then I thought maybe it was a good time. It's our anniversary and I really did want to prove to you that I'm willing to do anything to fix this."

"Marrying me isn't going to fix it, Olls," I whispered, pulling away and looking up at him.

There was a short pause. "No, I know that," he said. "Of course it won't. But maybe it's a start? And like I said, we don't have to get married anytime soon. I know you're still in school and everything too, and we have some things to work out, so maybe it'll be years from now...but like I said, I do want to marry you. Badly."

"You're sure?" I asked. "This isn't a decision to make on a whim."

"_Yes, _I'm sure," Oliver insisted. "I've been thinking about this for ages."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "I can't marry you, Oliver. Now or ever."

Oliver was quiet for a moment. "What?" he asked.

I sighed and looked down at the still-open ring box in his hand. I reached out and gingerly touched the diamond, sighing as I did so. Merlin, what a beautiful ring. "You don't want to marry me either," I whispered, still gazing down at the glittering piece of jewelry. "I know you don't."

"How can you say that?" Oliver asked.

"I know you said you've been thinking about it for a while, but it just seems...in the middle of all this, like you're grasping at straws to salvage our relationship," I said. "It _feels _kind of sudden. For me at least, even if it wasn't for you. It seems like you're just doing things that you think will make me happy, and maybe they would have once, before all of _this,_" I gestured around us, "happened."

"No!" Oliver answered. "I want to fix this, of course. But it's just bad timing. And location. I never wanted to do it in an alleyway either, trust me. But I'll do whatever it takes. Marrying you, not marrying you. I want to fix it."

I swallowed. "Sometimes you can't make things work, no matter how much you want or need them to," I said, fighting back a sad smile. Honestly, Angelina should consider copyrighting that quote. It was definitely being used a lot lately and it was certainly accurate. "What you want, Oliver, is to have it all. And you can't always get it. You're stressing about all of this. Constantly. We're getting into fights about what we should do. We're going around in circles. And since I can't let you quit your dream job for me, and since I can't live hiding and watching my step all the time, it seems we've hit a dead end."

"What are you saying?" Oliver whispered.

I stared up at him as I felt my heart crack slightly, the first step in a process that would lead to it shattering in the next few moments. "I think we should break up," I whispered back.

Oliver's mouth dropped open and the pained expression that took over his face almost broke me. I almost wanted to take what I had said back. "Break up?" he asked.

I nodded. "I just don't think we can make each other happy anymore. Or at least as happy as we both could be or deserve to be."

Oliver didn't reply. Instead, he looked down at the still open ring box in his hand.

"It's a beautiful ring, Olls," I whispered. "And someday a girl will be very lucky to have you give her one. But that girl isn't me." I looked up to see Oliver's head was still bowed, so I couldn't see his expression. He tensed the muscles in his hand, causing the ring box to clamp shut with a loud clapping noise. He stuck it back in his pocket and sniffed.

"Hey, look at me," I whispered, reaching out and putting a hand on his cheek, forcing him to look at me. His eyes were filled with tears and he was trying so hard to blink them back. That image was enough to make my own throat constrict. "I'm not doing this because I don't love you or care about you. Remember that. I'm just trying to do what's best for us. You know marriage won't fix anything, Oliver. You _know_ it. In fact, it might make things worse. You get all worked up about publicity and everything and I can't live worrying about it. I can't have you quitting for me either. I can't stress that enough. I know you love me more than Quidditch, and that means a lot, trust me. But you are _not_ giving up your dream for me. I won't let you. Besides, you would be miserable. Don't deny it. Besides, marriage...no matter when we do it, reporters will be interested. And what are we going to do? Go out of our way to keep it all a secret?" I paused. "I think you need to take some time to figure some things out without a girlfriend. Without anyone else to get you into a negative spotlight. Or any kind of spotlight."

Oliver shook his head. "But...I love you," he whispered almost lamely.

"I know. And I love you too. You have to believe me. This is the hardest thing I've ever had to do."

"Then stay," Oliver whispered, his voice thick with tears as a few of them leaked out of his eyes. "Stay."

I rubbed the tears away with my thumb as I shook my head and my heart cracked some more. I almost caved right then and there. The way he was looking at me with those eyes I loved so much was almost enough to make me run back to him. But then I had to remember that in the big picture, this wasn't the answer. We'd be happy for a bit, but then more fights would come. More disagreements. More publicity. More attempts to fix something that was beyond repair at this point.

"I can't, Olls," I said. "Like I said, we can't keep doing this. Asking too much of each other and trying to adjust together to something that's hard enough to adjust to on your own."

Oliver swallowed as he composed himself, swiping at his eyes and clearing his throat. He pulled away and backed up a few steps as he looked at me. "You're sure, then? You're sure this is what you want? What you think is best?"

I nodded as my chest tightened and more tears welled up in my eyes. "Yes, it is," I whispered.

"Okay," Oliver said. "Okay." He backed up a few more paces, then paused. "You asked me once to promise not to forget about you and it was actually a very easy promise to keep. Too easy. In fact, I don't think I could forget about you now even if I wanted to. I would go to the ends of the Earth to make you happy, even if-even if it meant accepting an ending between us."

"It doesn't make me _happy_, Oliver," I whispered as my tears spilled down my cheeks.

"No, but if it's what you want...What you think is best for us..." He shrugged and looked at me as he waited a beat. When I didn't say anything, he let a puff of air out of his mouth and gave me a weary half smile. "So...I guess that means this is goodbye?"

"Hopefully not forever," I said with a tiny smile of my own.

Oliver held up a hand. "Don't, Lilah, don't do that now. We can't break up and instantly go back to being friends as if nothing happened. Maybe one day, yes, but I need time, okay?"

I nodded as my throat constricted some more. "Okay," I squeaked out. I supposed he was right. I had brought this upon us. I had ended things. It wouldn't be right to assume things would be normal for us again right away. It wouldn't be right to assume we'd both be okay. I couldn't expect that of him.

Oliver cleared his throat and looked at me. "Okay, then. Well...bye, Lilah."

"Bye Olls," I whispered.

He backed up a few more paces before hesitating, staring at me for a beat, taking me all in, then turning and Apparating away. In the blink of an eye, he was gone. And that was when my heart broke completely, shattering into a million pieces as the cracks became too deep to keep everything together.

* * *

**A/N: Not going to lie, writing the ending of this chapter made me kind of sad. I really grew to love Oliver when I was writing this story, but I love Fred too and it is a Fred/OC story, so this chapter had to happen eventually. That being said, I hope everyone likes it! And thanks to everyone who's been favoriting/leaving reviews/adding the story to their alerts! It really means a lot!**


	43. Chapter 43

After Oliver left, I returned to the interior of the candy shop to see Fred and George waiting for me. Fred was leaning backwards against the counter, his elbows resting on the worn suface as he said something to his brother. George was sitting on the counter, kicking he feet against it as he laughed at whatever Fred was saying. It was nothing short of ordinary for them. They were always joking and laughing together. I began to half hope they wouldn't pick up on the fact that I was upset so their own mood wouldn't be ruined. I hated doing it to them. Making them upset felt wrong.

But I knew that even if I did my absulute best to hide my emotions, they'd pick up on them right away. They were good like that, especially with me. They knew me too well to know when I was downplaying how upset I was or even trying to cover it up completely.

So I wasn't surprised that when they saw me, they instantly knew something was wrong. Their faces instantly fell as they pushed off the counter and asked me what was the matter. Then I, to my utmost horror and embarrassment, began to bawl my eyes out.

"Lie, talk to us," Fred said urgently, gently putting his hands on my upper arms and bending down so he was level with my face. Not that I was really looking at him though: I had my hands over my eyes. "What happened? What'd he do to you?"

I shook my head as I continued to sob, pressing the heels of my hands even harder to my eyes.

"Lilah, _what'd he do_?" Fred asked urgently. When I still didn't answer, he sighed. "I'm going to kill him," he growled, looking up at George.

"No, it's all my fault, Fred," I managed to choke out as my crying slowed to short, quick sniffle and gasping sounds.

"What?" Fred asked, raising his eyebrows in confusion.

I let out a heavy sigh and lowered my hands from my face. Finally, I managed to get the whole story conveyed to the twins, who were in a state of shock of their own by the time I was done.

"You were wrong about him, Fred," I whispered. "He didn't choose his career. He chose me, like I sort of figured he would, but went above and beyond my expectations!"

I saw Fred swallow. He actually looked like he had no idea what to say, which was unusual for him. Finally, he pulled me into a hug, enveloping me in his arms like he'd done so many times before, one of those times even getting both of us into some hot water. But I let him hug me because no matter what hugging him had caused, it had always felt good. Safe. And the only other time I had felt anything like that was with Oliver. But now Oliver was gone. And Fred was still here, throwing out a life raft for me to catch again.

"I'm sorry, Liles," he whispered, his chin resting against the top of my head. "I'm so sorry. I know it hurts. I know. But I think you did the right thing. You'll see eventually."

Fred held my hand the whole way back to school, subtly locating my fingers in the dark just like he had when we had burned my hate mail in the fire. And while his touch did comfort me and let me know he was there, I still felt completely empty on the inside. Drained. Exhausted. We walked back to Gryffindor tower like that, where I promptly dropped his hand and went upstairs without a word to them.

For the next two days, I holed myself up in my room. I refused to talk to any of my friends and only left my dorm briefly in the middle of the night to get food from the kitchens. I did nothing but homework. I was a mess. I felt like the worst person on the planet. I had broken up with a boy who loved me endlessly on our one year anniversary right after I had turned down his marriage proposal. And it wasn't because I didn't love him anymore either, which made it worse. And now I was avoiding my friends. I hated doing it, but I couldn't help myself.

Finally, on Sunday morning, the beginning of my third day of moping, Angelina appeared beside my bed and looked down at me.

"You need to get out of bed," she demanded.

"What do you care if I do or not?" I asked bitterly.

"No matter what happened between us, I am your friend and it's my job to tell you when you're being pathetic, which you are."

"Katie and Alicia are my friends and I don't see them doing me this apparent favor," I said.

"We all discussed it," Angelina answered. "And we all agree. Fred and George, too. In fact, they were seconds away from forcing their way up here, slide or no slide. Julian as well. He's been a wreck. Dying to see you. Constantly asking how you are. I think you're scaring him."

"You talked to Fred?" I asked, raising my head and looking at her. I paused. "You're talking to _me_? You said we're friends. You still want to be my friend?"

Angelina actually laughed. "Desperate times call for desperate measures."

I smiled. "Exactly how desperate and pathetic _am_ I?"

"Very," Angelina said. "Now get out of bed, take a shower and get cleaned up. In case you forgot, it's Sunday. You're supposed to go read to Grace this morning."

I sighed. I _did_ enjoy reading to Grace, but Oliver was going to be at the hospital today too, reading to his patient. What if I ran into him? I shook that thought from my mind as quickly as it came. I probably wouldn't see him. Only if I hung around later, which I didn't need or want to do. We wouldn't be looking for each other or planning to meet up anymore, so things looked like they'd be okay.

I sighed and sat up, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. "Okay, but I'm mostly doing this because I don't want to let Grace down."

Angelina smiled. "Whatever gets you out of bed."

I headed for the bathroom, but paused in the doorway. "What's the real reason you're talking to me again?"

"I told you, you've been looking really pathetic these last few days," Angelina answered. "Clearly, you're very broken up about Oliver. The way you've been acting...you can't fake it. And I know that you wouldn't anyway. You aren't like that. Those reasons alone would have proved to me that you and Fred had nothing secretive going on anyway, but I was jealous. I thought Fred and I had something really special. I wanted him to be able to open up to me and I hated that he couldn't. But then again," she smiled sheepishly, "maybe I didn't always make it so easy."

I laughed. "Fred did love you, you know."

Angelina nodded. "I know. When Fred and I talked...we talked everything out like normal human beings. I realized that I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions about two of my very best friends who I know would never see each other behind my back. So...I'm sorry."

I stared at her for a moment, a small smile spreading over my face. Finally, I crossed the room and gave her the biggest hug I could manage. "I'm sorry too," I said. "For trying to be a know it all about why Fred broke up with you."

"Nah, don't mention it," Angelina shrugged. "It was nothing I didn't know and nothing he hadn't already told me."

"So...you're okay?" I asked.

Angelina shrugged again. "As okay as I can be. Sure I was angry and sad and maybe I still am a bit sad. I loved Fred. And I'll always care for him. A lot. But...maybe I was right all those months ago when I said-"

"Sometimes you can't make things work no matter how much you want or need them to?" I asked with a smile. "That's what I told Oliver the other night, too." I sighed. "I'm such a bad person. I dumped him on our anniversary after he asked me to marry him. Who does that?"

"People who are considerate, actually," Angelina said. "Look, if you weren't feeling that a relationship was right with Oliver anymore, no matter how much you do love him...saying yes to his marriage proposal wouldn't have been fair. Not to you and not to him. You can't please everyone. Leading him on would have been rude. Sure it sucks to have your proposal turned down and broken up with competely on your anniversary, but the alternative was letting it go on longer than you really wanted or saying yes to the proposal only to break it off later, or worse, go through with it completely and be miserable. You knew the two of you were never going to see eye to eye. Not completely. So you got out. It's better this way for the both of you and Oliver will realize that."

"I can't believe he asked me to _marry_ him," I said.

"I know," Angelina said with a breath of laughter.

"Do you think he's really upset?" I asked quietly. "He seemed upset."

"Well, yeah," Angelina answered. "Like I said, he got rejected and dumped all within five minutes on the one year anniversary of the day he started dating a girl he _really_ loved." She smiled. "So I'm sure he's hurt. But he'll get over it and move on. Just like you will. There is life after a broken heart, you know," Angelina said. "I'm slowly learning that as well."

"Breaking up with him was the hardest thing I've ever done," I whispered. "You should've seen the look on his face."

Angelina half-smiled and reached out to squeeze my arm. "You'll be okay, Lilah," she whispered. "Now hurry up and get ready or you'll be late to read to Grace."

I nodded and turned back to the bathroom, hoping I could manage to make my disheveled appearance look somewhat decent before I had to leave for St. Mungo's.

* * *

George noticed me the second I walked back into the common room after reading to Grace. "She lives!" He exclaimed from his spot at his and Fred's usual corner table, where he was sitting with Lee and Fred himself.

Fred immediately looked up at George's words and turned to follow his brother's gaze. When he saw me, his face melted into the biggest grin I'd seen in a while. He kept his eyes trained on me as I made my way over to them.

"It's good to see you're alive," Lee commented from where he was lounging in a chair next to George.

"But barely, from the looks of it," Fred said, giving me a once over. "Seriously, you're pastier than, well...paste."

"And you look exhausted despite the fact that Ange, Katie and Alicia have all claimed you were always sleeping whenever they went up there," George added.

I shrugged one shoulder. "I was getting up in the middle of the night to sneak down to the kitchens so that I wouldn't be completely going for days without food," I said. "Plus, I'd work on my homework for hours since I had nothing else to do. _And_ I'll have you know that getting out of a relationship is tough and I have an excuse."

"No, you don't," Fred said, his smile fading as he continued to stare at me. "Not leaving your room or your bed for two days? To be frank, I was ready to force my way upstairs, give you a good shake and tell you to get over yourself. It's not like you to do that, Lilah. You're a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for."

Lee winced and George snorted. "Ouch," Lee muttered. "Harsh."

"No, maybe I deserved it," I said with a wince of my own. "I _was_ being a bit pathetic. I knew I was ignoring all of my friends and that wasn't fair to any of you."

"Then why did you do it?" Fred asked. I sighed. I could tell he was hurt by what I had done. He had been worried about my well being and I had ignored him for two days. That's never fun, but especially when you probably really want to talk to the person ignoring you and make sure they're okay.

"Because I was hurt, Fred," I told him. "I _am_ hurt. You have to understand that. We can't all be like you where we take things as they come and just assume that it must've happened for a reason, so it's all okay. I can't bounce back like you do. I hurt the feelings of a boy that I cared for very, very much. Ending things wasn't what I wanted to do, but it had to be done, and that's what made it worse. Also, you have it better than I do. There's a chance that you and Ange will remain very good friends. I don't think that'll happen for me and Oliver. I'd like to try, but I don't know if he'll ever be up to talking to me again as it is...or if we'll ever get the opportunity to _see_ each other again."

Fred sighed and closed his eyes for a moment before opening them and looking at me. "I'm sorry," he said. "I just-I wanted to know you were all right. And knowing that you were holed up in your room and barely eating told me you weren't coping all that well. I wanted to see you, hear your voice, talk to you, help you heal...and it felt like you were shutting me out. Shutting _us _out. Your friends."

"I'm sorry. I never wanted to do that," I whispered.

Fred nodded. "Have you eaten today?"

I shook my head. "I came straight back after reading to Grace. I wasn't in the mood to chance running into Oliver just yet. Too soon."

"Agreed," the twins said with a snort before they and Lee all stood up.

"Come on," George said, heading for the portrait hole. "It's time for a much needed kitchen break. I've got to prepare myself to go back to classes tomorrow."

"Don't remind me," Fred groaned. "It's just depressing to even think about."

"At least we have the second task to look forward to in February, eh?" Lee pointed out, clapping the twins on their backs.

"Don't remind us of that either," the twins growned.

"Have you two made _any _progress on the clue in your egg?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Nope," the twins answered. "But," Fred added, "from what I've heard, Harry hasn't either."

"Well, that's just _fantastic,_" I sighed. "The task is in less than two months and you haven't even figured out what it _is_, nevermind prepared for it. You do know this isn't something you can do all in one night or just wing the day of, don't you? That's why there's a clue in the first place. So you can figure it out and prepare."

"Winging it is one of the things George and I do best," Fred informed me. "I'm fairly confident we could figure something out the day of."

"Fred, please," I begged.

He laughed. "Relax, Fitzy, we _are_ trying to figure it out, trust me. But all that comes out right now when we open the bloody thing is that screeching sound. Not pretty."

I nodded. "Just as long as you're trying, I suppose." There was a pause between us before I spoke again. "By the way, how are things with Bagman?"

"Erm," Fred began slowly. "Well, we saw him in Hogsmeade on the last trip. He was in the Three Broomsticks with a bunch of goblins. It was weird."

"Goblins? Why?" I asked as we reached the kitchens and I reached up to tickle the pear in the painting.

"Don't know," Fred said. "Not like he'd tell us. But he did talk to us, though."

"What?" I gasped. "About your money?"

"No, he avoided that topic like Snape avoids washing his hair," George said. "He asked us if we needed help figuring out our clue. He said we needed to stay on top of our game if we wanted to win this tournament. We couldn't afford to slack off. He said what we did with the dragon was good, but obviously not good enough for first place, which he knew was what we all really wanted."

"So we were right in thinking that he wants you to win so that you'll earn your money back," I said. "So now, when you didn't end up on top during the first task on your own, he's offering you help, which he isn't supposed to do!" I paused. "What'd you tell him?"

"We said we were fine, we had it under control, and that whatever we came up with would be way better than anything he could think of," Fred said. "We also mentioned just how badly we needed the money to open our joke shop, which may not happen now due to a few _setbacks._"

"So, in essence, we told him to sod off," George said with a grin.

I smiled. "Of course," I told him. "I'm glad...But..."

"But what?" Fred asked.

"You don't know what the clue is," I said.

"You think we should have accepted his help?" Fred asked in shock.

"Not his _help_, necessarily," I replied. "But do you think he knows what the clue _is_? Or how to even get the egg to open without screeching? Maybe you could've gotten a hint from him. He's a judge."

"Please," Fred scoffed. "He doesn't know anything. George and I are more than capable of figuring this out on our own."

"I don't know, Fred, Harry's having trouble too, and-"

"Lilah, relax," Fred told me as we approached the kitchens. "The egg wouldn't have been given to us if opening it to hear the clue was _impossible_. If we're going to figure this out, we're going to do it ourselves. Not with anyone's help."

"What about mine?" I asked with a wry smile.

Fred grinned. "Well, yours is okay. We trust you. I just meant we don't want to go through life knowing we accepted help from someone like Bagman."

"The tournament was supposed to be for seventeen year olds," I shrugged, reaching up to tickle the pear. "So maybe it's harder if you're not seventeen."

"How much harder could it be?" Fred snorted. "Besides you said yourself that we've learned the same as anyone else in our year who just so happened to legally turn seventeen before the champion selection," Fred argued. "People like you and Ange."

I sighed. He had a point.

"Actually, though, Lie, I don't know what we're going to do as far as our joke shop," George said as we took seats in the corner of the room and greeted the house elves that hurried over to us, including Rosie and Dobby. "We have all these products in our heads and a few of them on their way to actually becoming real...and we have no physical place to sell them. We have no _money_ to buy something with. If we don't win this tournament, it'll take forever to earn back everything we lost, plus the bit more that we needed in the first place to get ourselves going."

I sighed. "Well...couldn't you just keep doing the owl order forms? Sell what products you have by mail? And maybe to people at school? Yeah, it'll probably take a while, but at least it's something."

"Hermione would have your head if she heard you suggesting that to us," Fred chuckled. "And so would my mother."

"Doesn't matter who suggested it to you, I expect you'd do it anyway," I said.

The twins both laughed. "You're right," George said. "We would and we are. That's our plan anyway. Try and make as much money back as we can now while also getting a headstart on our business. If people like the stuff we give them now, they'll want to come to our shop when it opens. We'll basically already be guaranteed business."

I nodded. "Just be careful, okay? I don't want all your hard work to be thrown out or destroyed again." I looked up and met Fred's eyes. He was looking at me almost strangely-well, strange in the sense that I hadn't ever seen him look at me like that before. Not really. And I couldn't quite read his expression either, which was also strange. Usually, I was pretty good at that.

"What's that face for?" I asked with a giggle. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Fred blinked and shook his head rapidly. "No reason," he said, tracing a random pattern into the table. "I just-I love how supportive you are of us. You know that. It's nice, especially with the way Ange and Mum acted towards our joke shop idea."

"I'm not the only one, Fred," I told him. "Plenty of other people support you. Lee, for instance," I added with a smile as I tilted my head towards the twins' best friend. He grinned at me.

"Yeah, but besides Lee, you've always been the most supportive. You've always tried to help and encouraged us to do what we want. Not like we let any roadblocks or naysayers get us down anyway, but sometimes it does get frustrating when people don't think we can do it or don't think it's the best idea. It's like...do they even know me and George at all?" He laughed and shook his head. "Take Bill for instance. He likes the idea of a joke shop, I suppose, and has never really complained, but I also get the feeling that he thinks it's just a pipedream for us. Like _oh how cute they want to open a joke shop_. Soemtimes when we talk, he gives us the same look you'd give a five year old who says they're going to be a ballerina, a Quidditch star, and a famous chef all at the same time when they grow up. You know the look. The one that says _cute, but not realistic._"

"And Ron likes the idea, but it's not like he gives us any extra encouragement either," George said. "He wasn't much help when we fought with Mum. Just disappeared up to his room."

"But all we had to do was _tell_ you about the fight," Fred began, "and I could see it in your face how upset you were. It almost looked like you were more upset than we were. In fact, you probably were. Like I said, George and I were frustrated, but not exactly _sad_. This isn't over yet, so there's nothing to be sad about, see. Not yet, anyway. But you care about us so much that you hate that we've been struggling so much. You didn't even have to be there to witness it."

"But Lilah cares about a lot of people like that," Lee said with a grin. "Don't make yourselves feel special."

"Shut up, Lee," I said, reaching over to swat him. "I care about a lot of people, sure...but Fred and George are two of my closest friends. And I do genuinely care. I _don't_ want them to struggle. I hate seeing it, actually." I looked over at the twins. "After all you've been through trying to get this shop open...it makes me even more excited for the day it happens." I paused and smiled. "In fact, I'll probably cry on opening day."

"Oh, Merlin, don't do that," George groaned as Fred laughed.

"But just so you know, Lie," Fred said, his face becoming serious. "It's not one sided." He reached over and put his hand on mine. "We hate to see you struggle too. We hate to see you sad. We hate to see you feeling hurt or hopeless or in pain. George and I tell you bascially everything because we know you'll understand. And if you don't, you'll make an effort to. So I think maybe sometimes you should let us do the same instead of shutting us out. I know you're hurting and you're trying to deal with what happened with Oliver, but you were scaring me a bit, okay?"

"I feel like a terrible person," I whispered, meeting his eyes. "A heartbreaker or something."

"You did what you needed to do," Fred whispered. "You went with your gut and your instincts and those can never lead you wrong. It's that feeling right in here, remember?" he smiled and placed a hand on his chest.

"Oh yeah, your heartbeat. That's right," I said with a quiet laugh. "You do know that's not your gut, though, right? You can't say follow your gut and then tell me it's a feeling in your chest. Don't you know anything about human anatomy?"

"Ah, must've been tuning Mum out that day," Fred said with a shrug.

"Why does doing the right thing feel so...terrible?" I sighed.

Fred and George both shrugged. "Dunno," they said together.

"But," Fred continued, "it _is_ why we tend to _not_ do the right thing."

I laughed. "Should've known," I said.

"It's nice to hear that laugh again," Fred whispered, smiling at me. "It's pretty."

"Oliver used to like it when I laughed, too," I said dramatically with a loud, exaggerated sigh.

Fred, George and Lee all groaned. "Please," Fred said, "don't start that."

I smiled again. "Don't worry. I'm not that pathetic."

"You sure? You _did_ hole up in your room for two days," George said.

"Well, I'm not anymore. I'm making an effort," I said with a dignified sniff.

"Good, happy to hear it," Fred said. "We want our Lilah back."

* * *

Once classes started back up and everyone started to get back into the swing of thing again, time seemed to pass by quickly.

Apparently, a few days after our breakup, Oliver had told reporters who had asked that he and I were no longer together. Whether it was his own decision or his manager's, I wasn't sure, but I didn't care either way. There was a small blurb about it in the Prophet, accompanied by a small picture of Oliver leaving the changing rooms after practice. He looked miserable, which got me feeling awful again, but Fred and George put an end to that almost at once by essentially telling me to get a grip.

I still missed Oliver quite a bit. Naturally, we had been close and now we had pretty much stopped all contact. I had no idea if I'd ever see him again. It felt strange. But I had my friends and they were all a huge comfort.

Also, my dad had gone and confronted Sam, just as I feared he would. He and Uncle Jesse had been at the Leaky Cauldron when Sam had walked in. Dad had immediately gone up to him and asked what his problem was. Naturally, Sam pretended to have no idea what he was talking about. That only made Dad angrier. He yelled something about how he made my life miserable and something along the lines of 'say what you want about me, but leave Lilah out of this.' Sam still played dumb and Dad nearly started a fistfight, but Uncle Jesse pulled him back and got him out of there, which I was so thankful for. I couldn't have Sam publish another article playing off of how crazy and toxic my dad was, using the fight to prove it. In my opninon, we had to lay low and let everyone forget what they read in the paper.

Other than that, the time between the beginning of January and the beginning of Febrary passed by fairly uneventfully. I adjusted to being newly single while Fred and Angelina began to slowly adjust back into a friendship again. It was obvious that things were still a bit weird at times for them, but they were trying. They were still a bit awkward, but I was confident that things would be back to normal in no time.

In other news, apparently Moody had dropped a hint to Harry about the egg. He somehow planted the idea in Harry's head that he needed to open it underwater. He told Ron, who told the twins. I was glad for it, in a way, but at the same time, I felt that the champions were getting an awful lot of help from each other as well as outsiders, despite the clear rule against it. If those rules could be broken, why couldn't Dumbledore have bent the one about whoever the Goblet picked _having_ to compete?

In any case, I suppose I didn't have the right to complain. The minute the twins found out about the egg, we began figuring out how they could go about opening it underwater.

"There's always the bathtub," I suggested. "The ones here in the dorms are a bit small...I don't know if you have to go under _with _the egg, or..."

"Forget that," Fred said dismissively. "Let's just do it in the lake."

"Fred, really?" I asked. "Is that even necessary? This isn't fun and games. Just listen to the stupid clue and get working on figuring it out."

"We know it's not fun and games," George said.

"Which is why we need to add a little fun of our own," Fred added with a smirk, nudging my shoulder. "Care to join us for a nighttime swim?"

"No," I answered at once, giving him a look. "You do it yourself."

"But then once we have the clue, you'll help us figure it out, won't you?" George asked with a grin.

"Don't count on it," I answered, leaving the twins to shoot me knowing looks as they smirked to themselves. Stupid prats.

* * *

The very next night, I found myself standing on the dock that jutted out into the black lake, watching as the twins disintegrated some of the ice with their wands, leaving a large open space of water underneath us. I was shivering, despite the many layers of clothing I had on. I could barely hold the quill and parchment in my hands.

I had unfortunately been coerced into going down to the lake to help the twins with their egg. Fred had insisted I come, saying they'd need someone to write the clue down in case it was too hard for them to remember while they were underwater listening to it at the same time, which sounded kind of silly. I doubted the clue would be _that _complex. Knowing Fred, he really wanted me to be right there with them as they froze, even though they were the ones who wanted to go to the lake so badly. In any case, I had agreed to go. Honestly, the things I did for these boys.

"This is the most insane thing you two have ever done," I said. "We're all increasing our chances of frostbite and hypothermia out here, but especially you two, jumping into the lake in the beginning of February. You're out of your bloody minds. You couldn't have just done this in a bathtub like a normal person would have done. Julian said Harry was sneaking into the prefects bathroom. Doesn't that sound a lot nicer?"

The twins both shrugged as they slipped out of their coats and stood there in just their regular clothes. "Sort of, but not really," Fred said.

"Yeah, we've snuck into the prefects' bathroom loads of times before," George added.

"What?" I asked in surprise.

"Yeah, it's a great bathroom," Fred said, blowing on his hands to keep them warm. "Huge tub. Almost like a swimming pool. It's heated. Lots of cool, multi-colored soaps.

"So, you've snuck in there just to take baths?" I asked in confusion.

"Sometimes," Fred said. He paused and glanced at George before smirking at me. "Not together, of course. And we've also followed Percy in a few times and stole his clothes."

"_And_," George added with a devilish smirk as he pointed his thumb towards Fred, "he and Angelina went up there a few times."

Fred began to laugh as I made retching noises over the side of the dock.

"Yeah, I didn't need to know that!" I cried with a shudder. "Can you please just get this over with so I can go back inside, get warm and scrub my brain of that mental image?"

"Gladly," Fred said with a smile, scooping up the golden egg and turning towards the hole he and George had made in the frozen lake. He glanced at his brother. "Ready, George?"

"Ready, Fred," George answered. "One, two...three."

The two of them jumped into the lake feet first, making a giant splash and causing water to lap up over the ice. Bubbles quickly rose to the top and I peered down into the inky colored water, unable to see a thing and wishing I could. I knew the twins could swim and swim well, but there was a lot of stuff in this lake that wasn't in their pond back at the Burrow. Grindylows and the Giant Squid to name a few. Plus, it was the middle of winter, and therefore freezing.

I shivered beneath my multiple layers of clothing and sat down on the edge of the dock, peering into the dark hole where the twins had disappeared and pulling my legs to my chest, my parchment and quill waiting beside me for when I needed to write the clue down.

The seconds ticked by in silence, leaving my nose and cheeks feeling numb after a while. I pulled my scarf up to cover the lower half of my face and buried my head in my arms in an attempt to get warm. I was seriously beginning to think that soon I'd end up with frostbite on my nose and even possibly my fingers, despite my gloves and it had only been about a minute. I didn't think the twins would be able to hold their breath for that much longer, though, so I was expecting them soon. Unless, of course, they had already frozen to death or been eaten by the giant squid.

But then, with a giant splash and multiple gasps for air, the twins both burst through the surface of the hole they had made, Fred flinging the golden egg up beside me on the dock. I scrambled to my knees and bent over the dock, looking down at them anxiously. "Did you hear something? Did it work? What'd it say?"

"Get...the...parchment. Hurry," Fred gasped as he took breath after breath into his lungs all while shivering and clamboring back onto the dock, George close behind him.

I scooped up the quill and the parchment and got ready to write, placing the parchment haphazardly on my knee. "Okay, go, what'd it say?" I asked.

"Come seek u-us wh-where our v-voices sound-d," Fred said through his shivers as he pulled his coat back on and grabbed one of the blankets we had brought, throwing it around his shoulders and pulling it tight.

"We-e cannot sin-ng above the gr-ground," George continued, tightening his own blanket around him and sitting beside me. "An hour long you'll have to look." He glanced back up at Fred, who hadn't moved from his spot behind us.

"To recover what we took," Fred finished quietly.

"What they took?" I asked as I finished writing it all down. "What who took?" I glanced over the riddle again, scrunching my nose up in thought.

"Whoever was singing in that bloody egg," Fred said, pointing to it. He shrugged and aimed a kick at the dock with the toe of his shoe. "I don't know. I hate riddles. This is right up Percy's alley."

"Wait, you said someone was singing?" I asked, looking up at him.

"Yeah, the riddle was kind of...sung," George said.

"Odd," I whispered, gazing down at the egg. "You open the egg underwater and it's singing, but anytime it was opened above water, it-"

"Screeched," Fred finished. He paused. "I'm not sure if that's odd. I think it's kind of the point. Whatever this is, whatever it is that's going to take something of ours, can't sing above ground. So obviously once we open the egg underwter, it'll sound nice."

"So that means that the place where their voices sound," I began slowly, looking down at the words of the riddle scrawled out before me, "is underwater." I stared down at the parchment for a moment longer before my eyes slowly shifted to the lake.

"You think we have to go back in the lake for the task?" Fred asked, obviously having followed my gaze.

I nodded. "Makes sense, doesn't it?"

"So...what lives in the black lake that can't sing above water?" Fred asked.

"Merpeople, right?" George asked, looking between me and Fred.

I turned to look at him in surprise. "You're right, George!" I exclaimed. "Merpeople!"

"So you mean to tell me," Fred began, "that the merpeople are going to take something that belongs to each champion and we'll have one hour to locate whatever it is and bring it back to the surface?"

"Sounds like it," I said.

Fred was quiet as he thought it over. "That's practically a piece of cake compared to the dragon."

"Are you mental?" I asked. "You have to hold your breath for an _hour_, Fred. You've got to go to the library and get reading. Unless, of course, you have some kind of invention already created and perfected that'll help you breathe underwater for sixty minutes." I raised an eyebrow at them.

"No," George said thoughtfully, "but we can certainly get started on one."

"It won't be done for the task," Fred said, "but it'll certainly be useful to sell one day."

"Great, but let's worry about you for a minute here," I said. "I mean it. We're going to have to go to the library."

"_'We're_'?" George asked with a smile. "You're going to help us again?"

I nodded. "Might as well. I don't trust you two left alone to research anything in the library."

Fred and George both laughed. "We don't either, if we're being honest," Fred said, "so being accompanied by a more responsible person is probably for the best."

I rolled my eyes as I stood up and began packing up our things before leading the way back to the castle. "I've already said I'll help. You don't have to flatter me."

"We know that," George said, jogging slightly to catch up with me. "But we like to flatter you anyway."

"Because we're just so sweet like that," Fred laughed, ruffling my hair.

Smiling to myself and trying to hide how pink my cheeks were turning, I turned away and increased my speed to a run. "Hurry up, I'm cold!" I called back to the twins over my shoulder. I could hear their footsteps picking up speed behind me and in a matter of seconds, their long legs had taken them past me and straight into the front doors. When I finally stepped inside the entrance hall a few seconds behind them, they jumped out from behind the doors, causing me to yelp and give each of them a shove. The twins began to laugh hysterically and took off at a run again, leaving me to try to catch up, laughing and calling after them the whole way back to the common room.

* * *

By the time the middle of February rolled around a few weeks later, a lot of things started going on at once. The second task was in exactly two weeks, on the twenty fourth. A Hogsmeade trip was scheduled for the day after Valentine's Day, which only made me feel depressed, and finally, Apparition lessons for the sixth years would start in early March.

"Finally," Fred and George sighed, looking at the notice board in the common room with a grin. "We'll learn to Apparate, then a month later, George and I will legally be able to do magic whenever we want. This summer is going to be _brilliant_!"

"Your poor mother," I said with a smile. "I feel bad for her."

"She can handle it," George commented. "She's been dealing with us plus five other kids for years. She's tough."

"But everyone has their limit and you two are going to be the ones to send the poor woman over the edge," I laughed.

"We wouldn't be us if we didn't like to test people's limits though, would we?" Fred asked, ruffling my hair as he passed me on the way out the portrait hole to breakfast.

"I'm surprised they're still going to have lessons with the tournament going on," I said.

"Well, there shouldn't have been any sixth years competing," Fred pointed out. "So they have a bit more time on their hands. Besides, it won't be so bad. As champions, George and I get exempt from exams, remember? So we don't even have to worry about them, not like we would anyway. Plus, by the time Apparition lessons start, the second task will be over and we'll only have to worry about learning to Apparate and planning for the third task."

I snorted. "Yeah, sure..._only_."

"Don't worry," George said as he wrote something down on the paper in front of him and smiled. "When Fred and I are filthy rich from all the joke products we sell, the first thing we'll do is buy Mum and Dad a vacation house."

"Why not just a new regular house?" Katie asked. "I mean, your house is nice now, but when it's eventually just the two of them, won't having so many floors and bedrooms be...lonely? You could get them a nice little cottage to retire in."

"Nah, Mum and Dad don't want a new house to live in full time," Fred said. "They love the Burrow. They think it has charm and character. They never want to leave. Besides, they want us all to have a place to come back to whenever we want. A place that feels like home. So George and I figure that with a vacation house...or cottage, they can get away when they need but always be able to come back home."

"That's sweet," I whispered with a smile.

Fred looked over at me and grinned. "It's been known to happen."

I giggled and we stared at each other for a moment longer before I broke the gaze and went back to my homework.

* * *

On the day of the Hogsmeade trip, I found myself sitting beside the lake, staring out at the frozen water absentmindedly. It was cold out, but I didn't mind. I was bundled up anyway in a long sleeved shirt, my Weasley Christmas sweater, a jacket, gloves, and a dark green knit hat. With all those layers, the cold wasn't that noticable. It was nowhere near as cold as it had been the night I had gone to the lake with the twins anyway, so that was a plus.

I barely heard the crunching sound of footsteps in the snow until they were practically right next to me. And then Fred sat down beside me, resting his elbows on his knees and staring out at the lake too.

"Why aren't you in Hogsmeade?" I asked without looking at him.

"Why aren't you?"

"I asked you first."

Fred sighed and picked at a hole in his glove. "I knew one of my best friends had no interest in going and the thought of leaving her back here alone didn't sit right with me." He looked at me and half-smiled.

I returned the gesture and blushed as I raised one shoulder in a shrug. "It's just...I'm not very eager to return to the place where all that stuff went down with Oliver."

"_Still_?" Fred asked quietly.

"Yes, _still_," I answered. "Fred, look, I'm obviously not _devastated_ over this anymore...or at least as devastated as I was, but what happened with Oliver was tough. I'm not anxious to be running back to the spot where it all happened."

"Okay, fine, fair enough," Fred said, holding his hands up in defeat. We fell into silence again and continued to stare out at the frozen lake. Finally, I heard the rustling of a bag beside me and looked over at Fred to see him pulling a bag of Fudge Flies from his pocket. He ripped it open and held it out to me. "Want one?" he asked casually.

I nodded and reached in to take a few. Fred did the same once I was done and then we fell back into silence.

"Why are you really sitting with me?" I asked finally. "You can't seriously tell me that you didn't want to go into Hogsmeade with all your other friends and have a good time."

"It's not really a good time if we all aren't there together," Fred shrugged, glancing at me. "Besides, there's still a little bit of tension between me and Ange. Not much, but a little."

"Do you still-are you-are you still in love with her?" I asked curiously, peering over at him and resting my chin on my knees.

Fred thought about the question for a moment. "_In _love with her? No," he finally answered. "That ended. Do I still care about her? Yes. But I'm not in love with her anymore. I'm not interested in being with her anymore. Not romantically, at least." He offered me the bag of Fudge Flies again and I found myself taking a few more. "What about you and Oliver?" Fred finally asked. "You still in love with him?"

I was quiet as I chewed the Fudge Flies, swallowing before giving him an answer. "In some ways, it's a relief that I don't have to worry about all the arguments and his paranoia and his disguises, but I loved him so much regardless..." I trailed off. "I suppose...every day that passes since we broke up is easier to be without him and every day I think I'm in love with him a little less, which makes me sad. I miss the times we used to have before he got so famous, but then I realize that those times are long gone and aren't coming back and I feel okay about the decision all over again."

"So..." Fred began slowly. "A month and a half later, where do you stand? How easy has it gotten?"

"Why do you care?" I asked, looking at him skeptically.

Fred raised an eyebrow at me. "You should never be surprised or skeptical when someone cares about you, Lilah." He said it almost teasingly, but I could also tell that he meant what he said.

I stuck my tongue in my cheek and looked away as I thought that over. Finally, I glanced up again. "It's like pins and needles," I finally said.

"Come again?" Fred asked in confusion.

"Pins and needles. The feeling is coming back. I'm not totally numb anymore and everything feels strange. Prickly. Weird. But the best thing to do when a limb falls asleep is to move it. Plow through the weird feeling and move. And I want to do that. But I know it'll feel weird. It'll feel bad until those stupid nerve endings wake the hell up."

Fred chuckled. "Nice analogy." He paused. "And I think the fact that you want to move your sleeping limb is good." He looked at me with a cheeky grin before it faded slightly. "If you ask me, I'm glad you didn't cave and agree to marry Oliver."

"You think I would?" I asked. "With everything going on, I couldn't possibly think of marriage too! Even if it was a few years down the road. Plus, my mother would go nuts. She'd think I'm too young to possibly be engaged or even think of marriage at this point in my life. And for once, she'd be right. I'm not ready. It wasn't a good decision to make, especially with me and Oliver in the middle of the whole Rita Skeeter mess."

"That Skeeter woman's such a stupid...moron," Fred said with a scoff and a shake of his head. ""I hope someone pushes _her_ in the lake during the second task."

"That reminds me, have you and George-"

"No," Fred said, looking at me sternly, daring me to say anything more on the subject. "We haven't come up with anything. And I know the date of the task and how close it is, so don't start berating me."

"Okay," I said, holding my hands up in defeat. "It's not my fault that everything I suggest is always too boring for you, anyway."

"Well, seriously, Lie? The Bubble Head Charm?" Fred asked with a roll of his eyes. "It's the most common solution. I'll bet you all my money that at least one person will use it during the task and I'll also bet it's either Fleur or Krum."

"You'll bet all your money, huh?" I asked, teasingly narrowing my eyes at him. "Still haven't learned from the last time, have you?"

Fred laughed. "Still. I'm confident that someone will be using the Bubble Head Charm on the twenty fourth. And it won't be me and George."

"If it gets you through the task..."

"George and I want something a bit more interesting," Fred said. "There has to be something. The Bubble Head Charm can't be the only way people stay underwater for long periods of time."

"Well, you're running _out_ of time," I said, "so you two had better come to a decision soon. At this point, I honestly don't even care what you do. As long as it gets you out alive."

"And gets us in first place," Fred said with a nudge to my side.

I couldn't help it. I smiled. "That really _would_ be nice," I whispered.

"I know," Fred snorted. "That's why it's what George and I are aiming for."

"Do you really have to be such a cheeky, sarcastic prick?" I asked, shooting him a teasing smile.

Fred nodded and stood up, grabbing the bag of Fudge Flies with one hand and dusting himself off with the other before holding that free hand out to me. I grabbed it and let him pull me to my feet.

"I do have to be that way," Fred whispered, meeting my eyes. "Especially in front of you, because I know you won't complain. Not seriously, anyway. You know that's how I am and you've learned to accept it. Just like you always have with everything George and I say and do. You don't try and fight it or change it or complain about it. Not seriously, anyway. Instead you end up helping us. You're the one who's been helping us with the tournament, even though you aren't supposesd to. You're the one who came down to the lake with us the other night and sat there in the cold. And it doesn't go underappreciated, trust me."

I felt myself shiver involuntarily I didn't know if it was because of the cold weather or the intensity of Fred's gaze. Either way, it just made me want to switch the subject to going inside and sitting somewhere warm. The common room would work, but the kitchens sounded even better. When I suggested the idea to Fred, he just smiled.

"When have you ever known me to turn down food?" he asked.

"Never, which is why I really keep you around," I smirked.

Fred pretended to be offended and nudged me as we began the walk inside, nearly knocking me over the railing of the stone front steps and into the bushes. "Rude," he muttered.

"Says the guy who nearly just sent me headfirst into a bush," I answered with a roll of my eyes. "You need to get over yourself, Freddie." And with that, I reached out and tugged his knit hat down over his eyes, covering them completely before taking off at a run towards the kitchens.


	44. Chapter 44

I was tired, I was irritable, my hair was a mess and my vision was bleary from reading so much. I was in the middle of helping the twins research for the second task, which was the next morning and it wasn't going all that well. Believe it or not, we still had nothing that would help us. Mainly because the twins kept turning down any 'boring' ideas that I seemed to come up with.

"The task is in eleven hours," I informed them with a sigh. "We've got nothing from any of these books so far. And even if you did have a good prank idea, it's hardly enough time to plan it and get it all together. Besides, you also need to get a good nights' rest."

"Sleep is for the weak," Fred said dismissively, leaning back in his chair and lacing his fingers behind his head. He smiled as he raised his feet and set them on the table in front of him, completing the image of ultimate comfort and relaxation at a time like this. "Tell you what. You keep searching those books and George and I will try to put an idea together with the prank knowledge, materials and inventions we have so far. First person to find a plan that will get us out of the lake alive, wins."

I opened my mouth to respond, but I was interrupted by another voice to our left.

"I'm afraid Miss Fitzgerald won't be able to take you up on that offer, Mr. Weasley."

We all looked up to see Professor Moody stepping out from behind a bookshelf. He kept his normal eye on me while his magical eye surveyed the twins and the table filled with all our books and notes.

"Why not?" Fred asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Miss Fitzgerald needs to come with me. I've been asked to escort her to Dumbledore's office at once."

"I'm not helping them," I said quickly. "I'm not breaking the rules. I haven't done anything wrong." Immediately, I began thinking that Dumbledore knew. He knew I had put the twins' names in the goblet and he knew I'd been helping them ever since. He'd found everything out and now I was going to be expelled.

Moody's mouth twitched into a smile as Fred laughed at how suddenly flustered I'd become. "Just follow me," Moody said.

Glancing at the twins, who now looked totally bemused, I stood up, slung my bag over my shoulder and started to follow my teacher from the room. "Keep thinking," I hissed to the twins as I passed. "I'll come back here as soon as I'm done."

The first half of the walk to Dumbledore's office was silent. But then I couldn't keep my mouth shut any longer.

"Why does Dumbledore want to see me?" I asked.

"You'll see when we get there, Miss Fitzgerald, Moody said without looking at me.

I was quiet again, the only sound the _thunk, thunk_ of Moody's cane hitting the ground. "Am I in trouble?"

Moody didn't say anything. He just ignored me as we reached the magical staircase of Dumbledore's office, hidden behind two stone gargoyles. Moody said the password and the gargoyles moved out of the way.

I didn't move. Instead, I glanced wearily at Moody, who nodded towards the staircase. "Go on," he prodded. I vaguely considered running, but I figured I didn't have a chance if I did. Even if Moody wasn't one of the most skilled Aurors around, he'd catch up to me eventually. Then, I thought of demanding that he at least tell me something about this vist, even if it was simply whether it was on good or bad terms. But again, I decided it wasn't worth it.

Sighing, I stepped onto the staircase as it began to immediately move upwards. Moody stepped on a few stairs down and we rode up in silence. My palms were sweating with nerves and I shakily rubbed them on my sweater. When we reached the closed door of Dumbledore's office, Moody brushed past me and knocked twice. When Dumbledore's quiet voice told him to come in, he turned the knob, pushed the door open and stood out of the way, gesturing for me to go in first. I stared at him for a moment before stepping into the room.

"Good evening, Miss Fitzgerald," Dumbledore said from behind his desk.

"Hello, Professor," I answered. "Professor Moody said you wanted to see me. Is something wrong? He wouldn't tell me what was happening and I-"

"You're not in trouble, Miss Fitzgerald," Dumbledore assured me with a calm smile. "I just wanted to have a little...meeting with you and a few other students."

It was then that I looked around the room and noticed that McGonagall was there looking grim, standing just to the right of the desk. Ron and Hermione were both there, and so was a blonde girl, who resembled Fleur. The three of them were sitting in chairs in front of the desk, all looking at me now. I had been so focused on figuring out why I was there and if I was in trouble that I hadn't even noticed them. But if I wasn't in trouble, why was I here? Why did McGonagall look so upset? And why was everyone else here? Why would Dumbledore want to meet with us?

"Why don't you take a seat?" Dumbledore suggested, gesturing to the one empty chair left in front of the desk. I glanced at McGonagall, who nodded stiffly, so I sat down, chewing on my lip as I did so.

"I'm aware that most of you already know each other," Dumbledore said, looking from me to Hermione and Ron, "but I have also invited Miss Gabrielle Delacour here to join us as well considering I need to give you all some important information."

I glanced at the young blonde girl next to me. So she _was_ related to Fleur. Probably her sister.

"The second task, as you may or may not know already," Dumbledore continued, his eyes sweeping over me, Ron and Hermione again as they twinkled knowingly, "involves the champions recovering something from the lake. It'll be something very precious to them. Something they'd miss fiercely."

"What does that have to do with us?" Ron asked. "Do you still need suggestions or something?"

"Take Fred and George's Zonko's stuff away," I snorted. "Or their Mum's blueberry pie. They'd be crushed. Probably cry like babies."

"Mum's blueberry pie _is_ good," Ron sighed, patting his stomach.

Dumbledore smiled. "Good ideas as those may be, Miss Fitzgerald," he said, looking at me, "maybe I misspoke. I shouldn't have said some_thing_. I should have said some_one_."

We all gaped at him. What was he saying? Some_one_ meant a person, not an object. And he had called all of us into his office. I looked around me and figured it out. Ron was Harry's best friend, Gabrielle was Fleur's sister, I was one of the twins' best friends, and Krum had taken Hermione to the Yule Ball. I hadn't known he cared for her _that_ much, though. I didn't mean it in a rude way, it was just that they had only met recently. And I didn't think they knew each other all that well. So for her to be the person he'd miss most was weird. But whatever. That was the least of my worries now.

"We have brought you here tonight," Dumbledore said, "because you are the people our champions will miss the most."

"But Viktor and I hardly talk when we're together!" Hermione exclaimed, apparently having matched us all to a champion already just as I had.

"Oh really?" Ron asked bitterly. "What is it that you do then?"

"He watches me study, Ron!" Hermione said, shooting her friend a look.

"And I don't think I'd be the person the twins would miss most," I said. It was the truth. I wasn't saying it to get out of being put in the lake for an hour, although that wasn't something I could say I was excited for to be honest. "I mean, I think the first choice would be each other for the twins, but I suppose that's impossible, isn't it?" I paused as I thought that over. "But I don't even think I'm second choice! I mean, there's Lee and Angelina and-"

"You're out of your mind," Ron said. "You're one of their best friends!"

"Yeah, _one_ of," I said.

"Whatever you seem to think, Miss Fitzgerald," Dumbledore said with a smile, "let me inform you that you would be very well missed indeed."

"But certainly not the _most_," I argued quietly.

Dumbledore smiled wider. "You'd be surprised," he said. "Believe me, Miss Fitzgerald, I made these decisions based on many, many observations. Mostly from this year, but for those of you who have been here longer than that, I've taken past years into account."

"So you've been watching us?" Ron asked.

Dumbledore hesitated. "Noticing," he said with another smile before his face became serious again.

"So how do you plan on keeping us underwater for an hour?" Ron asked with a raised eyebrow. "Magic?"

Dumbledore smiled and nodded, pressing the tips of his fingers together. "Yes, Mr. Weasley, magic. Unless, of course, you _do_ know how to hold your breath on your own for an hour?"

"No, no one could do that without magic," Ron said.

"I'm going to use a spell that will put you all to sleep, but also ensure your safety underwater," Dumbledore explained calmly. "You won't feel a thing and the next thing you know, you'll be waking up the moment your head breaks the surface of the lake after being rescued."

We were all silent as we processed it all. After a moment of nobody speaking, Dumbledore broke the silence again. "If you don't mind, I thought we'd start now."

"Here?" Ron asked.

"_Right_ now?" Gabrielle squeaked, speaking for the first time since we had arrived.

"Right here and right now," Dumbledore said solemnly. "Of course, you won't be transported to the lake until early tomorrow morning, but I was planning on getting you all...ready."

"Eef we do not want to do it..." Gabrielle said shakily.

Dumbledore hesitated. "I certainly cannot force you, but you're all very essential to the task. Motivation, I suppose."

"But nothing will happen to us if the champions don't succeed," I said. There was a pause. "Right?"

"Correct," Dumbledore said. "But the point is that the champions don't know that for sure and-"

"Of course they do," Ron interjected. "They're not stupid enough to believe human beings would be left in the lake forever."

"They don't know human beings are being taken," Hermione said. "Not until they get there. So it's the mystery of who or what was taken, the curiosity, the drive to win that gets them to us and then once they do see us, they'll fight harder just to get us out."

Dumbledore nodded. "Exactly, Miss Granger." He looked around at all of us. When no one said anything else, he smiled grimly. "Are we all ready?"

Gabrielle let out a muffled squeak from beside me as Dumbledore stood up and came around the front of the desk to stand in front of us.

"Here, hold my hand," I whispered to Gabrielle, offering my hand, palm up, to her. She took it and gave it a squeeze as I continued speaking to her. "We can trust Dumbledore," I said. "I know it sounds scary and I'm a little scared too, but we can trust him. If he says we won't feel a thing, then we won't. And your sister is really brave. She'll get you out of there in no time at all."

Gabrielle squeezed my hand again and nodded, closing her eyes as Dumbledore raised his wand. I closed my eyes too and that was the last thing I remembered.

* * *

I was disoriented, confused, and I thought I was dying. I wasn't on solid ground. My feet couldn't find anything solid in fact, except for something hard that I kept kicking, but it wasn't anything stable.

I was also coughing, spluttering up water, and gasping for air like there was no tomorrow, so that only added to my confusion. I was panicking to say the least, struggling to keep myself breathing in oxygen, one breath after another, and struggling to stay above water.

Water. I was in water. The lake. The icy cold, freezing February lake. Fred and George had been supposed to rescue me as part of the second task.

Just as I was realizing this and just as the events of the night before were coming back to me, I heard the voice yelling in my ear.

"Lilah, calm down, stop kicking me, you're safe! We've got you!"

It was Fred's voice. I blinked a few times to remove the remainder of water in my eyes and saw that we were nearing the docks. I stopped flailing and clung to Fred as George moved from my left side and swam to the docks where he was pulled upwards out of the water. Then, he turned and reached out for me. I reached upwards and grabbed his hand, letting him pull me out of the water while Fred lifted me towards his brother and I continued to splutter slightly.

And finally I was out. I pulled my knees to my chest as my teeth chattered with my shivers. It was so much colder out of the water than in it, and believe me, being in had been cold enough.

I felt someone drape me in a heavy, warm blanket and then felt the presence of someone kneeling in front of me. "Hey, Liles," an excited voice whispered.

"Wh-what?" I asked, looking up into Fred's face as I continued to shiver despite the blanket that I pulled tighter around me in desperation to get warm.

"We did it," Fred hissed with a grin, reaching out and putting a hand on my cheek as he let out a gleeful laugh. "George and I did it. We were the first out of the lake. We were one minute outside of the time limit, but we were first!"

"You d-did i-it?" I asked happily through my chattering teeth. "Y-you came i-in fi-irst?"

"We did it, Liles," Fred said, excitement shining in his eyes, making them a brighter blue than they were already. "First place!" he whispered. He looked over his shoulder and I followed his gaze to see Fleur standing a few yards away, also wrapped in a blanket and shivering, staring out at the lake with a worried expression.

"What-" I began.

"She forfeited," Fred answered. "Couldn't get passed the grindylows." He turned back to me and grinned again. "So, like I said...George and I...first place!"

I looked up at him and finally took the time to take him in. He had a blanket around him now as well, but I could still see that his skin was covered in goosebumps and that he was shivering. His hair was dripping wet and his lips were slightly blue. But the way he was _smiling _at me. Merlin, I'd give anything to see him smile at me like that every day. I blinked. What was I thinking? The cold water had given me brain damage. I was delusional.

"I considered leaving you down there for a bit longer," George suddenly butted in, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Just to get the stink out, you know?"

I blinked at him, my mouth agape. My brain was apparently still lagging. I barely registered the insult. They had done it. They had completed the second task in _first_ _place_. An immense feeling of pride filled up my entire body from head to toe. Pride that they had not only completed the task, but completed it _first_, pride that they were on their way to winning their money back and opening their shop, and most of all, pride that they were my best friends.

"First place?" I finally whispered, gazing up at them.

"First place," Fred repeated with a smile.

I let out a giggle before flinging myself forward and joyously hugging first George, then Fred. "I'm so, _so_ proud of you!" I exclaimed. "You did it! And without my help, too!" I gave Fred a quick, jubilant kiss on the cheek before I pulled away, barely noticing the tiny bit of color that had suddenly come to his face. A thought had just come to me and I hesitated. "But...how did you do it?" I asked. "No offense, but when I left you, we hadn't gotten very close to figuring anything out."

George opened his mouth to answer, but before he could, Madame Pomfrey appeared at our sides.

"Pepper up potion. Now," she demanded, passing out vials to each of us.

Despite how much I hated the stuff, this time I almost couldn't wait to drink it. I downed the vial in one gulp. It tasted awful and burned my throat, but I could instantly feel the warmth of it spreading through my body.

No sooner had I set my vial down, than I heard a familiar voice cutting through the crowd.

"Excuse me, excuse me, I'm her brother, move out of the way, excuse me!"

I looked up to see Julian push his way between two people standing nearby, Neville, Dean and Seamus at his heels. The second Julian saw me, he dashed over and knelt beside me, immediately searching me over to make sure I was okay, which I was. Just soaking wet and shivering.

"Are you okay?" he asked urgently, a look of terror on his face.

"I'm fine, Jules," I answered with a lopsided smile, reaching out and smoothing down his hair. He gently swatted my hand away as he sighed.

"Lilah, I've been looking for you all morning. Moody came to get Hermione and Ron last night and they never came back. And then when I found Fred and George this morning on the way to the task, they told me the same thing had happened to you...But they didn't have time to elaborate because they were running late and had to run down here..."

"Figures," I snorted, rolling my eyes at the twins. They both shrugged innocently.

"The only reason we were late was because we were trying to figure out what happened to you," Fred said. "Seriously, Lie, you never came back from Dumbledore's office. We thought maybe you'd gotten expelled after all."

I smiled. "No, not quite."

"So you were in the lake since last night?" Julian asked.

"No, since this morning, right before the task," I answered.

"Still, you were there for over an hour," Julian said. "You're still soaking wet and you're outside in the cold. You're going to get sick. I don't know what Dumbledore was thinking." He looked out towards the lake. "Ron and Hermione are still down there?"

I nodded. "I'm sure they're fine, Jules. Dumbledore said we'd be safe."

"When George and I found you," Fred said slowly, "you were in the middle of the merpeople village. Tied down by a rope connected to your ankle so you didn't float away. Your eyes were closed. You all _did_ look pretty peaceful...Although, it scared us at first. We weren't expecting it to be you..."

"And the merpeople..." George said, glancing at Fred. "They were all swimming around, watching us...guarding you. It was unsettling. And we passed a ton of grindylows on the way in..."

"That's what got Fleur," Fred said, glancing towards the blonde Beuxbatons student.

I shivered again, both because of the cold and what Fred said. I tried to hide it from Julian, but of course he noticed.

"Merlin," he muttered, putting his arms around me and rubbing his hands up and down my arms as he craned his neck and looked around the dock. "Can we get another blanket over here?" he asked loudly.

I giggled and stifled it in his shoulder. "As much as you'll hate to admit it, Jules, I've rubbed off on you." When he sent me a look, I giggled again. "I've had some pepper up potion. Madame Pomfrey gave us some already."

"You're still sitting out in the cold," Julian argued. "Maybe you should go back to the castle to wait by the fire."

"And miss out on the rest of the task?" I asked in horror. "Are you kidding me?"

Julian let out a sigh as he smiled slightly. "I knew you'd say that."

Before I could answer, there was a splash from the lake. We all turned our heads at once to see what was going on. Neville, Seamus and Dean ran over to the dock's edge to see better.

"It's Krum and Hermione!" Seamus reported eagerly.

Cheers erupted from the stands, the Durmstrang boys cheering the loudest. Krum gently steered Hermione towards the docks, where Neville, Dean and Seamus pulled her upwards. Then, Neville reached out to help Krum, but Krum ignored him, pulling himself up on the dock with surprising swiftness and ease. I smiled as Neville glanced away awkwardly and pulled his hand back, rubbing the back of his neck instead.

Blankets were brought to Hermione and Krum at once as well as vials of pepper-up potion.

"Oh, good, you three made it back safe," Hermione said, noticing me, Fred and George as she pulled her blanket tightly around her. She looked at Julian. "Sorry for disappearing on you and Harry last night, too. We had no choice, really. What did you two end up figuring out for him to use? It wasn't going well when Ron and I left."

"It was the same thing Fred and I used," George chimed in.

"Which was what?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Gillyweed," Fred answered simply, as if he were reporting the weather.

"Gillyweed?" Hermione asked, her eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

"Where did you manage to get that?" I asked. "Or even find out about it?"

"Dobby," Julian said. "He knew all about it and told me and Harry there was some kept in Snape's own personal stores."

"George and I overheard," Fred said. "So we offered to be the ones to sneak into Snape's office to get it if we could get in on using it too." When he saw my expression of disbelief, he shrugged. "We were desperate, Liles." He smiled. "And, hey, it worked for us, didn't it?"

"But what about Harry?" I asked. "How long will the Gillyweed last? He's still down there!"

"I saw him," Krum finally said. We all turned to stare at him. "Ven I reached Herm-my-own..." He said her name slowly and glanced at her as if to see if he were saying it right.

"Close enough," she sighed.

"Ven I reached her, Harry vas there. I don't know vhy he vas taking so long to rescue his friend."

"If something happened to him..." I said slowly.

"Dumbledore will go get him and Ron out," Fred said, nodding his head confidently. "Don't forget, Fleur's sister is still down there, too. They can't just _leave_ three students down there."

"Especially Harry," George said. "Because then You-Know-Who will feel cheated out of his opportunity."

"George," I scolded with a roll of my eyes as he laughed. "That isn't funny."

Before George could answer, another large splash came from the water. We all scrambled to the edge to see. It was Ron and Gabrielle. I could see their bright blonde and red heads bobbing in the water.

"Where's Harry?" Hermione squeaked.

"There!" Neville said, pointing. He was right. Harry's head popped up a second later, slightly behind the other two and gasping for air. We all started cheering them on, urging them to swim faster and get out of the water. Finally, they made it to the docks and we all helped to pull them out. The second we did, Fleur was all over her sister, wrapping her in a few large blankets and then wrapping her arms around her while speaking o her in rapid French.

At the same time, Hermione was gushing over Harry and Ron, making sure they were okay and congratulating Harry.

"I came in last, Hermione," he muttered.

"Next to last," she reminded him excitedly. "Fleur never got past the grindylows!" She leaned over and gave Harry a tight hug.

"Herm-own-ninny," Krum said suddenly. It was almost as if he were trying to regain her attention again.

"Yes?" she asked, turning back to him.

"Can I talk to you for just a moment?"

Hermione stared at him quizzically for a second before nodding and letting Viktor lead her a few feet away where they began to talk in low voices. I watched them go before quickly scanning the crowd. My eyes fell on Sam, who was fiddling with his camera. Rita Skeeter was nowhere in sight. I wondered where she was.

"What are you-oh," Fred said, following my gaze. He smiled deviously. "He should be asking to get a few shots of all the champions soon."

Before I could answer, Sam did in fact make his way over to us, smiling widely. I scowled. Merlin, did I hate him. I hadn't spoken to him or seen him since the article. None of us had. I just prayed the twins and Julian would keep their mouths shut and their fists to themselves.

"Could I get all the champions and their hostages over here, please?" Sam asked, gesturing to the area of the dock where he could get the lake in the background of the shot. He wasn't looking at me-purposely, I suspected-but he did still have his stupid smile on his face.

Fred and George both grinned and stood up, helping me to my feet as they did so. "Come on, Lie," Fred said, practically dragging me away.

I just managed to turn to Julian before I was pulled away and hiss "Behave yourself," in his ear. I hadn't missed the way he was glaring at Sam and how he had clenched his hands into fists.

Once the twins and I started arranging ourselves in a group with the other champions and hostages, I managed to whisper something to them as well. "Why do you look so chipper?" I asked as Sam directed Harry and Ron to the very front of the group (no surprise considering the angle the Prophet had been taking with this tournament). He had them sit on the ground at my feet and then arranged the twins behind me. They were tall and now also in the center of the photo with Harry, me and Ron. Fleur, Gabrielle, Krum and Hermione were then arranged off to the sides of us, like afterthoughts.

Sam stepped back and told us to all smile, which we did, even if I was doing it begrudgingly.

"George and I tampered with Sam's camera," Fred whispered from behind me, sounding as if he were trying to move his mouth as little as possible so he wouldn't look as if he were talking as Sam clicked away.

"You what?" I hissed, keeping a smile plastered to my own face and refraining from whipping around and gaping at Fred.

"Yeah...all his pictures will come out warped," George added.

"Really warped," Fred continued. "Kind of like fun house mirrors. Some of us will look squatty, some overly stretched. That kind of thing."

"What's more, our faces will also undergo some special effects," George said. "One eye bigger than the other, cone shaped heads, bushy eyebrows, mustaches, you name it."

"All of his photos will be unuseable," Fred said, a small chuckle escaping his mouth.

"How did you manage that?" I asked in awe.

"Special film," George laughed. "Invented it ourselves. Started working on it the day after the article came out."

"With our good friend Sam in mind," Fred said.

"But...how did you get it in his camera?" I asked.

"A great prankster never gives away all of his secrets," Fred replied casually. "But let's just say we got a little bit of help from the one group of people that can Apparate right out of Hogwarts and into Hogsmeade."

"The house elves?" I asked.

"Mhm," Fred said happily.

Sam finally lowered his camera, still smiling. "Thanks, everyone, we're all set. I've got everything I need."

"I wouldn't be so certain," Fred whispered in my ear. I could hear the glee in his voice and I smiled before turning to face him.

"I know I wanted you to stay out of his way, but...thanks for this. It actually made me feel kind of...better," I said.

"That's the point, Lie," Fred said, patting my shoulder. "That's the point." He looked up, staring at something over my head, and a scowl appeared on his face. I turned to see Sam standing there.

"Lilah," he said, his voice friendly. As if nothing had happened. Of course.

"Stay away from her," Fred said as he and George gently pushed me behind them. They stood up taller, set their jaws and narrowed their eyes at Sam.

"Now, boys..." Sam said.

"We know what you did," George said menacingly. "You and Rita. Where is she now, by the way? Hiding under the docks trying to catch some more gossip to twist around?"

"None of your business," Sam replied coolly. "And for your information, the news and the media is something you'll never understand. It's all about what the readers want to hear and they do love a bit of gossip."

"They want _news_," Fred growled. "That's what they sign up for in a _news_paper, isn't it? Not the destruction of someone's life."

"News," Sam said, "just like a book, is only interesting if there's a little _action_. If there are _problems_. And sometimes a little romance." He gave Fred and I a knowing wink and I fought the urge to vomit. Fred's whole body tensed as if he were holding himself back from punching Sam. His hands clenched into fists and his jaw set even more as Sam continued, looking over the twins as he did so. "I wouldn't expect you two to know much about books, though. See, you'd have to pick one up once in a while to know any of that."

That was it. Fred tried to lunge for Sam, but George and I both grabbed him and pulled him back. Some people looked over at us in confusion.

"Not to worry, not to worry," Sam told them with that annoying smile of his. "He's still a little cold from the lake. Can't feel his feet yet. He tripped."

"Tripped, my eye," George muttered.

"I'd advise you boys to watch yourselves from now on," Sam said in a low voice. "Or I can stir up a little more gossip about you. I mean it. Watch yourselves." And with that, he walked away. George and I let Fred go once he was out of the vicinity.

"What a piece of-"

"Fred," I sighed. "Don't get yourself worked up about him. He's not worth it."

"Was that Sam?" Julian appeared at my elbow, looking in the direction Sam had gone. "I tried to come over here to give him a piece of my mind, but I couldn't get through the crowd in time."

"Don't worry about it," I said, staring after Sam as well. "Fred and George beat you to it." I smiled. "And they tampered with his camera."

"He'll be in for a surprise later when he tries to develop that film," George said with a smirk. "I wonder what Skeeter will have to say about it."

"Think she'll find it as funny as we do?" Fred asked in amusement.

We all looked at each other as smiles turned up the corners of our mouths. "Doubt it," we said together.

Just then, Bagman announced that the scores were in. He called the twins' names in first place, resulting in loud cheers. The twins both bowed, while I rolled my eyes.

When the champion in second place was announced, everyone expected it to be Krum, but instead, it turned out to be Harry. The judges had decided to award him second place for showing 'outstanding moral fiber' by rescuing not only Ron, but Gabrielle as well. The news had come as a surprise, especially considering no one had expected Harry to actually be rewarded for taking the riddle too seriously. Although I couldn't say I blamed him. If Dumbledore hadn't promised our safety himself, I would have been terrified too. In fact, despite what Dumbledore had said, I had still been scared to be placed in the lake for the entire task.

Lee, Fred and George began organizing another party in the common room for later that night as we began the journey back to the castle. Fred and George offered to get food, but I stopped them. "Not until you go put on warm clothes," I said. "Honestly, why would you want to stay soaking wet and freezing for a second longer than necessary?"

"Fine," Fred agreed, looking me up and down and taking in my wet and freezing appearance as well. "We'll all get dried off and meet down at the kitchens in thirty minutes?"

I scrunched my nose up in thought. "Forty," I said.

Fred smirked. "Planning on making yourself look pretty for the house elves?" he asked.

I nodded mock-seriously. "Oh, yeah, you guessed it, Fred. After my break-up with Oliver, I realized that there's way less drama with house elves."

"Doubt it," George snorted, "considering Winky was getting drunk every day for months after Barty Crouch let her go. I can only imagine what went on in those kitchens while they tried to keep her happy and under control."

I smiled. "So...forty minutes down by the fruit painting?"

"Forty minutes," Fred repeated. "Don't be late."

* * *

I spent the majority of the celebratory party eating, mingling and enjoying myself. But finally, I noticed that Fred and George had teken to sitting alone together at their usual corner table, firewhiskeys in hand as they surveyed the crowd and talked in whispers. I figured I'd take the opportunity to go talk to them.

"Hey," I said, sitting down with my own firewhiskey in hand. "How are you?"

"A little tired, but otherwise fine," Fred answered, running a hand through his hair. I could see dark circles under his eyes. I expected any adrenaline from the task earlier had started to wear off and now the lack of sleep from the night before, combined with the extensive work they had done to prepare for the task, was catching up to them.

"I really am proud of you," I said. "Even if you didn't figure out a way to get through this _entirely_ on your own...you actually did complete the task on your own once you managed to get underwater."

"We had no idea they were taking _you_," Fred suddenly said. "And Ron...and Hermione." He paused. "You all looked really creepy down there. Dead, almost."

"It was freaky," George agreed, nodding his head.

"I thought you said I looked peaceful," I said.

"You did, but a dead peaceful," Fred replied. "Besides, earlier I was trying to tone down how creepy it was for Jules. Didn't want to scare him."

I smiled. "Thanks. I appreciate that."

Fred let out a sigh and nodded. "We would have taken this a lot more seriously if we knew we had to rescue you," he said.

"You already knew they were taking something of value from you," I said. "And I'm sure you knew that Dumbledore would return it by the end if you didn't succeed."

"We suspected, but didn't know," Fred said. "Harry clearly had some doubt, didn't he?" He shrugged and took another sip of his drink. "Besides, any object that's of value to us...all our Zonko's stuff, and even all our inventions...they're able to be replaced, even if it takes a little bit of work to do it. _You, _on the other hand, can't be replaced."

I felt my cheeks turn pink and I glanced away before smiling slightly. "Thank you."

Fred grinned. "I think," he finally said slowly, the grin still on his face, "that since George and I did so well, we should get rewarded."

"Yeah? How so?" I raised my eyebrows skeptically as I slowly turned my firewhiskey bottle in my palms.

Fred met my eyes steadily before taking a sip of his own drink, never breaking eye contact. "Go on a date with me."

I almost spit out the sip of my drink I had just taken. "Fred, come on, be serious."

"I am," he replied casually.

I blushed and averted my gaze. I felt like my entire body had stopped working. I couldn't think, I couldn't breathe. This was ridiculous and crazy. Of course my initial reaction had been to assume he was joking. But now he was claiming to be serious. It didn't make any sense, though. Fred couldn't possibly want to go out with _me_. We were best friends. And he hadn't shown any signs of wanting to go out with me. Not that I could see, anyway. So, unless I was missing something, this was totally out of nowhere. "Fred," I whispered, "why would you ever want-"

"Because...I like you, Lilah, and I'm interested in taking you on a date and seeing where it goes," he said, as if it were really that obvious. But then again, to him, it was, I suppose.

My head snapped up to look at him. "What do you mean?" I asked.

"I meant exactly what I said."

"But-but-" I stuttered, feeling completely blindsided, "how is that even possible?"

Fred laughed. "What do you mean, how is it possible?"

"I just had no idea that's what you wanted," I said. "You and Angelina-"

"Ange and I _broke_ _up_, Liles," Fred explained. He met my eyes again as he took another sip of his drink. "And I'm moving on."

I sighed. "Me going on a date with you, Fred, doesn't benefit both you and George. You're competing together. You can't say it's a reward for performing well today if I just go out with you." At this point, I was saying anything to stall as I thought of what to say. I knew what I _had_ to say, of course, but it was going to be hard.

"It does," Fred argued. "When I'm happy, George is happy. And vice versa. Right, Georgie?"

"Right," George said, nodding enthusiastically. "Trust me, Fred's been considering asking you this for a while-for at least the past three or four weeks-even if you didn't pick up on it. Besides, he couldn't be _too_ obvious, could he? If you suspected something sooner, you would have freaked. You know, too soon after Oliver and Ange or something like that, right?"

I didn't answer, mostly because he _did _have a point. "Even so, this isn't the kind of thing I had in mind when you said reward. I thought you would try to make me buy dinner for you or something."

"Nope, instead _I'm_ offering to buy it for _you_," Fred said. "All I ask of you is that you agree to it."

I blushed even more. "I can't, Fred."

"Why not?" He looked confused, as if he genuinely had no idea why I would possibly refuse. He probably didn't. Here he went again, thinking everything really was this simple and easy not complicated in the least.

"It's not that simple!" I exclaimed, looking up at him. "There are a million reasons why this isn't a good idea."

"Name one," Fred argued, leaning forward and giving me a look, daring me to do as he said.

"Okay, for starters," I began, "it's not a good time. We both got out of relationships only two months ago and-"

"That's plenty of time! I told you that I'm moving on." He paused and lowered his voice. "And...I want to do it with you. I know it's only been a few months, but things have changed for me in that time. I broke up with Angelina for a reason, and you know what? I've always said I've connected with you more. I've always said you understood me and George better than she did. You're the opposite of Ange in every negative aspect of our relationship, and over the past few months, I've started seeing you as more than a friend, Lie. You're the one who's been helping me and George with the tournament, despite the rules against it. You went out in the cold with us so we could open the egg in the lake...And as I've told you, you've always believed in us. A lot. More so than a lot of people, Angelina included."

I stared at him for a moment, my mouth open, processing everything he had said. But then I snapped out of it and continued speaking. "But that's exactly it. Your previous relationship was with one of my best friends! I can't just start dating my friend's ex boyfriend!" I paused and shook my head. "Possibly ever...so I think you should let this whole thing drop now."

"Don't be ridiculous," Fred said. "If you want to go out with someone, you should do it, no matter what! I was friends with Oliver and you're his ex-girlfriend. But I'm asking you out anyway because you broke up and I like you! It's not something I can exactly _help._"

"It's not that simple," I said slowly, through gritted teeth as I sent him a glare. "Besides, who said I _wanted_ to go out with you?"

Fred opened his mouth to answer, but then he stopped and blinked before leaning back in his seat, perplexed.

"That's what I thought," I sniffed. It was quiet for a moment before I stood up. "I have to go," I whispered. And then I whirled around and headed upstairs to my dorm, taking the stairs two at a time.


	45. Chapter 45

A few days later, two interesting articles appeared in the paper. One was about the second task, which the twins and I gleefully noted was unaccompanied by a photo. The second was yet another article by Rita Skeeter. But this one was in Witch Weekly instead of the Prophet. And this one wasn't about me. It was about Hermione, Harry and their non-existent love life.

In it, Skeeter accused Hermione of breaking Harry's heart and leading on not only him, but Viktor Krum as well. She quoted Krum as saying that he had never felt this way about any other girl and stated that he had invited Hermione to visit him over the summer.

"Hey," I said, sitting down beside her on the couch that night. "I'm really sorry that she printed another article about you. I know how it feels and-"

"Oh, I'm not worried," Hermione said briskly, looking up from her homework.

There was a pause as I blinked. "You're not?"

"A lot of people realize that Rita's not entirely...truthful," she said.

"But there's still a lot of people who believe her," I said slowly. "A _lot_, Hermione."

"Yes," Hermione answered, glancing at the table, where a copy of the magazine happened to be sitting, "but the most important thing is that _I_ know it's a bunch of gossip. The only people really getting a kick out of it are the Slytherins anyway. The only thing that I find weird is-" she hesitated and glanced at Harry and Ron, who both looked back at her.

"Is what?" I asked.

"That she knew about what Viktor said to me. She wasn't standing anywhere near us. And she knew that he invited me to stay with him."

I was quiet for a moment. "That's how it went when she wrote the article about me. She published stuff that no one would have known unless they were right there. And no one was."

Hermione stared at me and I could practically hear her brain kicking into overdrive. Any second she'd start smoking at the ears and her hair would light on fire.

"_Really_?" She asked curiously. "That's so odd. I wonder how she's doing it."

"I have no idea, but if you ever figure it out, let me know," I answered with a wry smile. "She's got me stumped. But I can guarantee you that whatever her methods are, they aren't fair in the least."

Hermione gave a tiny laugh. "I don't doubt that."

I hesitated again. "I...er...I actually wouldn't be surprised if you got hate mail for the article, though," I whispered. "I mean, not that I want you to, it's just...I know what it's like when rubbish articles about celebrities hearts getting broken make their way into the hands of overly obsessed teenaged girls. And even some adults who fall for that crap. If you do get any...be safe. Prepare yourself. And don't take them too seriously. They're idiots."

Hermione was quiet again as she stared at the article-more like glared, actually. But finally, she swallowed and seemed to compose herself again. "Well, I'm sure it'll all blow over eventually, just like the article about you did."

"Maybe sooner," I said with a tiny smile. "Plus, I get the feeling your mother won't be sending you a Howler about it. In fact, I don't think your parents even know what Witch Weekly is, right?"

Hermione smiled. "No, they don't. Thank goodness for that."

I laughed. "So...you're doing okay, then?'

Hermione nodded. "Yeah," she said with a deep breath and a tiny laugh. "I'll be fine."

* * *

I didn't tell Angelina anything about what Fred had told me on the night of the second task. Not at first, at least. I was hoping that it would all just go away once I rejected him and if I continued to ignore it. But I should have known better.

I'd find Fudge Flies randomly left in my bag, Sugar Quills left on my desk and notes stuck in between the pages of my textbooks, some with flirty compliments and some outright asking me out on a date. It was sweet, I supposed, but I was still kind of uncomfortable about the whole thing and afraid of facing the scary reality of dating one of my best friends.

Eventually, I had to tell Angelina, afraid she'd find out another way and I wasn't having that. She needed to hear it from me. When I first told her, she looked a little sad, but the expression left her face quickly and she claimed she didn't care. But I still didn't feel right. Something told me she wasn't being all that truthful. Something told me she felt weird about it, which was enough for me to keep turning Fred down. Besides, no matter what she said, I knew that it was just an unspoken, ancient rule that friends didn't date friends' ex-boyfriends.

And besides all that, I thought of what would happen if I did give Fred a chance. What if it did go somewhere? As hard as it was to admit, I was kind of afraid of myself. I had always felt so destructive. I knew my parents' divorcing wasn't my fault. I knew it, I really did. I couldn't think that anymore. But it still nagged at me sometimes. It bothered me that my sneaking out led to the fight that became the final straw. I'd been trying to move past it completely for years, but there were times when I thought back on that night and wanted to mentally kick myself. And after my breakup with Oliver, things had gotten worse. I hated myself for putting an end to something else that had been so good in my life. I knew it was much like what had happened with my parents. The relationship had run its course and it wasn't necessarily anyone's fault, but I had been the one to end it. Despite knowing it had to happen and despite knowing it would be wrong to continue the relationship, I hated having to have been the one to do it. And while Oliver's pained expression didn't haunt my mind as much as it had a few months ago, it still managed to pop up every now and again, mainly when I'd see his name mentioned in the paper. Essentially, the point was that I couldn't bear it if something like that happened between me and Fred. I couldn't go through that again, and especially not with him. He and his family had done so much for me over the years and they had become almost an extended family of my own. If I lost Fred for good, that meant I lost all the Weasleys. And what would I do then?

"How many times do I have to tell you?" I asked Fred quietly by the time the second week of March rolled around. We were sitting in the kitchens. I was doing homework while the twins worked on new future products. I had just found another note hidden in my textbook, asking me to go to Hogsmeade on the next trip. "I can't. I can't date Angelina's ex-boyfriend. How would you feel if Lee or George dated _her_?"

Fred shrugged. "It wouldn't be my place to say what they can and can't do."

"I don't think Ange sees it that way," I pointed out. "Besides, how do I know this isn't some elaborate prank?"

"Lilah, I'd never pull this sort of a prank on you," Fred said. "That's cruel and not something I'd do to my best friend."

I looked up at him to see from the look on his face that he was serious. My heart thudded in my chest. It was flattering to know that he cared about me that much and I was flattered in a way that he liked me. But I still felt like it couldn't have been true.

"Just…please," I said quietly, "stop asking me so much."

Fred didn't say anything. Instead, he just smiled and went back to his inventions. It was enough to make me feel uneasy, which turned out to be a very appropriate emotion.

* * *

Fred listened to me at first. He didn't say anything about a date for a whole entire week. But then it started up again. Of course.

I had found a bunch of flowers in my bag while I was in the library. The second I reached for them, there was a loud popping sound and they had immediately turned into a bunch of real, live birds. I had been too busy trying to get rid of them before Madame Pince noticed and kicked me out to even wonder how the twins had managed to make that bit of magic happen.

Now, I made my way over to Fred and George's table, setting my books down with a bit too much force when I got there. "Firstly, Fred Weasley, flowers that turn into _birds_ is your idea of a great way to ask a girl out?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with that?" Fred asked.

I ignored the question. "Secondly," I said, "I thought I told you to stop asking."

"You said to stop asking _so much_," he said. "So I waited a week."

"You've got to stop this, Fred."

"Not until I get you to say yes," Fred answered with a grin. "Aren't you the one always pointing out how determined George and I are? How we'll stop at nothing until we get what we want? I want a date with you and I'm not giving up until you say yes. Until you at least agree to give it a chance. That's all I want. A chance. I'm not asking for you to confess your love for me, because that's not what I'm doing for you. I'm interested. I want to give it a shot. And that's all I'm asking in return. Isn't that fair?"

I paused, chewing on my lip. "If I say I'll think about it, will you at least stop asking?" I pleaded. "_And_, just so you know, demanding a date from people isn't a great way to get a _yes_ out of them. Maybe I'd be more inclined if you asked nicely, or at least acted like you've got a romantic bone in your body."

"I'm romantic," Fred said defensively. "I gave you flowers."

"_Trick _flowers," I said. "Joke flowers." I sighed and gave him a small smile. "Fred…really, I'm honored that you want to take me on a date. I'm flattered. But I don't know if it's a good idea."

"Ange said she's okay with it," Fred answered.

"But I don't know if I believe her, that's the thing," I said. "Besides, she can say yes as much as she wants, but it doesn't sit right with _me_ that I'd be on a date with my friend's ex-boyfriend. And I also think that you and George have more things to worry about besides dating. You have the third task coming up in three months."

"We don't even know what it is yet," Fred said. "We won't find out until the beginning of June. Plenty of time."

"For someone who wants-excuse me, _needs-_to win so much, you're really relaxed and nonchalant about all this."

"Lilah, _we don't know what the task is,_" Fred repeated. "There's no way to prepare just yet. We have some time off. And I'd like to use it to take you on one date. If it doesn't work out, I'll leave you alone about it. I just...want to give it a try. See where it goes, you know?"

"What if I don't want to?" I asked.

"I'm not sure you mean that," Fred replied. "The only excuse you've given as to why you can't is that you can't date your friend's ex."

"Which I can't."

"Lilah, you can. It happens to people." He paused. "It's a little messy sometimes, but people get over it. I think you're open to going out with me. And even though you keep _saying_ you won't go out with me because I dated Ange, I think there's more to it than that."

"Oh yeah?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Fred nodded and leaned forward, looking me right in the eye. "I think you're afraid."

My expression immediately turned into a glare. "Afraid of what?"

"First and foremost, yes, I think you are afraid of hurting people and making things weird between you and Ange. The motherly part of you can't bear to do something that might be weird for someone else, even if it's something you want. I will give you that." He looked at me, twirling his quill between his fingers. "And I'm wondering if there's also a fear of someone else." He hesitated. "Is it about your mother? Do you not want to go out with me because you're afraid of how she would react? Of what she'd do?"

I gaped at him, my mouth opening and closing, but no words coming out. "Fred..." I finally whispered.

"Your mother, I'm sorry to say," Fred went on, "has never seemed to care what you thought before making decisions. She's never seemed to care much about you at all. She chose Sam over you, even after what he did. And yet, you're still worried about disobeying her."

"How dare you even say that?" I whispered furiously. "I have to make sure she doesn't do something that results in me and Julian being separated. If I left or if she kicked me out, there'd be nearly two whole years where Julian would be underage. I can't leave him alone, Fred."

"So, what, you're going to suffer for the next two years?" Fred asked. "You're going to sit there and pretend everything's okay and take all the crap she throws at you despite the fact that you're an _amazing_ person? Julian's a big boy, Lie."

"Great, now you're ganging up on me on that front, too," I muttered.

Fred sighed. "Lilah, listen, I really admire how much you look out for your brother. Trust me, I have six siblings. I know what that's like. But in your case, it's coming with a price...your own wants, needs, and your own happiness."

"You know nothing about what makes me happy."

"I'd like to think I do," he whispered. "I've known you for a long time."

"Even still," I sniffed, standing up and closing my books hurriedly, "you know nothing about what it's like for me at home. You don't know anything at all. You don't. It's so easy for you to say all this. Everything is so _easy_ for you. All the time." I shoved my books back into my bag and slung it over my shoulder. "Everything is so simple and everything is so easily solved by just _doing_ _whatever you want when you want to do it! _It's not like that, Fred! It's not that easy! Some things are way more complicated than you could ever understand!"

I turned to hurry back up to my dorm, but in a flash, Fred had stood up and grabbed my arm, spinning me back to face him. When I did, I saw that his jaw was clenched.

"You think everything is _easy _for me?" he asked.

"No, that's not what I'm saying," I said. "I just meant that the way you think is so-"

"I grew up with six siblings," Fred said. "Six. And while I wouldn't trade it for the world, it hasn't been _easy_. We've grown up in a rickety, drafty old house with barely two Sickles to rub together! We never had any extra food lying around, or extra clothes. Everyone got hand me downs. Even Bill, who got some things from Dad. There was never any privacy. Everyone was always on top of each other, colliding on the stairs or in the kitchen. I've been called the wrong name more times than I can count. Everything from George on the simplest of days and even _Ginny_ on the most hectic. Sometimes Mum goes through the whole list of names before she settles on Fred! Sure, it's mostly funny and I _love_ my family more than anything, but...I've never had much to call my own. I've never been able to do _whatever _I wanted. Growing up the way I have has _not_ been simple! If anything, you've had it way better than I have!"

"Fred, that's not what I-" I began, vaguely registering the group of remaining people in the room besides us scuttling up to their dorms and out of the room, leaving Fred, George and I alone.

"You have a house with plenty of room! You've always had enough food and nice clothes and everything you could possibly ask for. And on an even bigger scale than that, you're a rich pureblood witch that comes from a non-blood traitor family. You're not at the top of the Death Eaters' hit list, right behind Muggles and Muggleborns. You were safe during the first wizarding war. You didn't have to hear your parents talking in hushed voices, not understanding what was happening at the time, but knowing that scary things were going on."

"Fred, what are you talking about? All that's over."

He snorted. "Is it? You were at the World Cup, were you not? You saw what happened. This is far from over. And if we have a repeat of what happened all those years ago, _my family_ has to worry, not yours. Colliding on the stairs or being called the wrong name will be the least difficult thing we'll have to worry about. But that's exactly what I mean. You've never had to worry about anything like that before, so when it starts to look like it might happen again, you can't even see it!"

"So you're calling me a spoiled, ignorant rich girl?" I asked, narrowing my eyes. "For someone who claims to know me so well, you clearly don't. Besides, at least you all have each other. At least you all love each other. At least _your_ mother supports you and loves you no matter what!"

"Yeah, so much so that she throws away our products and order forms! I'm not saying your life is _easy_, Lie, because I'm well aware that everyone has issues, but-"

"It sure sounds like it!" I cried. "And I don't know how you can say that. You know what it's like for me!"

"I thought you just said I didn't!" Fred yelled back. "I didn't know anything about your life, isn't that right? Because I'm too busy with my head in the clouds, thinking everything is so easy? I know it's not, Lie! I know that while you have things I never did, I also have things you never did! I _know!_ That's what I was getting at! But I wanted you to see that my life isn't as simple and happy as you seem to think. I wanted you to realize what my family has to face when times get tough. But...it's like pulling teeth with you! You accuse me of not knowing everything about what it's like, but you don't tell me! You won't let me in! You keep it all in for the sake of protecting others, but what about you? You seem to forget that there are actually people out there who love you, Lilah, and _care_ about you! That there are people out there who would do absolutely anything to protect _you!_ You're so used to being treated like you're _worthless _by the person who is supposed to love you most that you've forgotten that you're not!"

I let out a strangled sob as tears fell down my cheeks. "Fred, please..." I whispered. I looked down at my wrist, still encircled by Fred's fingers. "Just let me go...please."

Fred stared down at me for a moment, his face stony and his chest rising and falling angrily. Finally, he released my wrist and turned away, running a hand over his jaw as he shook his head and scoffed.

I hated that I had upset him and I hated having the sense that I was letting him down in some way, perhaps by giving him the feeling that he wasn't getting through to me, but I couldn't do this right now. Not here. Not like this. So, with my cheeks burning red in anger and embarrassment, I turned and ran up to my dorm, content to hide up there for the rest of my life.

* * *

The following weekend, we started Apparating lessons in the great hall. I walked down with Ange, Katie, Alicia, Lee and the twins. It looked normal enough except for things had been anything but normal between me and Fred. In fact, we'd barely spoken at all since our little spat in the common room. Sometimes, though, I'd catch him staring at me during class or when we were sitting in the common room, but he'd look away once I looked up. One plus about the whole thing, though, was that he'd at least stopped asking me out. But that was about it. Other than that, it was all negatives. I missed him. But I also hated to admit he was right. In addition, I felt that I needed to deal with my own personal issues before I dealt with going on a date with him. I didn't want to have that talk with him. I was afraid of how it would go for one thing and also, I didn't know how to approach it. I had never been one to be incredibly open about things that deep...at least where I was involved.

Our Apparition instructor was a thin, frail, wispy old man named Wilkie Twycross, who rambled on about the three D's: Destination, Determination and Deliberation. He repeated these words so often that I was sure I'd be saying them in my sleep that night.

He then had us practice Apparating by standing in rows and trying to disappear and reappear in a hoop placed five feet in front of us. For a while, nothing interesting happened. We were just a bunch of sixth years spinning in place with intense looks of concentration on our faces. It was silly. But then, there was a faint popping sound, followed immediately by a cry of both surprise and pain.

My head snapped up and I looked across the room to see a Hufflepuff girl was standing in her hoop, but her right arm was back where she had started. I felt my face pale.

"Ah, yes, so close!" Wilkie Twycross said, hurrying over to her and getting to work reuniting the girl's arm with her body. "It wouldn't be an Apparition class without at least one splinching."

"Oh Merlin," Alicia whispered. "From the looks of that, I'm not sure if Apparating is worth it."

"It's definitely worth it!" George disagreed, shaking his head. "Fred and I have been waiting for this day for ages! Imagine being able to get from one place to another in the span of a second! You can save so much time that way! You can sleep in later because you won't have to calculate any additional travel times!" He looked at Fred. "Remember the World Cup? We were up before the crack of dawn all because we couldn't Apparate and had to take a Portkey!"

Fred nodded vigorously. "Besides, all the mishaps you hear about from the class and the actual test are pretty amusing. Take Charlie for instance. He took his test twice. The first time he took it, he failed because he appeared five miles south of the Apparating point and landed on top of some poor old woman doing her shopping." He and George began to laugh.

"And Bill said," George continued, "that a girl in his class splinched her eyebrow and when the instructor went to reattach it, he kept doing it crooked or uneven, so it looked like she was pulling really funny expressions."

He and Fred were practically doubled over in laughter now and while I found myself also wanting to laugh, I simultaneously had the urge to roll my eyes. Stories about splinching and failing the test were only funny if they weren't you. And I was nervous that it _was_ going to be me. I wouldn't hear the end of it from anyone if I didn't pass my test the first time.

The rest of the Apparition lesson went by without any more splinching incidents, but without anyone successfully Apparating either. Fred and George claimed they had thought they got close a few times, but I wasn't sure if they were bluffing or not. Either way, it did make me feel better that none of us had successfully done it. I didn't feel like I was behind this way.

During our second lesson a week later, a few more people got splinched, leaving behind fingers, toes, even a nose. But a few people also successfully Apparated completely, including the twins.

"How did you _do _it?" Angelina huffed spinning rapidly in place a few times as the twins laughed at her expense.

"The three D's, Ange," George reminded her.

"Destination, Determination and Deliberation," Fred added, imitating Wilkie Twycross's wheezy, feeble voice.

Angelina simply scowled and spun around a bit more, only succeeding in making herself dizzy.

* * *

By the time the last day of March rolled around, I still hadn't made up with Fred. I was putting it off mainly because I was afraid of the subject of conversation. The potential date, my mother, how afraid I was of what she'd do, how afraid I was to leave Julian just yet. But the twins' birthday was the next day and I knew Angelina, Alicia, Katie and Lee were planning a party in the clock tower. Obviously I wanted to go and I didn't want to be fighting with Fred at the time.

Sighing, I rested my chin on my hand as I poured myself some cereal and started to eat. I had been up early and was now the first one down to breakfast, which was ultimately fine with me.

Suddenly, Julian clambored over the bench beside me and sat down. "Have you seen this?" he said breathlessly, brandishing the Prophet at me.

"Oh, what _now_?" I asked irritably.

"It's not Skeeter," Julian said. "It's an article about Mum."

"What?" I asked in surprise, snatching the paper from him and scanning the page for the article.

"Right there," Julian pointed. "And it's not exactly about _her_, but it's about the St. Mungo's program.

I located the article he was pointing at and quickly read it, my mouth dropping open as I did so. Apparently, there had been an outpouring of sympathy donations after my fifteen minutes of fame back in December, so those combined with the usual donations had done a lot of good for the program, which kind of made me happy, even if I hated the reason why donations had gone up. But then, the article took a turn for the worse. Someone had been stealing the money, which my mother had opened a separate Gringotts account for.

"But no one can _steal_ from Gringotts," I said, looking at Julian. "It's so well protected!"

"Exactly," Julian said, gesturing to the bottom of the article. "The last paragraph talks about how right now everyone involved with the program is being investigated. Someone wouldn't have to break into the bank if they had access to the vault, right?"

"So...Mum's going to be investigated?" I asked.

"Sounds like it," Julian answered.

I chewed on my lip. "Do you really think she'd take money out of her own charity?"

"No," Julian said slowly, "unless she's doing it for Sam."

"She's not that dumb!" I cried.

"She sided with him over you," Julian replied casually.

I stared back at him solemnly. "What a mess," I whispered.

"What if it _is_ her?" Julian asked quietly. "What if she gets caught and goes to prison? What'll happen to us? To me and you?"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves here, Jules," I said with a small smile that I hoped was reassuring. "Besides, we have dad to take care of us. And also, I'm seventeen. If I had to, I bet I could be able to take care of you."

"How? You're still in school and have no money to support us until you start work."

"Jules," I laughed. I put my arm around him and smiled, trying not to let it show that I knew what he said was the truth. "Shh, don't worry. We'll be fine. I doubt Mum is the one taking the money out of that vault. You'll see. They'll figure out who it is and it won't be her."

"I hope you're right," Julian whispered.

I gave him another smile before going back to my cereal. My stomach was even more knotted than before. Despite what I had told Julian, I knew as much as he did. What if my mother _was_ stealing? I wouldn't doubt it was Sam's idea if she was, but either way, I had no idea what would happen. And either way, I was finding myself wanting to do anything and everything to distance myself from her at this point.

* * *

That night, I approached the twins' table in the common room and stood there for a second before clearing my throat. They both looked up at me and I smiled slightly. "Fred, can I talk to you?" I asked quietly.

They looked at each other before Fred nodded. George gathered his things and headed upstairs, giving my shoulder a squeeze as he passed.

When he was gone, I turned back to Fred, who was looking up at me expectantly. I sat down across from him and reached into my pocket, pulling out a chocolate frog and slowly pushing it across the table to him.

"What's this?" he asked, raising his eyes from the candy to my face.

"A peace offering," I said. "You were right. I am afraid. And I said some things about you that aren't exactly true. I know everything hasn't always been simple for you, but you _have_ always been better at thinking that way than me." I let out a breathless laugh as my throat constricted. "I know everything you said about the Death Eaters and You-Know-Who was true and it made me think that maybe you were right about me. You've always been in more danger than me when it comes to the Death Eaters. You do have to put up with teasing and ridicule and your family has had to struggle to make ends meet and yet, you're all still so positive and loving and caring. And I just-" I let a puff of air out my mouth. "I'm so cowardly about everything. And it was selfish for me to think my family problems are worse than yours because they aren't."

"Lie, don't," Fred said, shaking his head. "I said some pretty nasty things as well. You're not some spoiled rich girl. I've told you before...you're quite selfless and _that's_ the truth. And I know you have your own problems at home that are still pretty tough to deal with. Just because you don't have to worry about Death Eaters hating you or about being poor, doesn't mean you're exempt from all the bad parts of life." He smirked. "Unfortunately."

"But-"

"Don't," Fred laughed. "Really, Lie, I know what you're going to do. You're going to go on and on about how selfish you are. But you aren't." He swallowed. "But going back to our original issue of your refusal to go on a date with me...you are seventeen years old, Lilah. Legally, you're of age. If you want to do something as easy as go on a date with someone, you should do it. Life's too short, you know?"

"I know, but it's not just my mother that's keeping me from saying yes. It's a load of different things." I looked at him and took a deep breath. "But...I'm going to consider it," I said evenly. "It's not a yes, but it's not a no, either. Not yet. I just need to get my thoughts together first, okay? But I wanted you to know that I really am going to think about it. I'm not just saying that to get you off my case. I'm also sorry about our argument and I really want to be friends again."

Fred was quiet for a moment as he picked up the chocolate frog and twirled it in his fingers. "We never _stopped_ being friends, Lie."

"But you weren't really speaking to me, and-"

"I know, but that doesn't mean I didn't want to be your friend." He gave me a half-hearted smile. "I like you too much for that."

I stared at him. "On the night of the Yule Ball," I began, "you said you weren't confessing your love for me or breaking up with Ange for me."

"I wasn't on both accounts," Fred admitted. "I'm not in love with you like that, Lie. How many times do I have to say it? I'm _interested_. I want to see where it goes. That's all. Besides, I didn't start feeling anything for you until after the Yule Ball. And I didn't break up with Ange for you. I broke up with her because I don't connect with her like I wanted."

"But you 'connect with me'," I said, making quote marks in the air. "Connecting with someone else more than your own girlfriend...It kind of implies-"

"No, Liles," Fred chuckled. "The breakup needed to happen anyway. And, if you notice, I didn't immediately move on to you. I gave us time to heal because we both needed it." He paused and smiled. "Maybe you more than me."

"So...we're good?" I asked hesitantly.

"We're good," Fred repeated. "And for the record...I'm taking your consideration about our date as a sign that I should do anything in my power to sway you towards saying yes."

"Fred, please, no," I groaned.

"Sorry, Liles," he chuckled. "It's part of who I am. I'm not backing down until I get what I want. And what I want is a date with you." He smiled and tugged on the end of my hair. I gently swatted him away, but I felt myself smiling and, as much as I hated to admit it, blushing.

"Did you read the article in the Prophet about the St. Mungo's program?" I asked.

Fred nodded. "I'm guessing your mother's going to be investigated."

"Yeah, they're starting with everyone who knows how to get into the vault," I said. "And after that, they'll branch out the investigation, because that'll mean that somebody out there is a _very_ smart and talented thief."

"I'm sorry," Fred said.

"Yeah, I'm sorry too," I sighed, "even though it does mean she's going to be even more irritable and on edge. Glad I'm not home with her. Although, this summer will be interesting."

"You and Jules are always welcome at the Burrow," Fred said quietly. "You know that. It'll be more opportunities for my mother to teach you how to cook."

I smiled. Ever since I had started going over to the Burrow, Mrs. Weasley would let me help her cook on the days when I found myself needing a break from all the boys. I'd spend hours in the kitchen with her as she prepared dinner and told me all kinds of tips and tricks. It's a big reason why I learned how to cook so well for my family at home. I never told my mother that, though.

"I'd like that," I whispered, meeting his eyes and smiling slightly.

"I think my mother would, too," Fred replied with a grin.

I smiled wider as a warm, happy feeling spread through my stomach. Before Mrs. Weasley, I'd never known what I'd been missing with my own mother. She was everything I didn't have at home. At first, I worried it would make me sad, but it never did. Instead, it always made me feel exactly the opposite.

* * *

The next day was the twins' seventeenth birthday. Lee, Angelina, Katie, Alicia and I put together a mini party for just us up in the clock tower. We had food from the kitchens and from Hogsmeade, firewhiskey, butterbeer, and of course, presents. I got the two of them a bell. A tiny, golden, shiny bell that made a bright tinkling sound when it rang.

"Thanks, Liles," Fred said slowly, holding it up and ringing it. "But what's it for?"

I rolled my eyes. "It's for when you open your shop. You'll need something to let you know that customers have arrived. And when you hear it ringing as your first customer walks in the door..." I smiled and shrugged. "I thought it would be rewarding."

Fred stared at me, that odd look of complete and utter affection on his face. I blushed and looked away. In the next moment, George was thanking me and pulling me into a hug. A second later, Fred was doing the same, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek as he did so. "Thanks, Lie, so much."

I smiled at the gratitude in his voice. It _did_ make me feel good that he liked it. I had hoped he and George would.

"So," I sighed, pulling away, "how does it feel to finally be of age? You've finally caught up to me and Ange."

"Yeah, you old folks," George joked, giving me a light punch in the arm. I rolled my eyes as Angelina stuck her tongue out at him.

"It feels...good," Fred said, stretching his legs out in front of him and taking another sip of his firewhiskey.

"What was your first bit of legal magic this morning?" Alicia asked curiously. "Do we want to know?"

The twins laughed as Lee let out a loud groan. "They charmed anything I tried to touch to jump away from me before I got ahold of it," he said. "Can you imagine trying to get dressed like that? It took forever for them to get tired of it and give it up!"

The rest of us laughed. "That's a good way to use your first bit of legal magic," I said. "I did something boring...summoned my clothes from the dresser, I think."

"Ugh," Fred said, wrinkling his nose in disgust. "That _is _boring."

"Really, Lilah?" George asked. "You couldn't have done anything more interesting than that? You'll have plenty of opportunities to summon your clothes from your dresser."

"Shut up," I muttered, "and stop making me feel like I wasted my chance."

"You _did_ waste your chance, though," Fred laughed, downing the rest of his drink and setting the empty bottle down on the ground.

"Hey, in her defense, I wasn't much better," Angelina said. "I used it to make my bed."

"Make your bed?" Fred asked in disbelief. "Oh, Merlin, Ange."

"I know," she whispered with a slight smile, swirling the last little bit of her drink in the bottle as she looked down at it. "Crazy, right?"

"Not crazy," Fred answered. "Just very...you." He smiled, something that Ange returned.

I chewed on my lip and looked away. It was probably just me, but it was almost easy to imagine they were dating again. It had been so long since they'd spoken like that.

Suddenly, Fred leaned over to get another drink, putting himself extremely close to me in the process. "You're not getting off that easy," he whispered in my ear as he did so. "It's still you, Lie."

I glanced up to meet his eyes and smiled slightly. "Well, I still haven't made up my mind yet," I whispered back.

"You should think fast," Fred hissed. "You can't keep stringing me along forever and then get that look on your face whenever I talk to Angelina." He grinned. "You _so_ like me."

"Fred, are you trying to ask the poor girl out again?" Angelina sighed.

"Maybe," Fred said. "But it's partially your fault that she won't say yes, so you should be supporting _me_, not Lilah. _Poor girl_. Honestly, she's experiencing the greatest honor she'll ever have right now."

"Oh, please, you wish," I groaned, rolling my eyes.

"I've told you, Lilah, if you want to agree to a date, you should," Angelina said. "I'm okay with it, but even if I wasn't, I suppose I'd have to suck it up, wouldn't I?"

"No, you wouldn't," I whispered. "It's not fair."

"She's afraid of her mother," Fred supplied.

"There are a lot of different factors, Fred, okay?" I sighed. "Just...give me some time, okay?"

"Okay," Fred sighed, "but your time is limited. My patience is going to run thin eventually and I'll have no choice than to give up." He sighed dramatically again.

I gave him a knowing look. "No, you won't," I said, tapping his knee with my finger. "You're just being dramatic, as always."

"You'd like to think," Fred replied, sending a wink in my direction.

* * *

Now that Fred and I had made up and now that I had told him I'd consider going out with him, it seemed to have given him newfound hope and he returned to attempting to get my attention and/or ask me out regularly. But now at least it really was only once a week instead of every few days.

"You pestering me isn't going to incline me to say yes," I said one day in the common room after he had thrown a crumpled paper at my head from across the couch, that I knew had a note asking me out scrawled on it. "Especially if you keep being so rude about it."

"I'm not being rude," Fred said defiantly. "And I'm not pestering you. I'm just making sure you don't forget to inform me of your decision and that you keep me on your mind in the process. Since you're always on _my _mind, it's only fair."

I looked up from my homework to see him grinning at me, tossing another crumpled up paper up and down in his hand. He had made the comment lightly, but I knew he had meant it.

"Really?" I asked quietly.

He nodded slowly. "Really."

I swallowed and began chewing on my lip as I turned back to my homework, my cheeks turning a faint pink as I did so.

"See, that leads me to believe that you do want to go out with me," Fred said, lifting up his feet and resting them on the coffee table. "You've never blushed this much before. Now everything I say makes your face turn the color of my hair. On a bad day, though. On a good day, it's a mild pink."

I glared at him. "How can you possibly claim to know so much about what I want?" I asked.

"I don't. Not really," Fred shrugged. "But I've known you for a long time and I also have a strong feeling."

"Is it your heartbeat again?" I asked with a roll of my eyes and a smile.

"Nope, different strong feeling," he laughed.

I kicked him hard on the underside of his leg, making him yelp. "How's that for a strong feeling?" I asked with a snort, laughing harder when Fred swore and rubbed his leg. "Please, you're such a wimp."

"No, you just don't know you're own brute strength!"

"Excuse me?" I asked with a giggle, pretending to be offended. "What did you just say to me?"

"I called you a big, strong, _manly_-"

Before he could finish his sentence, I leaned over and snatched his invention sketches off his lap, standing up and running around the room with them. He attempted to chase me and we ended up on opposite sides of the couch trying to fake each other out about which way we were running. Finally, Fred gave up and flung himself over the couch. I yelped and dashed away, but Fred was too fast. He caught me around the middle and spun me around as our laughter rang out through the room. It was just like it usually was to hang out with him, but also different.

It hit me all of a sudden, as our laughter slowed down. Fred's chin was on my shoulder and his arms were still around me. My heart was pounding and I suddenly felt frozen in place. If I turned my head slightly to the right, I could kiss him. I wondered what it would be like.

Closing my eyes and sighing, I gently squirmed out of his grip as I tried to push those thoughts away. I didn't know what to do. In moments like this, I wanted nothing more to just say yes to him. But he had been right about me. I was terrified.


	46. Chapter 46

The next four weeks rolled by with Apparition classes still happening regularly. I finally managed to Apparate successfully at one point during classes. The funny feeling, combined with my surprise, almost caused me to lose my balance when I landed in my hoop five feet away, but I didn't. I practiced a few more times and successfully Apparated each time, getting the hang of it more and more each time. It was definitely one of my proudest moments so far. Now I just had to take and pass the test in mid-May and I'd be good.

One night, in the first week of May, the twins also found out what the third task was going to be. They were instructed to go down to the Quidditch pitch at eight o'clock one night to meet Bagman there. He'd tell them what the task was and they'd have the next seven weeks to prepare. Then, on June 24th, the final task would take place and we'd find out who won the tournament.

"It's a maze," Fred reported, the second he and George located us in the common room later.

"A maze? The third task?" Katie asked. "That sounds way easier than a dragon and holding your breath for an hour."

"Well, it's not just a regular maze," George said. "They're growing all these hedges on the Quidditch pitch. They're small now, but by the end of June, they'll be massive."

"Oliver would have a fit if he knew what they were doing to his beloved Quidditch pitch," I snorted. I paused. "Although, I doubt he cares much about this one anymore."

"Don't say that," Katie said. "I'm sure he does. It's where he got his start after all."

"Anyway," Fred said loudly. "The maze. We're going to have to navigate our way through it until we find the Triwizard Cup, which will be in the center. Whoever gets the cup first, wins. But we also have to fight off obstacles in the maze, not just navigate through it."

"Obstacles?" I asked, my mind already thinking about what types of research we would have to do to prepare the twins for the upcoming task. "What kind of obstacles?"

"Not sure," Fred answered. "Bagman didn't say. He just said Hagrid would be providing some stuff, and that there would be spells we'd have to break through. Nothing specific."

"No, of course not," I muttered, rubbing my forehead. "I'm not surprised."

"I wouldn't worry, Lie," Fred said. "Katie's kind of right. This task isn't _easy_ exactly, but we have a lot of knowledge of spells and pranks already. In fact, our pranks might just give us a leg up. They could work on whatever's in there. None of the other champions have that opportunity."

"I guess, Fred, but don't you think we should still hit the library? I mean, stocking up on some unfamiliar spells couldn't hurt, could it?"

"I don't know, Lie, the library's pretty painful," Fred said with a wince.

"Yeah, there's all those heavy books," George added with a sigh.

"And what if a whole _shelf_ falls on top of you?" Fred asked. "You'd be flattened, and we can't have that."

"No, of course not," I said with a sniff. "How could I have been so silly?" I rolled my eyes and continued to flip through my Transfiguration book.

"It's alright, Lie, it's why you have us here to think for you," George said, gesturing to himself and Fred. "We're clearly the brains of the friendship."

"Clearly," I sighed, underlining a few important sentences with my quill, still too busy to look up at them. "So, while you're out there in the maze, unprepared and unaware of what you'll face...try not to die, okay?"

The twins both snorted.

"Bagman offered us help again," Fred said.

"Why?" Angelina asked.

"He wants us to win so that we'll get our money back-and more-and then we can leave him alone," Fred answered matter-of-factly.

"He does seem really persistent about it, though," George said thoughtfully. "He already asked us once and we didn't exactly answer him nicely. And now he's at it again. Seems nervous too. And anxious."

"Maybe he's afraid of you," I said. "You have been blackmailing him all year."

Fred snorted. "He's not afraid of us. If you saw some of his responses to our letters, you wouldn't think he was."

"Maybe he's bluffing," I said. "Something that's always a lot easier to do on paper in a letter to someone."

"Nah, I don't think that's it, Lie," George said. "He really wants us to win for some reason-something personal. Sure, it'll get us off his back, but it's something more. Why else would he be so nervous?"

"I don't know," I shrugged. There was a pause. "Percy coming to judge this task again?"

Mr. Crouch had apparently become increasingly sick over the past few months and eventually hadn't been able to come judge the tasks. So, Percy had taken his place. He certainly looked like he was loving it, too.

"Yeah, I think so," Fred shrugged, blowing a puff of air out of his mouth. "Not like we actually talk to him. He never writes us, we never write him."

"Don't you want to?" Angelina asked. "Don't you want to know how his job's going?"

"Ange," Fred said slowly, "we don't _need_ to ask. Whenever we see him, that's what he talks about. Last summer, that's _all_ he talked about. George and I started handing him napkins. Or a washcloth and soap if they were nearby."

"Why's that?" Alicia asked.

"So he could wipe his mouth after spending so long kissing Mr. Crouch's-"

"Okay, Fred, enough," I sighed. "We get it." But I was fighting back a laugh as well and I think Fred knew it. I could practically feel him grinning at me. The stupid git.

* * *

I passed my apparition test with flying colors and so did the twins, Lee and Angelina. Katie and Alicia hadn't made the cutoff date for the test, so they'd be taking it a different time, much to their dismay.

After we took our test, time seem to speed up again. I was busier than ever with homework and trying to help the twins out with the third task.

"I can't believe next year is NEWT year already," I said to Julian absentmindedly. I had found him alone in the library, apparently trying to get some homework done in peace (he did always like the quiet) and asked if I could join him.

"Mm," Julian agreed, scribbling down another sentence for his essay.

"And OWL year for you," I added with a sigh. "You nervous? You must be, but then again you've never had anything to be nervous about. You're really smart. It all kind of comes easily to you. And as for me, I don't think I'm concentrating as well as I could. With everything going on, I just-"

"Lilah, you're rambling," Julian said, glancing up at me.

"Right, sorry," I muttered, looking back down at my own work. "You like to concentrate. That's why you came here alone in the first place. I'm annoying you. Sorry."

Julian sighed and set down his quill before rubbing his eyes. "Speaking of annoying other people, when are you going to tell Fred you'll go out with him?"

I looked up agan to see him smiling. "You think I should say yes?"

"Why not?" Julian shrugged. "You clearly want to."

"But what about Mum? She'll freak. I'm afraid this will turn into something more and that I'll_ want _it to be something more. And I can't move out because I can't leave you."

"Will you_ stop_ worrying about me?" Julian asked.

"Jules, if you think I'm going to leave you alone with Mum and Sam, you're out of your mind. And now with this investigation, you know Mum's going to be even busier. If I leave, it'll be you and Sam, or just you alone if Sam's not around. I can't do that to you."

"I can use the Floo on my own now," Julian said. "I can go to Dad's, I can go to the Burrow. I don't need an adult to bring me places anymore. Please, Liles, you've got to start remembering I'm not a child. I'm not incapable."

I swallowed. "But Sam-"

"I can handle Sam," Julian argued. "If you want to go out with Fred, then do it. This isn't life or death. This isn't a decision that you should be worried about. Someone asked you out on a date. And I, personally, want you to go. I _want_ you to give it a try. I want you to think about yourself for once. In fact, if you don't do it, I'll never speak to you again."

"That's peer pressure," I whined, sticking my tongue out at him. I looked down at my textbook as I twirled my quill in my hand. "Besides the thing with Mum, I'm just worried that Fred isn't taking this as seriously as everyone thinks he is. I mean, he always asks me out with that huge teasing, obnoxious smile on his face. He never asks me seriously or properly. It just makes it look-to me, at least-that he thinks of all this as a game. And then once the fun chase is over..." I trailed off and sighed. "Or it'll end the way things ended with Oliver. And I just don't want to get into something that's only going to leave me hurt in the end again. Something in my life that's only going to end badly. Again."

"You really think Fred would do that to you?" Julian asked. "You really believe he thinks that little of you? He's one of your _best friends_. You were the person chosen for the second task as the person he'd miss the most." He hesitated. "And frankly, if you think he's going to hurt you, that doesn't say much about what you think about him either."

I stared at him in surprise. "Jules," I whispered. "I-"

"Give him a chance, Lie," he whispered back. "I think you're getting ahead of yourself quite a bit here. You don't know for sure that Mum will overeact or kick you out if you date Fred. You don't even know where it'll go."

I was quiet for a moment. "I guess you're right," I finally answered. "But what if it ends up being me? What if it all goes wrong because of me?"

"You've got to stop thinking that way, Lie," Julian said, shaking his head. "I think you should give this a try. Go out with Fred. Believe it or not, watching the poor bloke _mope_ all the time is pretty unbearable."

"He's not moping, he's never moped," I said. "He just gets right back up and either moves on or keeps trying. You're just trying to get me to feel bad for him."

"It's one date," Julian went on. "You're not getting married or even officially becoming his girlfriend."

"What if I'm truly not interested?" I asked.

"Oh, you're interested," he said. "Don't think I don't notice you absentmindedly staring at him all the time now or-"

"Only because he started making things weird!" I argued.

"Even before then," Julian said with a smile. "And then there's the way you've been blushing around him _all_ _the_ _time_..." He paused. "_Are_ you interested in going? Even a little?"

I was quiet. "Maybe."

"I'm taking that as a yes," Julian said. "So go out with him."

"He has the third task to worry about."

Julian laughed. "Will you _please_ stop making excuses?"

I glared at him. "They're justifiable reasons to say no!"

"There is no justifiable reason to say no," Julian said matter-of-factly.

I rolled my eyes. "Shut up and do your homework, Jules."

* * *

At the beginning of June, about three weeks before the first task, the letter arrived. It was delivered off with Casper one Saturday morning, as normally as any other piece of mail would arrive. I gave Casper a bit of my bacon before watching him fly away to the owlery. And then, I turned my attention to the crisp, white envelope beside my cereal bowl. I sighed wearily. It was my mother's handwriting. I was supposed to meet Fred and George at the library soon to help them research for the maze, and I didn't want to go in on a bad note. But I also wanted to get this over with, because I doubted the letter contained anything cheerful.

I picked it up and toyed with it a bit before finally giving in and opening it. The good news was that at least it wasn't a Howler. Finally, I slid the leter out and began to read.

_Dear Lilah,_

_As you may or may not have noticed by now, there is an investigation going on surrounding the recent theft from the reading program's charity. I was under a lot of questioning and inconveniencing, such as the house being searched, for quite some time. But now it seems that the investigation has gone in a different direction. The authorities are now investigating your father and he is quickly becoming the number one suspect in the case. Witnesses claim that they saw a man fitting his description in Diagon Alley on the days money was taken out of the vault. Gringotts goblins say no one ever came to them to get into the vault, but there were no other signs of a break in, so someone must have used a key. My key was also stolen recently, so the authorities will be searching your father's flat for anything suspicious. Sam says he has a motive. He says your father was jealous of all my success, bitter about the divorce, and bitter about still making less money and having less success than me. The authorities seem to agree, escpecially after everything that was published in that article over Christmas. They are looking more into it now, but I thought you would like to know. Personally, I was-and am-shocked. I never thought he'd do this. But, I suppose, if the shoe fits, wear it. _

_Additionally, I'd like to warn you that if any of the media ask for a comment, give none. If you'd like some advice, do not talk to them at all. Stay far away from any reporters. We do not need another incident like last time. I can't spend the rest of my life cleaning up after my adult family members, whether it be you or your father. So I must warn you: do not embarrass this family again. Remember, no reporters. And if they ask, no comment._

_Sincerely, Mum_

I gaped down at the parchment in complete and utter shock. My hand was shaking and my throat was constricting. I felt faint. My dad was a suspect? He was suspected for _stealing _money.

I knew he'd never do that. Never. He'd never sink that low. No matter how much he was struggling, he'd work himself to death trying to fix it. He'd never take something that didn't belong to him. Even my mother was surprised. But of course, she was all too eager to go along with it. To let him get accused without looking into it more. Because the sooner they found a culprit, the sooner this mess could end. But not if they caught the _wrong_ _person_.

He was being framed. But by who? The only person I could think of was Sam. Again. Sam said my dad had a motive. Sam said my dad was jealous. Sam was brainwashing my mother and the Ministry into thinking my dad had committed a crime. He was going to send my dad off to jail without a second thought. But why? What would he gain from that? Unless...

My mind was still spinning. Could Sam really be the one stealing? Was he stealing and blaming it on my father? If he was, why? Because my dad tried to confront him about the article Skeeter wrote about me? In a way, it sounded kind of logical to me. But was I being too rash? My dad was being investigated. He could go to jail. He could go to Azkaban. His life was being turned upside down. My mother didn't care. And the whole last paragraph of her letter stung me way more than it should have. I remembered her Howler. One failure after another.

Tears welled up behind my eyes and I jumped up from my seat, running out of the great hall where I promptly smashed into something tall and hard. Well, some_one_, I realized, once the person let out a grunt of surprise.

"Lilah! I was just coming to get you."

Oh, Merlin, it was Fred. Just what I needed.

"You were?" I sniffed, trying to hide my tears and the letter from him.

"Yeah, George is already in the library. I know, I know, we're there early and waiting for _you_. It's crazy, but we're actually anxious to get planning. It's the last task and our victory is so close, we can taste it. So, I was just coming to see if you were ready to-wait, what's wrong?"

He had noticed that I wasn't looking at him and he had noticed the tears coming down my cheeks.

"Nothing, Fred," I said hurriedly. "I actually have to go find my brother right now. I have to go. I-there's a lot-I have to deal with a lot-I can still try to help you because-but, my mother, she-the charity and-" I wasn't making much sense, but my brain felt like it was melting. I was in shock. I was panicking. I didn't know what to do. Finally, I burst into full on tears, right in the entrance hall.

Fred seemed to sense that something was very wrong and he didn't ask any questions. Not right away at least. Instead, I felt him wrap his arms around me and pull me into a hug. We stayed like that for a moment until my crying slowed.

"Come on," Fred finally murmured, pulling away and taking my hand. He led me all the way up to the clock tower. It was secluded, empty and quiet, the perfect place to talk. Fred stopped in the middle of the room, right in front of the giant clock, and let go of my hand as he turned to face me. "Can you tell me what's going on?" he whispered.

I turned and looked at the hands of the clock, the second hand ticking away, the bigger hands reaching outwards, still for the time being. And then the beams of light, shining through the white background of the clock, illuminating dust particles in the air. A beam of light stretched across my face as well as Fred's. It made his eyes brighter than usual and his pupils smaller, making his eyes seem almost entirely blue. His hair was brighter too, more firey. Looking at him was like looking at fire and ice. Which was exactly how he was. For the most part, he was fiery. He was confident, funny, bold, protective, outgoing, and had no filter when he spoke or acted. But then on the flip side, he could be like this. Exceedingly caring, compassionate, considerate and gentle.

Without a word, I handed him my mother's letter. I watched as his eyes scanned the page, the corners of his mouth being tugged down deeper and deeper into a frown as he went on. When he finally finished, he was quiet and still for a moment. Then, in a sudden movement, he crumpled up the letter and furiously threw it across the room where it landed with a soft clatter.

"It's Sam, it has to be," he said, beginning to pace. "It's all him and he's going to make sure your dad goes to jail. And your mother isn't going to care or do anything to stop him!" He turned to face me. "You're not going back there this summer. You're coming to live with me and that's final."

"Fred, I'm going back," I said, my voice suddenly calm. It was weird. It was as if our roles had suddenly been reversed. "I have to sort things out there, first of all. Secondly, I can't let myself burden your family. And thirdly, I have to worry about-"

"Julian, I know," Fred answered with a heavy sigh. He rubbed a hand over his jaw as he continued to pace. "George and I-we'll help you research how to get Julian out of there, too. We'll help you get money to live on your own while we also figure out how to get your dad out of this. We'll-"

"Fred, you can barely deal with your own money issues right now," I said. "Worry about that first. No pun intended, but you can't afford any more setbacks with your joke shop."

"I don't bloody care about the shop when all this is going on with you!" he cried furiously.

"You're talking crazy," I laughed.

"Your mother can't keep doing this to you," Fred said quietly. "I know she makes you feel like crap, Lilah. She makes you feel worthless. Look me in the eyes and tell me I'm wrong."

I looked away as my eyes filled with tears again. I hated that all I seemed to be doing in front of him lately was crying. I usually wasn't overly weepy, but lately it had been one thing after another. "Fred, don't-"

"Go ahead," Fred urged. "Look at me."

"Fred-"

"Lilah, look at me and tell me I'm wrong," he repeated urgently.

"You're not wrong!" I finally exclaimed, letting the sobs out again. "You're right! She makes me feel like a nobody! A failure. She told me I was! She said one failure after another! I can't do anything right! I brought on the fight that finalized my parents divorce, I disappoint my mother with my grades, my actions and my choice of friends. I get a bad article printed about me in the paper! I _embarrass my family_! You want to know why I won't go out with you and that's the biggest reason of all! I'm starting to think I'll mess it up, just like I messed things up with Oliver! Just like I messed things up for my parents. I'll be the one responsible for yet _another_ ending!"

"Lilah-" Fred began, but I barely heard him, instead choosing to keep rambling.

"Or I'll be the idiot who falls for you harder than you ever intended to fall for me! Or the idiot that goes out with you even though you're not taking it seriously! I mean, you never properly ask me. You ask me as if it's all one big amusing joke...throwing bits of paper at me, giving me trick flowers...And then my mother will be there saying she told me so and that I messed up again, and-and-I just ruin everything I touch!" I stopped trying to talk as I buried my head in my hands.

Fred said nothing. Instead, he pulled me into a hug again and just held me until I had cried myself out. I pulled away and wiped my eyes, totally embarrassed and afraid to even look at him. Merlin, I was so pathetic.

"Sit down," he said gently, lowering himself down to one of the large steps that went all the way across the floor of the tower. He gently pulled me with him, keeping his fingers intertwined with mine even after I had sat. Then, he continued, his voice low. "First of all...do you _really _think I'd do that to you? Ask you out as a joke or a dare or a laugh? Ask you out for my own amusement to watch you suffer?"

"Not _really_," I muttered. "But...I want you to ask me seriously."

"Okay," Fred answered slowly. "Noted." He paused. "Secondly, do you want to know what _I _think of you?"

I shrugged as I stared down at our intertwined hands.

"I think you're amazing. You're beautiful, smart, kind, compassionate, and probably a better person than George and I combined."

I scoffed and tried to protest, but Fred interrupted me.

"You care more about other people than you do about yourself, which maybe needs some adjustment, but it's a very admirable quality. You're always willing to help someone in need, no matter what it takes. Need I remind you that _you've_ been helping me and George prepare for the tasks. _You_ were the one who came down to the lake with us in the freezing cold so we could figure out our egg clue. _You_ were the one Dumbledore took away from us and had us find at the bottom of the lake." He paused and smiled as I looked up at him.

"Julian said that, too. About the lake."

Fred smiled wider. "Shall I continue?"

I blushed and looked away. "Fred, I-no, please, stop..."

Fred ignored me. "You look amazing in green. Your smile not only lights up your face, but the entire room. The sound of your laugh reminds me why I love laughter in the first place. You're protective of the people you love and even though I wish you got the childhood you dreamed of, growing up the way you did has made you independent, which I love. But despite all you've gone through, you've always made everyone else feel needed and special and wanted and loved...including me. And I want nothing more than for you to feel the same way. I like you, Lilah, a lot. You were my best friend long before I had feelings for you. And I would never, ever mess with _your_ feelings. You have to know that."

"Fred," I whispered, finally meeting his eyes. I didn't know what to say. Nobody had ever said anything like that to me before. Ever. I was at a loss for words.

He looked down at our fingers, still intertwined, before lifting his gaze back up to my face. "You deserve as much love and attention as you give everyone else. You don't deserve to be forgotten about or brushed under the rug. You are not _disposable_, Lilah."

I stared at him, still speechless for a moment, my heart thudding in my chest and a grateful, warm, happy, calm feeling spreading through the rest of my body. I was unable to think of any words that would form an acceptable response. So I responded instead by following my own instincts. My mind seemed to empty as I leaned forward and kissed him, sliding a hand to the back of his neck and pulling him as close to me as I could.

Fred froze for a moment, but he seemed to snap out of his shock pretty quickly, seeing as he was kissing me back seconds later. One of his hands found the small of my back and pulled me closer as the fingertips of his other hand gently grazed my cheek before I felt his whole palm against my skin, his thumb running back and forth over my cheekbone.

Finally, I willed myself to pull away slightly, squeezing my eyes shut tighter and sighing. What had I just done? I had kissed one of my best friends. The same friend I'd been afraid to even go on a date with. I had kissed him. And I had loved every second of it.

"Wow, Lie," Fred whispered, "some people don't even like kissing after the first date. But apparently you're up for doing it before you even _agreed_ to the first date. Impressive."

"Fred," I said with a brief laugh. But then my smile faded. "I probably shouldn't have done that at all. I just acted impulsively..."

"So? That's not a bad thing."

"Fred, there's too much going on now for me to-"

"So you're just going to keep coming up with excuses? You're going to kiss me and then say it was a mistake and you don't want to go any further? You're going to keep delaying this so you can figure yourself out? Merlin, Lie, I'm determined, but everyone has their limit."

"What are you saying?" I whispered, looking up at him.

"I'm saying that I'm not going to wait around forever for you to decide. I'm not stupid. I'm being persistent because I thought I could get you to say yes with a little time and convincing. But if I can see trying to be with you is a lost cause, then..." He shrugged. "I'll have to do what I have to do."

"Are you bluffing?" I asked.

Fred didn't answer my question. Instead he asked one of his own. "So what's it going to be?"

"Maybe once this all ends," I whispered. "It's too much right now, Fred. My dad might go to jail for something I know he didn't do! How can I even think about dating?"

Fred inhaled through his nose before slowly exhaling and running a hand through his hair. "I know," he finally whispered. "But you just _kissed _me, Lie. What am I supposed to think?"

"I just-I don't think I can do this now," I whispered sadly. "I'm so sorry."

And then, I forced myself to stand up and practically run from the room.

* * *

I felt terribly guilty. I had been avoiding Fred since our kiss in the clock tower. Another week had passed and now there were only two more weeks until the task. I hadn't even been helping them out like I promised I would.

But I couldn't face Fred. I was embarrassed. I shouldn't have kissed him and then rejected him. I knew it would only hurt his feelings, but I had done it anyway. And now I was avoiding him. He probably hated me so much by now. He hadn't tried to talk to me or ask me out again and I was a little relieved, but mostly sad. I missed him, but I had ruined anything good we had.

To make matters worse, I couldn't stop thinking about him since the kiss. I couldn't stop thinking about the kiss itself. I was beginning to wish it had been terrible so that I could forget about it easily. But it hadn't been, and now it kept replaying endlessly in my mind.

Immediately after leaving the clock tower that day, I had tracked down Julian to show him the letter. And then we had written to dad to make sure he was okay. He claimed he didn't do anything and we believed him, naturally. We even told him we thought it was Sam. He said to not jump to any conclusions, but we didn't think we had. We both believed it was Sam. We just didn't have proof yet.

My other friends were just as shocked and surprised by the news as Julian and I were. They completely understood and tried to give me as much space as I needed after finding out the news. But every now and then, they'd get on my case about Fred. They'd ask what happened, why we weren't speaking again, why I was acting so weird whenever it was brought up. It was like they were all channeling Rita Skeeter.

Finally, the night before the last day of exams and two nights before the task. The Gryffindor common room was full and everyone was distracted from studying for exams by the fact that three Gryffindors would be competing in two days.

I, however, was trying my best to not let myself get distracted. I was sitting in a corner of the room, on the verge of panicked tears as I stared down at my History of Magic book, which sat open in front of me

Saying I was stressed was an understatement. I had an exam the next day, my father was being investigated, I was avoiding one of my best friends because I had kissed him and he couldn't go out with him. And in two days he'd be competing in the last task of the Triwizarad tournament and I had no idea how prepared he was for it.

Suddenly, a strange hush seemed to go over the room, but I barely noticed, taking it as one of those random lulls in conversation and expecting it to pick up again soon. But it didn't.

"Lilah," someone said, their voice somehow gentle and firm at the same time. I glanced up and then had to do a double take at what I saw. Fred was standing a few feet away from my table, holding a bouquet of flowers and staring at me.

I instantly blushed crimson as my stomach fell to my knees and I closed my eyes. "Fred, please..."

"No, Lilah, let me talk," he said. "You wanted proof that I was serious. You wanted proof that this wasn't all a joke. You wanted me to ask you properly. Well, here I am. I'm not asking you out throwing paper at you or begging the house elves to ask you or leaving you candy or trick flowers. I'm not going to laugh and tease you and call you out when you blush and get embarrassed."

He began making his way over to my table and I could feel my cheeks heat up even more. The whole room was staring at us, which was freaking me out. But at the same time...it had become obvious how determined Fred really was about this and how much he wanted it.

"I haven't been able to stop thinking about that kiss," Fred admitted, reaching my table and looking down at me, right into my eyes. I heard a few people in the room whoop loudly at his words.

"Me neither," I whispered back.

"I haven't been able to stop thinking about _you,_" Fred went on. He paused and held the flowers out to me. I hesitated. "Go on, take them," Fred said. "They aren't trick flowers. They're real.

Slowly, I reached out and took the bouquet, hesitantly closing my fingers around the stems, brushing Fred's hand in the process. I brought the flowers to my nose and sniffed them. They _were_ real and smelled amazing.

"They're beautiful, Fred," I whispered.

"Daisies," Fred answered. "Your favorite."

He was right. They were daisies, but they weren't just regular white daisies. Well, some of them were, but others had been dyed different colors. Bright green, orange, red, blue, purple and yellow. Of course Fred had added his own touch to them.

"Thank you," I said quietly.

"I know you're going through a lot right now," Fred said, "and I know you're scared, but I thought about it and I am confident that no matter how many excuses you make, part of you wants to go out with me or else you wouldn't have kissed me. And even though I said everyone has their limit before they give up..." He shrugged. "You were right. I was bluffing. I couldn't give up on you after that kiss. Plus, I wouldn't be me if I gave up on things that mean a lot to me. So, please, Lilah, I'll ask you again, hopefully for the last time. Will you go on a date with me?"

I looked up at him as I chewed on my lip. The answer was on the tip of my tongue, but I was afraid to let it come out.

"Say yes!" Lee yelled out. "I'm begging you so I don't have to hear him whine anymore!"

The common room laughed and I even found myself smiling slightly.

"Please, Lie," Fred whispered, his expression pleading.

I sighed and looked down at my flowers, gently running a finger along a single petal before looking up at him again. "Okay," I said, as simply as I could, with a subtle nod of my head.

Fred froze and blinked at me a few times. "You-you're saying yes? Really?"

I nodded again. "I'm saying yes. To _one_ date, Fred. That's all. I'm not promising anything else."

"No, of course not," Fred said with a grin. He turned to the common room and raised his fists in the air triumphantly. "She said yes!" he cried.

And to my horror, people started clapping. I was torn between hiding out of embarrassment or bursting into laughter. Instead, I resorted to staring at Fred with an amused look on my face.

"I can't believe you," I said as Fred took a seat beside me. "You're out of your mind."

"I may be _out_ of it, but you're certainly _in_ it," he grinned. "All the time."

I gave him a look as I laughed in disbelief. "Fred, _really_?"

"Mhm," Fred said, resting his chin on his hand and staring at me in amusement.

"You're ridiculous," I said with a smile.

"So, where do you want to go on our date? Now that wew can Apparate, we can go anywhere you want this summer." He hesitated and cleared his throat. "I can't afford to bring you anywhere too fancy if we don't win the task. But if we win and get the money..."

"Fred, when have you known me to care about fancy?" I asked.

Fred smiled. "No, you're right. That's one of the things I like about you."

"We'll figure something out," I answered with a small smile. It was quiet for a moment before my eyes widened. "Hang on. Fred, the third task! It's in two days and you're sitting here talking to me! Are you prepared enough? Do you need any more help? Someone to practice spells with?"

Fred laughed and reached out to set his hands on my shoulders. "Relax, Lie," he whispered comfortingly, giving me a smile. "George and I have it all under control. Trust us. We can handle it. You don't need to do a thing. I know you've been stressed lately. You have enough to worry about without having to worry about me and George as well."

"I want to make sure you don't die," I whispered.

Fred slid his right hand up to my cheek as he looked at me affectionately. "George and I are not going to die," he assured me. "We're going to be fine and we're going to win our money back. And by the time we leave school, we'll be opening up our own shop."

I nodded and swallowed nervously. "Okay," I answered quietly, not daring to think about what would happen if anything Fred said turned out to be wrong.


	47. Chapter 47

On the morning of the third task, Fred, George and I sat in the great hall eating breakfast. We were expecting Mrs. Weasley and Bill to show up any second. Families of the champions were allowed to come to watch the third task and support their children. Mrs. Weasley and Bill were coming in support of both the twins and Harry since he had no one else to come support him.

When Mrs. Weasley did eventually arrive, we knew right away. We saw her and Bill's flaming red hair standing out against everyone else's as they appeared in the doorway and scanned the room. The moment Mrs. Weasley saw the twins, she immediately began making a beeline for us. When she reached our table, she pulled Fred and George into a hug, looking panicked.

"Mum!" the twins cried, hastily setting their spoons down and reaching up to gently try to pry their mother's arms away.

"Oh, I can't wait for this whole thing to be over," Mrs. Weasley said, wringing her hands as she watched the rest of us eat. "This was a terrible idea in the first place. Even someone seventeen years old isn't prepared for this, even if the rules say they can enter legally. I don't know why you two thought attempting to enter _illegally_ was a good choice! It's such a joke to you, which is ridiculous, especially since Harry was framed!"

"Well, George and I _are_ seventeen now," Fred said. "So we're legal."

"You weren't when you entered!" Mrs. Weasley snapped. "I can't believe Dumbledore didn't have more restrictions around the goblet. It just doesn't make sense! And he was ever so vague when I tried to talk to him."

"Dumbledore did have protection around the goblet," Fred said. "George and I just have our ways of getting past them."

Mrs. Weasley blinked at him before she seemed to think of something. "Did you ask another student to do it for you?"

"Maybe, maybe not," Fred said coyly.

I felt my cheeks heat up as my stomach dropped and my heart rate sped up. I felt awful. Mrs. Weasley was a wreck and rightly so. And the person who had gotten her sons into this mess was right in front of her.

"It was me," I suddenly blurted out. "I put their names in."

Mrs. Weasley turned her gaze to me. "What?" she asked, her face paling. It made me feel even worse, but I just hadn't been able to keep the secret in anymore. I hated being untruthful to people, especially someone who had been as good to me as Mrs. Weasley had.

"Lilah, don't be silly," Fred said with a too-fake sounding laugh as he slung an arm around my shoulder. He shook his head. "Always trying to bring attention to herself, this one." He widened his eyes at me, telling me to keep my mouth shut. But I didn't.

"I don't, Fred, and you know it," I said. "And so does your mother." I turned back to Mrs. Weasley. "I wanted Fred and George to have an opportunity to win the prize money. It would really help them get started with their joke shop and I want them to prove to everyone else that they can do it. That it's a real, very possible dream for them. I know it was wrong and I know I shouldn't have done it. I've been terrfied for Fred and George since the moment I did it. But...I wanted to help them."

Mrs. Weasley gaped at me and I could tell that in a few seconds she was going to start yelling at me. And I deserved it. Like I said, she was so afraid for her sons and I had put them in their current situation.

"I'm sorry," I whispered quietly, looking away as my cheeks flushed red. "I don't know what I was thinking."

"I can't _believe _you two!" Mrs. Weasley suddenly cried.

I flushed an even deeper shade of red as I prepared myself for the lecture. But then I caught on to what she had said. _You two_?

I looked up to see Mrs. Weasley glaring at the twins, who looked taken aback. I could see Bill slightly behind her, trying not to laugh.

"You two forced Lilah into putting your names in, didn't you?" she asked furiously, shooting daggers at Fred and George.

"No, we didn't _force _her," Fred said.

"They asked me," I added. "And I agreed."

"She didn't at first," Fred said hurriedly. "She very firmly said no and was very much against it. But George and I were persistent." He glanced at me. "It is more our fault, Mum, you're right."

"No, it's just as much my fault as yours," I answered. "I did go through with it in the end."

"Yes, and perhaps you shouldn't have," Mrs. Weasley sighed, pursing her lips. "But I do know my sons. Very persistent and very convincing. I have no trouble believing they pestered you to no end."

"Not particul-" I began, but Fred cut me off.

"We did," he said quickly. "Every second of every day."

"I hope all of you understand that what happened was illegal," Mrs. Weasley said. "It's explicitly against the rules for an older student to put in the names of any younger student. We're going to have to go straight to Dumbledore."

I hung my head and closed my eyes as I immediatly tried to think of what my options were once I got expelled. Because surely that's what was going to happen.

"I already know," a voice suddenly said from behind us.

I whirled around to see Dumbledore standing there, a small smile on his face.

"You-you already know?" Mrs. Weasley asked in surprise. "How?"

"It turns out that Miss Fitzgerald, as much as it seemed that she tried to disguise her handwriting, is not very good at it."

The twins groaned. "Lie, we really have to teach you a thing or two about that," Fred said. When he saw the look on his mother's face, he smiled and winked. "Sorry, Mum."

I smiled slightly and shook my head before looking back at Dumbledore. "So...you've known since the beginning?"

"I have," he responded.

"Why didn't you say anything? I was waiting to be expelled any second."

Dumbledore hesitated. "A few reasons, Miss Fitzgerald. One being I know exactly why you did it. As I told you before the second task, I had to...notice a lot of things in order to choose hostages for each champion. And like I said, some things I took into account from months, even years before the task took place. The day your friends here tried to put their names in the goblet themselves and got their extraordinary beards, I noticed the look on your face and I recognized it immediately. Determination. Determination to help your friends accomplish their lifelong dream. Because you love them." He smiled and his blue eyes twinkled as he paused. "I had a feeling that day that you were going to end up putting your friends' names in, but I didn't know for sure until their names came flying back out of the goblet at me." He smiled. "I also, to be honest, didn't think they'd be chosen. I didn't think there'd be a chance the Goblet would choose them." He looked at the twins. "No offense to you, of course."

"None taken, sir," Fred said.

"And when they were chosen," Dumbledore continued, "there was nothing I could do. The rules stated they had to compete. But...a part of me actually thought they might have a shot. Especially since I knew that you, Miss Fitzgerald, would go to great lengths to help them out. Again, because you _love _them. Love is something very powerful. Sometimes I believe it's even more powerful than magic and I think I believed it would help you in the end."

I blinked, hardly daring to believe my own ears. "So...I'm not in trouble?" I was confused to say the least. It sounded...silly almost, that Dumbledore was so calm about this because he noticed how much I loved the twins. It didn't seem like a good enough reason to not punish me, even though I certainly wasn't going to complain. But Dumbledore had always reasoned a bit differently than most people.

Dumbledore looked me over. "You won't be getting a punishment, no. At least not a standard one. I suspect watching the results of your actions play out is punishment enough." He nodded his head towards the twins. "I take it you understand just how serious entering an underage student is now that you've seen the tasks for yourself."

"Definitely," I answered earnestly. "I was terrified the second after I put their names in, trust me. I sort of regretted it. And I say sort of because I was so worried about their well being, but I want them to open their joke shop. I want them to do it as soon as possible. And maybe helping them in the way I did wasn't the best way to go about it, but I didn't know what else to do. They really wanted it...Again, just because they _wanted _it, doesn't make it right, but..." I shrugged and looked back at Dumbledore, who smiled even wider.

"Like I said, Miss Fitzgerald, I've always been quite interested in what people will do for love and friendship. Very powerful things, you know." He winked before tilting his head towards the other side of the room where the Durmstrang students were standing. "Now if you'll excuse me, I must go introduce myself to young Mr. Krum's family."

I shook my head in wonder as Dumbledore walked away. I couldn't believe what had just happened.

"He's kind of batty, don't you think?" George asked.

"Batty, but brilliant," Bill said.

"Well, at least we know Lilah won't be getting shipped off to prison," Fred said. He grunted as George nudged him. "What?" he asked in confusion. And then it dawned on him. His ears turned pink as he looked at me. "Sorry. Not the best joke to make with the whole investigation surrounding your dad at the moment. I didn't think."

I gave him a fleeting smile. "Don't worry about it," I whispered, looking down as I examined my fingernails. Suddenly, Fred's hand came into view as he gently took my hand in his and gave it a squeeze.

"Hey, chin up," he reminded me in a whisper. "It'll all be okay." He smiled. "You aren't in trouble for entering me and George in the tournament. That's one less thing off your plate."

I nodded. "Sort of." I turned back to Mrs. Weasley. "I understand if you're angry with me. I would be too if I were you. But I want you to know that Dumbledore was right. I really do love your sons. They're two of my very best friends. Your whole family has been nothing but nice to me ever since my first year here. You've been like family and you've done so much for me that I just...wanted to do something for them. I know you don't really approve of their joke shop and maybe I shouldn't have interfered, but...they're so talented." I looked at the twins and smiled. "They're brilliant and I want them to be happy."

Suddenly, to my surprise, Mrs. Weasley burst into tears. She pulled me into a tight hug. I blinked in surprise and hugged her back, unsure of what to make of the situation.

"That's very sweet, Lilah, dear," Mrs. Weasley said as she pulled away and wiped her eyes. "We think of you and Julian as family too. I can see it all over your face how much you care for the twins and I appreciate that very much." She hesitated and swallowed. "I know you have their best interests at heart, but...you're only seventeen yourself. You're all so young. I've lived and I know how life can be. It's not what you think. It's difficult to start a business from the ground up. And without the OWL and NEWT scores you need, it'll be hard to find much else if that fails..."

"Maybe I don't know as much as you do," I said quietly. "I haven't lived as long and don't have as much experience. But..." I let a puff of air out of my mouth as I looked up at the enchanted ceiling, which was a pale blue color today, dotted with white, puffy clouds. "I have learned a few things about life so far. It can get messed up. Things can go horribly wrong and sometimes you do fail. But then there are times when it all goes right. You just have to keep trying to get that far. You have to pick yourself up and keep going and keep trying. Don't give up." I looked at the twins and smiled. "Two of my very good friends have been teaching me that."

I met Fred's eyes and grinned wider at how affectionately he was looking at me. It made me feel good and it also made all my organs feel like they had stopped working for a split second. Falling second to the smile after the first task, this was the other expression I would give anything to have Fred direct at me all the time.

"Don't be mad at Lilah, Mum," George said as Fred smiled at me and subtly hooked his pinky through mine. It was affectionate, but also a small enough gesture to keep his mother's attention away from it. We didn't want to be put through an interrogation, especially at a time like this, when we were discussing bigger things.

"Yeah," Fred added, finally tearing his eyes away from mine to look at his mother. "We really did play a big part in convincing her, too. It is more our fault. And yes, we wanted to use the money for our joke shop. I know you're going to hate that, so go ahead, start yelling." He sighed and rolled his eyes, but Mrs. Weasley stayed quiet.

"Perhaps we'll save the lecture for another time," she finally sighed. Then, a smile came over her face. "And maybe, just maybe, if you win this thing, we can skip it completely."

Fred and George instantly brightened. "Wicked," they said together, identical smiles lighting up their faces.

"But I would suggest that if you win this money, you think about honestly saving it, this time," Mrs. Weasley said. "No betting, for one thing. And maybe not rushing into buying anything joke related. Just...think things through a bit more."

"Mum, we've already told you, we _have_," Fred said.

"But I just think..." Mrs. Weasley's voice faded as she began leading the way out the great hall doors, the rest of us falling in behind her and letting her go on about what she thought the twins should do with their possible earnings.

"Just for the record," Fred whispered in my ear as we walked, "I could've kissed you for what you said back there." He hesitated and smiled. "But I thought perhaps that wouldn't be appropriate or okay with you for a few reasons, so I refrained."

I laughed at the proud look on his face. "You want a prize?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't know, is it a monetary prize?" Fred asked. "See, George and I could really use some of that right now."

I giggled again. "I'm aware, and no, all I have on me now is a quill, so you'd have to settle for that."

Fred pretended to be disappointed. "That's too bad," he said with a heavy sigh. "I was hoping you'd be giving us money."

"No," I grinned, "but with any luck, you _will_ be winning some money tonight. We'll just have to keep our fingers crossed."

* * *

Saying that I felt nauseas was an understatement. I was trembling as Angelina, Katie, Lee, Alicia and I headed down to the Quidditch pitch to watch the first task. We were meeting up with Julian, Hermione, Ron, Tess and a few of her Hufflepuff friends to watch together. Or not watch, really. This task, very much like the second one, wasn't very entertaining for the people watching. I had gotten out of having to stare at the lake for an hour back in February, but now I found myself about to join my classmates in staring at a bunch of carefully grown hedges.

The twins had already been down here for a while and I could see them gathered below us, standing with Harry, Fleur and Krum. They didn't look nervous at all. Instead, they were smiling and laughing, probably attempting to lighten the mood for the others. It didn't seem like it was working, though.

"Did they seem like they had prepared enough?" Angelina asked as we sat down.

I nodded. "Fred said they had. He said they went over a lot of spells and also pooled together as many products that are already perfected as possible. Ton-Tongue Toffees, Instant Darkness Powder and even a few of the Skiving Snackboxes, even though they haven't finished testing those on other people."

"Do you think they're scared?" Angelina whispered, glancing at me.

I shrugged. "Maybe a little nervous. But I think they're mostly excited. They have a real chance of winning this, Ange. The cup is sitting in the middle of that maze and if they can reach it, they can win."

"I hope they do," Angelina said with a sigh. "Win, I mean. I'd love to see it."

I smiled at her. "Me too."

"I know _you_ would," Angelina answered. "You've been saying it all along. You've been so supportive of their joke shop and I could never get my head around it. But now…they have all these products. Real live, products. They've been inventing things. And they work!" She hesitated and chewed on her lip. "But I'm still worried. Can they really keep a shop open? It's hard to run a business. If they close down, they'll have only gotten three OWLs each and who knows how many NEWTs they'll get? I'm not seeing many more than their OWLs…." She stopped rambling and blew a puff of air out of her mouth. "But I suppose that was Fred's entire problem with me in the end, wasn't it? It's what you have that I don't. Flexibility? Faith in my best friends?"

I looked at her. "Ange…."

"Don't say it, Lie," she interrupted. "I know you're going to say that you can still back out of going on a date with Fred if I don't want you to, but see, I _do_ want you to, because…." She looked at me. "I want him to be happy and I want you to be happy. I do want the best for him and George, but I am the way I am. I can't help myself. And even if I could change, I don't know if I would want to. I _like_ being organized and having backup plans. It works for me. And I'm learning to respect that it doesn't always work for others and that I can't force it on them. So…I guess what I'm trying to say is that I want Fred to be with someone who can be what I'm not."

"Being the way you are…" I said quietly. "It isn't a bad thing. It isn't some kind of handicap. There will be someone out there who thinks organization and backup plans are the best thing about you."

Angelina laughed. "I hope so."

"Besides," I added, "it's not like I'm perfect either. You heard all about the big blowout Fred and I had back in March. He and I annoy each other plenty."

Angelina smiled. "Maybe, but he obviously still really likes you."

I shrugged. "Are you weirded out by the fact that we kissed?"

Angelina hesitated. "It's weird, you know? Seeing someone I care about very much move on with someone else, who just so happens to be one of my best friends. But I'm moving on too. And like I said, I want you both to be happy. So, you've really got to stop worrying about it so much. Honestly, I'll get over any weirdness eventually."

Before I could say anything else, Bagman called us all to silence. He explained the rules of the maze and said that if any of the champions came into trouble and either wished or needed to forfeit, they could simply send up red sparks with their wands and one of the teachers patrolling the maze would rescue them. Then, he introduced the champions by rank. Harry and the twins were tied for first place, Krum was second and Fleur was third. Each champion's name was met with loud cheers from their school. Harry and the twins' names were met with some jeers from the Slytherins, but they were mostly drowned out by the cheers of everyone else.

Bagman instructed them to get into position at the entrances to the maze. Harry and the twins would go first and get a head start since they were in first place. I sighed as I wrapped my arms around myself nervously. Harry looked just as nervous as I did, but the twins looked determined. Their jaws were set and they were gripping their wands tightly.

"At the sound of the cannon," Bagman began, "you may begin."

The cannon went off and there was a moment's pause before Fred, George and Harry began to walk into the maze. At some point, each one of them glanced over their shoulders at the cheering crowd. Most of the people watching the task were happy. Happy to be done with school and exams for another year, excited to see the outcome of the tournament. But I wasn't seeing it like that. Not entirely. I was afraid of what my friends would face in that maze. It was the third task. The grand finale. I had a feeling it couldn't be as simple as it seemed.

A few moments later, Krum was sent into the maze, then Fleur. And then that was it. They were all inside. There was nothing we could do and nothing we could see. We simply had to sit in the stands and listen to the eerie sounds coming from the confines of the shrubs.

"This is such a mess," I groaned, burying my head in my hands. "I can't believe the twins are in there. And Harry! I can't believe they've all come this far. Have you been hearing all those weird noises? The roars and the yells and-"

"We hear them, Lie, of course we hear them," Katie squeaked.

"Sorry," I whispered.

"You think anyone will need to forfeit?" Tess asked curiously.

"I hope not," I sighed. "But I hope someone just finds the cup as quickly as possible so this whole thing can be over with."

"How much do you want to bet that Fleur forfeits?" Lee asked, staring intently at the row of shrubbery directly in front of us. "She didn't make it past the grindylows in the lake, so I doubt she can make it past all the stuff that's supposedly in this maze. I've heard rumors. Skrewts, dementors, spells, riddles...anything you can imagine."

"Fleur's no idiot, though," I said.

"So you want to take that bet?" Lee asked, looking at me.

"No," I said. "I don't bet."

"Okay, what about a bet on if Fleur will go out with me once this is all over? I can comfort her after the harsh reality of forfeiting sets in."

"You're a terrible human being," Angelina told him with a raised eyebrow. "Fleur'd be delusional to go out with you."

"Well, she-"

Suddenly, there was a terrible, bloodcurdling scream from within the walls of the maze. A female scream. It was Fleur. But it was so terrifying and chilling that it actually sent goosebumps up and down my arms.

There was a flash of movement from below us and I looked down to see Gabrielle jumping to her feet. She looked hysterical. It reminded me of Fleur's nervousness when she had forfeited during the second task and Gabrielle had been left down in the lake. They were obviously very close and it made me think of my relationship with my own brother.

Then, in another second, Gabrielle was gone, running off out of sight with her hands over her eyes and her shouders shaking with sobs. One of her friends immediately went after her. Clearly, Gabrielle needed a moment to compose herself before she came back to join the rest of us.

"Poor Gabrielle," I said. "She's so scared."

Before anyone else could answer, a jet of red sparks shot into the sky, over towards the left side of the maze. People in the crowd gasped. The red sparks had most likely come from Fleur. Something had happened to her, but she had to be at the very least conscious if she sent up the sparks. For now, at least. Who knew what state she'd be in when the teachers rescued her? And who knew what had happened to her to begin with in order for her to send up the sparks?

I buried my head in my hands. "What do you think the twins are doing right now?" I asked my friends.

"Running as fast as they can towards the Triwizard cup, I hope," Angelina said with a slight shiver. "I want this task to be over."

"Me too," Ron joined in. "I can't even see anything. It's boring."

"Are you not concerned about what's going on that we can't see?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, but you have to admit it's hard sitting here and not being able to see the action. At least me, you and Hermione got out of doing this same thing during the second task."

I chewed on my lip and turned away, focusing instead on the green bushes in front of me. I could see flashes of light coming from the maze that I suspected were from the champions firing occasional spells as they fought off whatever obstacles they encountered. I wish I knew what was happening.

Fleur was brought out of the maze a moment later. She looked dirty and shaken up, but she was alive. I scanned the crowd for Gabrielle, but it didn't look like she had returned yet. I hoped she did soon so that she could see that her sister was okay.

Another half an hour ticked by without much else happening. All was quiet. And then another half an hour ticked by. Still quiet. People were getting restless now. We were waiting for something, _anything_ to happen. Waiting for any scrap of news.

And that was when it happened. With a nearly blinding flash of light, someone appeared down below us along with the Triwizard Cup. Someone had brought it back.

"Who is it?" I asked wildly as cheers rang out through the crowd. I stood up and tried to get a better look. "It looks like there are two people down there!" Excitement began to take over my insides. Had the twins won this thing?

No one else got the chance to answer because there was another bloodcurdling scream, identical to the one we had heard earlier. It had come from Fleur again, but...she was fine. I didn't understand. Something had to have gone wrong.

A hush went over the crowd after Fleur screamed. Dumbledore and McGonagall and a lot of the other teachers and judges were crowding around the maze entrance, blocking everything from view. But the atmosphere had changed. Something was definitely very wrong.

I shared a glance with Angelina and the others as a chill went down my spine and goosebumps appeared up and down my arms. I was terrified. "Let's go," I said. And then I led the way down the steps to the bottom of the bleachers. When we got there, we were stopped by Professor McGonagall.

"Don't come any closer," she said.

"Why not?" Lee asked. "Who came back? What's happening?"

"Keep them back, Minerva." It was Cornelius Fudge who had spoken, glancing over his shoulder from where he was standing next to Dumbledore and whoever it was that had just come back. They were on the ground and I could hear crying. Dumbledore was speaking quietly to whoever it was. All I could latch onto was that something was wrong and I could have sworn I saw two people return from the maze. If one of the twins were hurt, I'd never be able to forgive myself, no matter what they said.

"What's going on?" Katie demanded.

"Is it Fred and George?" I asked in a panic. "Please, if it is, you have to let us see them. And who's crying? Please, Professor-"

"Someone's just been killed," McGonagall said curtly.

"What?" I shrieked. "_Killed_? Who? And-"

"Lilah!"

I looked over McGonagall's shoulder to see the twins being escorted around the corner of the maze by Madame Hooch, who must have been sent to retrieve the champions still inside the maze. Sure enough, I saw Krum trailing behind them, looking dazed and disoriented.

"Fred! George!" I darted around Professor McGonagall and ran towards them, flinging myself into George's arms first since he was closest. When I broke apart from him, I immediately threw my arms around Fred, fighting not to dissolve into tears right in his arms. "You're okay!"

"What's going on?" Fred asked, holding me at arm's length. "Krum said something about not being able to remember being in the maze. It's all he's been going on about and-" he broke off as he caught sight of what was going on around us. The odd silence of the crowd, the hysterical screams coming from Fleur and the yells coming from who had to be Harry.

"I barely know myself," I said. "Someone came back and we didn't know who it was, but then Fleur was screaming again and then McGonagall told us someone had been killed, but it's not you or George and it's not Krum or Harry, or Fleur..." I trailed off and spun around to look over my shoulder. The Minister moved out of the way enough for me to see who Harry had brought back with him and was now crouched over. When he did, I gasped. It was Gabrielle.

Fleur's screams suddenly made even more sense. I felt all the color drain from my face and I felt sick. "What?" I gasped. "How?" I turned back to Fred. "What went on in there?" My stomach was churning with nausea and fear. I felt like my legs were going to give out from under me. This was impossible.

"I-I don't...know," he whispered, continuing to stare around with his mouth agape. He looked at George. "We were running down a pathway that was closing in on us and trying not to trip on all the vines. We were certain we were getting close..."

"But then it all just stopped," George continued. "And everything was still and quiet. And then Madame Hooch came to get us, saying that it was all over."

"Krum was with her," Fred said, glancing over to the Durmstrang students where Krum now stood solemnly, having gone over to join them. "And we knew Fleur had forfeited. So we figured that it had been Harry that won. But before we even got the chance to be happy, Krum started saying how something was wrong and that he couldn't remember much of being in the maze."

"What is _that_ supposed to mean?" I asked. I looked back towards Harry and saw that Moody was leading him away from the scene. Fleur had also broken away from her friends and had now taken Harry's place, kneeling over her sister, her body shaking with sobs and screams. The sounds were heart wrenching, going through me like hot pokers.

I let out a groan and turned back to Fred, who pulled me to him and wrapped his arms around me. I couldn't hold it in anymore. I burst into tears, sobbing into his chest. "I'm so glad you're safe," I whispered. "So, so glad..."

Fred's hold on me tightened and I felt his hand go to the back of my head, smoothing down my hair repeatedly. "I know," he whispered. "Me too."

"Fleur's sister...her sister's gone...it doesn't make sense," I said. I realized then that I was shaking from head to toe. "I don't know how it happened. But her sister's gone! I keep thinking about what it would be like if I lost Julian." I sniffed and closed my eyes, resting my head on Fred's chest as I tried to calm down. I was confused and scared and relieved all at once. I was relieved my friends were safe, but I had no idea how Gabrielle had gotten into the maze with Harry and I had no idea how she had ended up _dead_. What had happened in there? I almost was afraid to know.

"I know," Fred whispered. "I know."

"What if it had been you, Fred?" I asked. "Or George? What if you had gotten killed? If you had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, or...been wherever Gabrielle was..."

"Hey, but we weren't, Lie," Fred whispered. "We're alive and we're safe and we're here, okay? I'm here." He pulled away slightly and picked up my hand before resting it on his chest, where I could feel his beating heart. "I'm right here."

I pressed my palm to his chest, flattening it out more and spreading my fingers as I stared at it, almost in a daze. "You're here," I repeated quietly, nodding my head slightly, mostly just to reassure myself that what Fred said was true, confirming it to my own brain that he was alive.

But the thing was that while _my_ friend was certainly alive, Fleur's sister was not and that wasn't fair. My heart still completely ached for her. Her relationship with Gabrielle had been reminding me of the relationship I had with my own brother ever since I first saw them together. And now her sister was gone just like that and in the blink of an eye. I could only imagine how she felt.

"Hey." Angelina suddenly appeared at our elbows, looking solemn. "I overheard some information. I heard that Gabrielle ran into the maze to try to get to Fleur. Blasted ths shrubs away with her wand and went right in."

"Why in Merlin's name would she do that?" Fred asked.

"Why do you think?" I asked. "If it were me and I heard Julian scream, I would've run in there too. And don't tell me you wouldn't have done the same if it were one of your siblings. If it were Ron or Ginny, or-"

"Okay, point taken," Fred said. He looked back at Angelina. "Okay, then what happened?"

"She ran into Harry who tried to help her find her way out," Angelina said. "But they found the cup first and thought if they took it, it would all be over and they'd be taken out of the maze. But the cup was a Portkey. It took Harry and Gabrielle to a cemetery, where Gabrielle was killed and..."

"And what, Ange?" George asked urgently.

"And, according to Harry...Voldemort was brought back."

* * *

Angelina was right. After hearing Fleur's scream, Gabrielle had taken off into the maze, blasting away the greenery and pushing her way through until she was inside. Her friend hadn't been able to catch up with her in time to pull her out.

Once in the maze, she found Harry, who told her he had found Fleur being attacked by the branches of the maze and has sent up the sparks. He told her someone was already working to get her sister out and that Gabrielle shouldn't have done what she did. I think she realized how stupid she had been at that point, but she had acted instinctively and rashly to get to her sister.

Apparently, Gabrielle hadn't been too much of a fan of Fleur entering the tournament as it was. Even though Fleur was of age, Gabrielle was worried, and maybe she was right to worry. The tasks weren't exactly, well, _pleasant._ And when Fleur had to forfeit from the second task, Gabrielle got even more freaked out. If her sister couldn't finish the second task, would she be able to finish the third? And, of course, when Fleur had screamed in the maze, Gabrielle had had enough. Sure, she had done something very irrational and sure, she hadn't been thinking clearly. If she had, she would have known that someone would be going to rescue Fleur at once. But I also couldn't blam her. I would have done the same thing for Julian.

Harry and Gabrielle stuck together until Harry finally found the cup. The bushes started to close in on them as they ran towards it, so Harry grabbed Gabrielle's hand and they ran together. But when Harry grabbed the cup, it took them to a cemetery. Like Angelina had said, it had been a portkey

At the cemetery, Gabrielle had apparently been killed within moments by Peter Pettigrew, who then effectively brought You-Know-Who back. Harry somehow managed to escape and bring Gabrielle's body back. Other than that, I didn't know any more details of what had happened in the cemetery. I hadn't even talked to Harry yet. All this had come from the students talking amongst themselves.

The weirdest part of all, though, was that it had all been set up between Voldemort, Pettigrew and Barty Crouch's son, who had disguised himself as Mad-Eye Moody. Our professor for the entire year had been a fake. A Death Eater in disguise to be exact. The real Mad-Eye had been hidden away in his office in his own magical trunk.

I didn't want to sleep that first night after the task. Neither did the twins, actually, and the three of us found ourselves heading down for a late night snack in the kitchens.

"Do you two understand that if you had won...if Moody's-sorry, _Crouch_'s-plan failed, and you had grabbed the cup first..._you_ would have died?"

"Yes, we understand that," Fred sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. "We've thought of that plenty since we've heard the news."

"But it didn't happen that way," George said. "So let's not dwell on what could have happened, okay?"

"Okay, so what _did _happen?" I asked quietly as we sat at our usual table. "In the maze. From your point of view. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but..."

The twins looked at each other before Fred spoke. "We had no idea what was happening with Harry. We heard Fleur scream and saw the red sparks go up and we felt bad, but we kept going. We thought we were close when, like we said, everything stopped and Madame Hooch came to get us."

"Knowing that we were still fighting to win while Harry was off in that cemetery with Gabrielle...We didn't know she had snuck in..." George added.

"How could you have?" I asked with a small smile.

"It feels...odd, though," Fred sighed, digging the heels of his hands into his eyes. "Like we _should_ have known."

"You didn't do anything wrong," I said.

"No, we know..." George sighed too. "But..." He shrugged and didn't say any more. He didn't have to. I got it.

"We're kind of glad Harry still got the prize money, though," Fred said. "After tonight...and after all he's been through, really, he deserves it more than us."

I looked up and smiled at him. "That's sweet," I whispered. "But what are you two going to do?"

"We'll figure something out," Fred said glumly, looking down into his butterbeer and swirling it around in the bottle.

My heart practically broke right then. I knew exactly how they felt. They genuinely were glad Harry had gotten the money, but they had wanted and needed it so badly that they were still a bit disappointed that they hadn't won it.

"We were so close, though," Fred muttered, setting his drink down. "I just...couldn't wait to finally get my hands on that money." He looked up at me. "I was planning to use some of it to take you out somewhere really nice on our date because you definitely deserve it and are worth way more than a makeshift picnic in the backyard. But I'm thinking that's what we're going to have to do since as of right now..." He let a puff of air out of his mouth. "I don't have two Galleons to rub together."

I smiled. "Fred, do you honestly think I care about any of that? You know I'm up for absolutely anything. Fancy dinner, picnic, whatever. I don't care."

"No, I know you don't, but..." he looked up at me, "I want to be able to take you out. As in _out_ out."

I smiled slightly as I fiddled with the bottle of butterbeer in front of me. "I appreciate that," I whispered. "But honestly, I'm not picky. I know you'll get where you need to go eventually. Even if it takes a little longer. But in the meantime, I'm not going anywhere. Even if this date thing doesn't go where we want it to...I'll always be your friend."

Fred met my eyes before giving me a nod and staring back down at his drink.

"So," I began slowly, "besides all the out of the ordinary...what kinds of stuff did you end up facing in the maze?"

"Well, like we said, sometimes the walls closed in," George said. "Or sometimes the branches attacked us. There was also a Sphynx, dementors, boggarts, and Hagrid's blast-ended skrewts."

"That's how we got these," Fred said with a wry smile, showing some of the cuts, burns and scratches on his and George's arms.

"Why didn't you get them healed?" I asked curiously.

"There was a lot going on," George shrugged. "Besides, they'll heal pretty quickly on their own anyway."

"In light of what else happened tonight, they didn't seem to really matter," Fred added, downing the rest of his drink.

I shivered slightly as I stared down at the table. "Fleur's face...and the way she was screaming...If I go to bed, it'll haunt my dreams. It was _heartbreaking_. She and her sister were so close. It was obvious. Their relationship was a lot like the one I have with Julian. If it were the two of us in Fleur and Gabrielle's place, I'd..." I trailed off and shook my head.

"You'd be completely and utterly broken," Fred answered, meeting my eyes again. "You'd never be the same. I know. George and I aren't too keen on going to sleep either for almost the same reason. And if it were one of our siblings..." He trailed off and shook his head. "The boggart we ran into in the maze turned into George dead again for me...but at least I got to get rid of it with a spell and something funny. Fleur's worst nightmare came true."

"Do you think he's really back?" I finally asked. "You-Know-Who?"

The twins both shrugged. "Harry says he is," Fred said. "I don't think he'd make that up. Besides, how else would you explain Gabrielle's death?" He snorted. "An accident?"

"Fred, that's exactly what people are going to say," I said. "I can just see the headlines now about how she ran into the maze and was trampled by a skrewt. No one's going to want to believe You-Know-Who is back. It's just easier to say it was an accident." I sighed and shrugged one shoulder.

"But Harry says he's back," Fred answered. "And Dumbledore knows it, too. Surely he'll know how to handle it."

I giggled. "Easy for you to say. Because everything has such an easy solution for you."

Fred snorted and rolled his eyes. "Sure, Lie. That's why I have all the answers about how to get a ton of money as soon as possible without being sent to prison."

I laughed, but then it quickly faded. "If he is back..." I began, "you'll be in danger, won't you? All that stuff you told me when we fought..."

Fred and George looked at each other before they both shruged. "Yeah, sure we're not going to be You-Know-Who's best friends, but we'll manage. We're pretty tough, if I do say so myself."

I smiled. "You definitely are." I yawned and rubbed my eyes as I let out a tired sigh.

"Tired?" George asked with a smile.

"Mhm," I said with a nod. "But like I said, I'm not in the mood to sleep."

"Then stay up with us," Fred offered. "Because we're not planning on going to bed either."

I nodded in agreement. The twins and I spent the next few minutes gathering up as much food from the kitchens as we could. Then, we brought it all back to the now empty common room where we sat on the couch talking and eating, keeping ourselves from falling asleep. Eventually, George gave in to his fatigue and fell asleep face down on the floor where he had been laying.

"I'm sure you're exhausted, too," I told Fred, moving my eyes away from his brother to look at him. "More so than me. You two actually competed today."

"Yeah, but..." Fred trailed off before blowing a puff of air out of his mouth. "Part of me doesn't want to sleep after tonight, no matter how heavy my eyes are. And I know you feel the same, so what kind of person would I be if I fell asleep and left you alone?" He smiled slightly. "Especially after what happened tonight. I know it freaked you out."

"It's freaked you out, too," I whispered, turning slightly to face him on the couch. I rested my elbow on the back of the couch and rested my head in my hand.

Fred mirrored my movements and chewed on his lip. "Yeah, if I'm honest, it has."

"I'm afraid it's only going to get worse from here on out," I sighed. "If You-Know-Who really is back..."

"When have you known me and George to let our spirits get dampened by evil wizards looking for world domination?" Fred snorted.

I rolled my eyes and scoffed as I smiled at him. Without really thinking, I smiled slightly and turned myself so I could lean backwards against Fred's side and snuggle against him. He pulled his legs up onto the couch, pulling us both down so we were lying horizontally. He wrapped one arm around my shoulders, draping it diagonally down my body so his hand rested on my hip.

"Maybe we should try to get some sleep," I suggested as my eyes started to droop almost at once. It was getting so hard to stay awake, no matter how afraid I was to sleep.

"I will if you will," Fred answered quietly.

"Last one asleep's a rotten egg," I sighed, turning even more into his side and pressing my cheek into his chest.

"Okay," Fred muttered sleepily.

Unfortunately, neither one of us stayed awake long enough to figure out which one had fallen asleep first.

* * *

On the train ride back to King's Cross a few days later, Fred, George and I found ourselves sharing a compartment with my brother, Harry, Hermione, Ron and Ginny, playing Exploding Snap. After the twins won about five games each, I tried to give up out of frustration, but Fred insisted we play one more game.

"So, are you two ever going to tell us who you were blackmailing?" Ron asked as Fred shuffled the cards.

I blinked as I looked at the twins. "How did they find out?" I asked in surpise.

"They were in the Owlery when we were sending a letter," Fred muttered.

"Oh," I answered. There was a pause. "Why don't you just tell them? It's all over now anyway, isn't it?" It was the truth. The twins had told me that morning that they had found out Bagman had made a bet on them with the goblins. He owed them quite a bit of money and had bet that the twins would win the tournament so that he would be able to pay them back. But since they hadn't won, he hadn't been able to repay the goblins and was now still in debt and still unable to pay the twins back their money from the World Cup.

Fred sighed and looked up at the others. "We were trying to write to Bagman to get him to repay the money he owed us from the bet we made at the World Cup. He gave us leprechaun gold back then, so it all disappeared by the next day."

"Do you think it was an accident?" Hermione asked.

"We thought so too at first," Fred said darkly. "But it wasn't. He's broke. He made a bet with the goblins that George and I would win the tournament. And when we didn't..."

"He didn't win any money. So he still can't pay you back," Julian said.

"Exactly," Fred answered, tapping the cards against his palm a few times and giving Julian a tiny smile.

"I have some news too," Hermione suddenly said, chewing on her lip. She looked at me. "Remember when you said that you had no idea how Rita Skeeter overheard you and Fred talking at the Yule Ball?"

"Yes," I said slowly.

"And remember how I said I also had no idea how she overheard me talking to Viktor?" Hermione continued.

I nodded. "Yeah, why? Did you figure it out? Hermone, if you did, you are officially a genius because I had no clue."

Hermione blushed sheepisly and reached into her bag, pulling out a jar with a few tiny holes poked into the top and leaves scattered around the bottom. Other than that, I didn't see anything else.

"Hermione, what-?" Fred began, leaning closer to peer into the jar.

"Look," Hermione whispered, pointing to a spot on the bottom of the jar, right near a leaf. I leaned in closer as well and saw a bug sitting where Hermione was pointing.

"A beetle," Fred answered. "Wow, Hermione, didn't know you, uh, were into collecting insects."

Hermione sighed in frustration. "I'm not. Look around the area where the antennae are."

I narrowed my eyes as I did what she said. Right around the beetle's antennae were markings that looked like the glasses Rita Skeeter always wore. In fact, the markings were identical.

"Oh my gosh," I breathed, my mouth falling open. "She's an Animagus."

"Unregistered, too," Hermione said. "That's why no one knew. There was a bug in my hair the day of the second task. Viktor pulled it out right after he asked me to come stay with him this summer."

"And there was a bug on the bench Lilah and I were standing near on the day of the Yule Ball," Fred said. He looked at me. "I flicked it off before I sat down, remember?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I do!"

"And then she was on a statue that same night when Hagrid was talking to Madame Maxime," Ron said. "That's how she found out he was half giant."

"Amazing," I whispered. I looked back up at Hermione. "How'd you figure it out?"

"Harry gave me the idea, actually," she said. "He mentioned that it was almost as if she had Hogwarts bugged...which is a term Muggles use to mean something is wired with cameras and things like that. So then that got me thinking that since Muggle devices obviously don't work at Hogwarts, what if she could have the place _bugged_ in another way?"

"You're a genius," I stated, leaning back in my seat. I nodded towards the jar. "What are you going to do with her?"

"I've told her I'll let her out when we get back to London," Hermione said, sticking the jar back into her bag. "But I've also made her promise to keep her quill to herself for a whole year _and_ to stop spreading lies about people or else I'll let the Ministry know about her little secret."

I chewed on my lip. "Do you think Sam knows?"

"I'm sure he does," Hermione said sympathetically. "But he doesn't really need to work with Rita anymore, does he? He got what he wanted."

I nodded. "I suppose so."

"Have you heard from your dad?" Ron asked.

"No, not really. As far as we know the investigation is still going on," I said, glancing at Julian, who nodded solemnly.

"We'll get to find out more today, though," he added. "It's our weekend to stay with him."

"I don't think he's really been the one stealing from the charity funds," Hermione said confidently. "I think he's being framed."

"We all do," Fred snorted. "And he's being framed by Sam."

"Just wish there was a way to prove it," I muttered. "And convince my mother."

"I meant what I told you," Fred said. "You're welcome at the Burrow whenever you want and for however long you need."

I looked over at him and smiled. "Thank you," I whispered. "I'll keep it in mind."

Some time later, the train screeched to a halt at the station and we all stood up to grab our trunks. I noticed Harry taking his time, but didn't think much of it. I just figured that he couldn't have been in much of a hurry to get back to the Dursleys and away from his friends for another summer, especially after the events that had just happened during the tournament. Fred, George and I were almost out the compartment door when Harry spoke.

"Fred? George?" he asked quietly.

The twins turned around and looked back at him. "What's up?" Fred asked with a small smile.

Harry opened his trunk and grabbed the bag of Galleons lying on top: his Triwizard winnings. He closed his trunk again and turned back to the twins. "I want you to have this," he said, holding the bag out to them.

Fred and George stared at him blankly for a few seconds before Fred let out a short, harsh laugh. "You can't be serious," he said, looking bewildered.

Harry thrust the bag into George's hand. "Take it," he said. "I don't want it."

"You're mental," George whispered, trying to pass Harry the bag back, but Harry took a step backwards and shook his head.

"No, I'm not. You take it and get inventing. It's for the joke shop."

"He is mental," Fred said in an almost awed voice.

"Listen," Harry said, "if you don't take it, I'm throwing it down the drain. I don't want it and I don't need it. But I could do with a few laughs. We could all do with a few laughs. I have a feeling we're going to need them more than usual before long."

"Harry," George said, weighing the bag in his hands. "There's, what, a thousand Galleons in here?"

"Yeah," Harry said. "Think of how many Canary Creams that is." He paused. "Just don't tell your Mum where you got it. Although, she might not be too keen on you two joining the Ministry now, come to think of it..."

"Harry-" Fred began.

Harry sighed and pulled out his wand. "Take it or I'll hex you. I know some good ones now. You two deserve this more than I do. You wanted it more. I didn't ask for any of this. You did. You needed this money. Just do me one favor, okay? Buy Ron some new dress robes and say they're from you."

And with that, he grabbed his trunk and Hedwig's cage and slipped by us, out he compartment door, leaving three very stunned teenagers in his wake.

I turned and looked at the twins, my mouth hanging open, hardly daring to believe what had just happened. Their expressions practically mirrored mine. They looked as if they'd been hit over the head.

"Fred...George..." I whispered. Fred finally tore his eyes away from the compartment door that Harry had now long vacated and turned his gaze towards me. "He's serious?" I asked.

"I think he is," Fred whispered. "He told us it was for the shop. He threatened to hex us. Pulled out his wand and everything."

"And he _does_ know some good hexes now thanks to the third task," George added faintly.

The twins looked at each other. "So, that means..." Fred began.

"That we did it," George finished quietly, still looking dazed. "We finally managed to get enough money for the shop."

I grinned and let out a giggle of both happiness and disbelief. "You did it!" I exclaimed. "You really can start getting to work on buying your own premises! It's real!" I laughed again as I met Fred's eyes. He broke out into a grin and laughed as well.

"It's real," he whispered, as if he were still trying to convince himself.

I nodded and grinned even wider before flinging myself forward and into his arms. He hugged me back tightly and I heard his laughter ringing in my ear before I pulled away and went to hug George.

"I'm so happy for you," I said excitedly

"I can't believe Harry gave this up for us, though," Fred said as grabbed our trunks and began to make our way off the train. "It's so much money."

"I know," I said, "but I suppose just looking at it is a reminder of what happened back in the maze. As he said, we could all do with a few laughs, now more than ever."

We finally stepped back out onto the platform and my stomach sank a bit as I saw my mother. She looked tight lipped and stressed as usual, if not more so. But I had expected the stress, so it wasn't all that shocking. What was shocking, though, was that she was here instead of my dad.

"What's she doing here?" Julian asked, appearing at my side. "Where's dad?"

"No idea, but I expect we're going to find out," I sighed, trying to hide how nervous I was.

"Lilah, Julian, let's go," Mum said curtly, gesturing to us. She looked at the Weasleys. "Say goodbye to your friends at once. Come on, we have to go."

"Where's dad?" I asked as my stomach clenched nervously. If he wasn't here, I was automatically going to expect the worst.

"Let's go to the car and I'll-"

"Where is he?" I asked, gritting my teeth together. "He was supposed to pick us up and watch us this weekend. Julian and I don't care about the investigation. Surely it'll be okay if we still spend the weekend there. He hasn't been convicted of anything yet."

My mother pursed her lips. "That's just it. He has, in fact. This morning. The authorities claimed he was the one stealing from the charity. They're taking him into custody as we speak."


	48. Chapter 48

I spent the entire car ride back home trying to tune out my mother's voice. It wasn't that hard, though, because I was in a daze. I was thinking about my Dad, naturally. I had been speechless from the moment she told me the news. Speechless as I allowed myself to give a dull, hurried wave goodbye to the Weasleys, speechless as we got in the car, and speechless as we drove away.

Now, my mother was ranting and raving about the events that had happened around Christmas, like I knew she would. She wasn't even talking about my dad. I didn't know if she didn't care or was avoiding the subject. Either way, I didn't like it, but I was still stuck in my speechless, panicked daze to say anything just yet, so I listened to my mother talk about the article Rita Skeeter had written, how it made _her_ look (naturally—not a word about me, of course), and also my break up with Oliver.

"In my opinion, that article made me look like a mother that can't control her children. It made me look like the mother of a girl who two-times her wonderful, caring boyfriend for someone like what's-his-name."

"Fred," I practically growled, snapping out of my trance long enough to answer, but still keeping my steely gaze locked on the moving scenery outside the window. "His name is Fred."

Mum waved her hand dismissively. "I don't see why you couldn't have salvaged your relationship with Oliver, though. It doesn't take a genius to see that he cared for you very much."

"He was going to give up Quidditch for me, Mum. I couldn't let him do that. Besides, the relationship ran it's course. You of all people should know what that feels like."

She wasn't listening. Instead, she continued rambling on. "Although, I will admit that a lot of people did sympathize with me after that article. Parents who could relate, that sort of thing. And even ones who couldn't that just felt badly that I had to deal with such a scandal. Donations to the reading program did go up significantly, although—"

"I bet that's what Sam wanted," I muttered. Suddenly, it all made the most sense it ever had. I turned to look at my mother wide eyed. "He wanted donations to go up!" As soon as I said it, I had the feeling it was true. Sam was framing my dad.

"What does Sam have to do with any of this?" Mum asked.

I let out a bitter laugh. "He's the one who started all this!" I exclaimed, throwing up my hands. "He bribed me, Mum." I met her eyes as I finally told her the truth. "He told me that I had to watch myself or else he'd put an article in the paper about me. He gathered up all this information about me. Everything I did _wrong_, he stored away in that crazy head of his. And then when he saw Fred and me talking outside, he realized it was the perfect opportunity to frame me for something I didn't do and gain _you _sympathy. He worked with Rita Skeeter to do it. She's an Animagus. She can turn into a beetle. That's how she heard me and Fred talking at the Yule Ball. There was a beetle on the bench we were standing near. He took the picture, fed her most of the info and she took it as well as what she overheard and wrote the story."

Mum stared at me a moment before bursting into laughter. "That's completely ridiculous! It makes no sense!"

"It's true, Mum," Julian said. "Hermione caught her. She caught the bug—Rita. She kept her in a jar and everything."

"Oh, that's just great," Mum snapped. "Don't think I didn't see what that woman wrote about that Granger girl. Going from one famous wizard to the next. Honestly. Viktor Krum _and_ Harry Potter? Leading them on?" She looked at me. "Obviously she and you are obviously so torn up about the world finding out your secrets that you'll make up any excuse! And now you're dragging your brother into this! Do you realize how utterly delusional you sound? If Rita Skeeter were an Animagus, Dumbledore would certainly know."

"She's unregistered," Julian said. "And Lilah isn't dragging me into anything! She isn't lying! She's telling the truth and you refuse to listen! Lilah didn't do anything wrong! It was Sam and Rita Skeeter! They made it all up!"

"Sam has no reason to hurt this family!" Mum snapped as the car arrived at our house. She pushed open the door and got out. "He's making an effort and he's trying. He's been here for me through a lot of tough times. After the article came out, he was here comforting me whenever I needed it, talking me through it, giving me advice, helping me…"

"You don't even care that he took the photo of me and Fred?" I asked, getting out of the car too. "His name was underneath it! Proof that he was involved."

"He said that he didn't realize the photo was going to be used for Rita's article. He said he took it to be used in an article about the tournament in general."

"Like hell he thought that," Julian said furiously.

Mum shot daggers at me. "You're a terrible influence on your brother," she said. "You and those Weasleys. He's never acted like this until now!"

"Don't blame Lilah!" Julian yelled. "Don't you dare blame her! That's all you ever do!"

Mum glanced around the neighborhood. "Lower your voice," she hissed.

"You need to get rid of Sam," Julian ordered.

"As I've said, Sam has been nothing but a comfort and a help to me ever since I met him," Mum said. "Even now with—with the money being stolen—"

"I think he's framing Dad," I blurted. "That's why he wanted the donations to go up. So there'd be more in there. More to steal, maybe, or maybe he thought it would be less noticeable. So he planned it all out so he could steal it and now he's framing Dad and Dad's going to go to jail!"

Mum instantly got angry again. "How dare you blame him for something like this! That's a huge, serious accusation to make! Do you have any _proof_?"

"No," I said, "but think about it! He's said himself last summer he hasn't been sent on many assignments lately, which meant less money for him. The whole plan made sense, and he also doesn't like Dad because of how Dad tried to confront him in the Leaky Cauldron about the article. So now he's getting back at him!"

"That—that's insane, Lilah!" Mum exclaimed.

"Tell me one thing," I said. "You've told me nothing about what's happening with Dad, instead choosing to avoid the subject. But tell me why the Ministry finally decided to take him into custody. What was the bit of proof that convinced them it was him?"

"The key to the vault was found in his apartment," Mum said.

I frowned as I thought that over. "How would that have gotten there?"

"I don't know, you tell me!" Mum said. "You seem to have all the answers."

"Who else had a key to the vault besides you?" I asked. "Did Sam have one?"

"No, he didn't," Mum answered.

"Did he have access to yours?"

"He knew where I kept it," Mum said. "But it was stolen, remember? And ended up in your father's flat! That in no way points to Sam."

"What if _Sam_ stole your key?" I asked. "He's invited into the house all the time. He wouldn't have to break in! He could have just taken it, made a copy and shipped it off to Dad, or planted the original in his flat."

"Sam is a good man," Mum insisted, narrowing her eyes at me. "You're talking crazy. The authorities have their reasons and their proof for taking your father into custody. I don't know why you're so insistent on blaming Sam for something it's obvious he didn't do. And while he is in this house, you—both of you," she flicked her eyes to Julian, "will be nothing but polite and cordial to him. If you put one toe out of line, Lilah, you'll be out of this house. You're of age. You can go out on your own if you can't behave under my roof."

"I'm still in school," I said. "I have no money to get my own place and keep paying for it. Or else I'd leave on my own. And now with Dad gone, I have nowhere to go..." I thought about the Burrow, but I really didn't want to burden them. They barely had enough room as it was.

"People have part time jobs, Lilah," Mum said. "I know the concept of a job is foreign to you at this point, but-"

"Seriously?" I fumed. "Just because I've never had a real job doesn't mean I don't know how to work." I paused. "Plus, I'd have to support myself and Julian if I left because I'd bring him with me. And then there's the fact that I can't work while I'm in school..."

"You'll do no such thing," Mum snapped. "Bring Julian with you, I mean. He is only fifteen. He's not of age. As far as he is concerned, what I say goes."

"I can fight for some kind of guardianship," I said. "Or dad can because I fully intend on trying to clear his name."

"You really want to open that can of worms, Lilah?" Mum asked. "You push me away and you will be sorry. I'm your mother."

"Yeah?" I shrugged. "And you haven't been around for years. I've managed just fine. If it wasn't for money, I think I could manage for the rest of my life."

"Then feel free to leave," Mum said, gesturing around.

"I'm not leaving without Jules," I said. "There's no way." I let out a bitter laugh and shook my head. There was a pause. "Is he here now?" I asked, glancing towards our house. "Sam?"

"No, he's on assignment in Greece. He'll be back next week."

"Greece?" I asked. "What could he possibly have to do there?"

"Work," mum answered, her tone clipped. "He and Rita had another assignment to do together. She's meeting him there either today or tomorrow."

"Yeah, after Hermione lets her out of her jar," Julian snorted.

I shook my head. "I don't trust him, Mum. Shouldn't that be enough for you not to trust him either?"

"No, not necessarily," Mum sniffed. "I have enough good judgement of my own to know right from wrong. Plus, the authorities..."

"Mum, you don't even trust your own husband?"

"_Ex_-husband," Mum snapped.

"You've known him since you were a teenager!" I exclaimed. "He's our dad!" I gestured to myself and Julian.

"You know what, Lilah? I'm done talking about this, especially here." She glanced around the neighborhood again before heading briskly for the front door.

"Of course you're done! You're always done talking about things when conversation gets tough!"

"I have to go to work, Lilah," she called back. "I'm in a hurry and I don't have time for your false accusations and far-fetched theories."

"Mum, please!" I cried, following after her, getting more and more desperate with every passing second. "Whatever you seem to think about him, the fact of the matter is that my dad may go to jail! The man you were once in love with no matter how much you try to deny it now. Surely you have to be affected."

"I want things to go back to the way they were. I want this investigation to be over," Mum said airily as she let herself inside the house, gathered up her bag and turned back towards us. "I want it to all blow over and we're a few steps closer to doing just that, so I suggest that you two not make it any worse." She gave us a tight-lipped smile before bustling back out the door.

Once she was gone, I stared vacantly at the spot she had just left, my mouth hanging open in disbelief.

"Lilah?" Julian asked quietly. "You okay?"

"Are you?" I asked quietly, turning slowly and sitting down on the bottom step of the stairs, wrapping my arms around myself as my eyes filled with tears.

Julian sat down beside me and I heard him let out a tired, heavy sigh. "No," he said. "I'm not okay." He paused. "I want Dad."

"Me too, Jules," I whispered, rubbing my hands over my face and blinking back my tears as I stared aimlessly at the front door. I felt more alone than I ever had right now, even with Julian sitting beside me. Although, thank goodness he was, because I'd hate to think how much worse I'd feel if I didn't have him.

It was quiet again. "So how are we going to do it?" Julian asked, looking at me with his own sad, big eyes.

"Do what?" I asked, looking back at him.

"Prove that Sam's the one that did all this," he answered. "We have to, you know. It's our only choice. Clearly, Mum won't be of any help, so it's up to us."

I shrugged. "I don't know, Jules. I think Sam's a lot smarter than us. He's more manipulative and clearly Mum still believes everything he says. If we want to get her on our side, the proof has to be good. She'll probably have to hear it straight from him."

"Can we trick him into confessing where she can hear?" Julian asked.

I chewed on my lip. "How? Like I said, he's a lot smarter than us, more manipulative and not to mention extremely sneaky."

"Maybe Fred and George can help us," Julian said, brightening. "They're really good at that stuff."

"No, Jules, we can't ask them to do that..."

"They'd love to! I'll bet you anything we'll be hearing from them soon anyway. We did kind of leave them abruptly at the station right after Mum dropped that huge bombshell on all of us. At the very least, even if we weren't planning on asking for their help, we should probably go talk to them about what's going on. They probably all _want_ to know what's going on. And I think they deserve to know."

I nodded as I sighed and rested my head on my brother's shoulder. "Why are you always so calm even in the worst situations?"

"Dunno," Julian answered quietly, resting his cheek on the top of my head. "It's a gift, I suppose. Just like how you have a gift for always looking out for people and accepting everyone for who they are no matter what."

"Come on, Jules," I sighed.

"It's true!" he said.

I lifted my head up and smiled at him. "You really are an incredible person."

"So are you," he whispered, smiling back at me. "I know you feel like you're falling apart, but you're keeping yourself together better than you think. And...that actually makes it easier for me."

"Please," I snorted.

"It's true," Julian whispered, standing up and walking over to my trunk and owl cage, which were both standing over near the door. He slipped a finger into Casper's cage and gently petted his feathers. "Write to the twins," he suggested.

I nodded and joined him across the room, digging some paper, a quill and some ink out of my trunk before writing a very simple note. _Can Julian and I see you? In person? We want to talk to you._

I quickly read the note over. It was short and to the point. No formalities or anything. I knew the twins wouldn't care though. And neither did I at this point. I had bigger things to deal with. Once I was done, I sent the note off with Casper. Then, Julian and I began unpacking our school things while we waited for a response.

Finally, one came-and a lot quicker than I had expected, too.

"What's it say?" Julian asked, coming to stand beside me.

"'Come over now'," I recited, looking at my brother with a smile. "What do you think? Want to go?"

"Of course! That's why we wrote to them in the first place, wasn't it? So we could see them?" He smiled. "Get with it, Lie."

I laughed and held out my hand to him. "Grab my hand. I'll Apparate us there."

"Oh, wow, big important grown up coming through," Julian said.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed his hand before turning on the spot and taking us to the Burrow's front gate.

* * *

"So you can't get in contact with your father?"

I shook my head as Mrs. Weasley peered at me curiously. The second she had opened the front door, she had pulled me into a bone crushing hug, whispering how sorry she was into my ear. And that was when I had lost it, breaking down into embarrassing sobs right into her shoulder, soaking her shirt in the process. She had led me and Julian to the kitchen and made a pot of tea, and now we sat around the kitchen table with the twins, Ron and Ginny. Julian and I had just finished filling them in and I was more exhausted than ever.

"I don't think so," I said. "The Ministry has him in custody now and I assume there's going to be a trial, but who even knows? The Ministry can be so unfair."

"Sirius never got a trial when he was falsely accused of murdering all those people," Ron said. "We all thought he was a murderer until about a year ago. If he had only gotten a trial his name could have been cleared and Harry could have been living with him instead of his aunt and uncle!"

I nodded. "And now my dad is falsely being accused of something and I doubt he'll get a trial either. He'll probably be sent straight to Azkaban!"

"You don't know that," Fred said firmly.

I let out a heavy sigh and shrugged helplessly. "What are we going to do?"

"Move in with us," Fred said confidently. "I keep telling you that."

"You don't have the room, Fred!" I exclaimed, sending him an exasperated look. "Besides, Mum told me today that she wouldn't let me take Julian, just as I thought."

"You know you two are always welcome here," Mrs. Weasley said slowly. "But I don't know if it's a great decision for both of you to go storming out of your house just yet. Especially if your mother isn't going to let Julian leave."

"I want to prove that my dad is innocent, first and foremost," I said. "But I don't know how to do that. Julian and I are just teenagers! We need proof and we have none."

"Get Sam to admit it while your mother is in earshot," George suggested.

"That's what I said!" Julian exclaimed. "I wanted to ask you two if you'd help us figure out how to do that, but Lilah didn't want to trouble you."

Fred and George immediately looked at me. "Lie, are you kidding?" Fred asked. "You think asking us to help prove your dad's innocence is _troubling_ us?"

"It's not, especially when you decide you want to get sneaky," George added.

Mrs. Weasley cleared her throat loudly and sent her sons a look. "Not that I don't think Lilah's father is innocent, but I don't think manipulating someone into saying what you want to hear is the right way to deal with this. I understand that you truly think your mother's boyfriend is behind this, but...what if you're wrong?"

"Then our dad will go to jail anyway because we have no other theories," I sighed. "But there's a very good chance we're right and if we can get my dad's name cleared, I want to take that chance."

"Well, I guess our first step would be to try to get you to be able to see your father," Mrs. Weasley said.

"I'd love that," I whispered.

"But how does that help prove he's innocent?" Fred asked, looking at his mother. "All he's going to say is that he didn't do it, which we all already know! We need to get Sam to admit what he did!"

"But we don't _know_ if he did anything," Mrs. Weasley sighed.

"Yes, we do!" Fred argued, jumping to his feet.

"Fred, can't you just calm down?" his mother asked wearily, looking up at him as the rest of us stared at Fred in surprise. Except George, who just looked amused.

"No, of course I can't calm down!" Fred exclaimed. "This is serious, Mum. Sam has been making Lilah's life terrible for months and her mother believes him! Her dad is the only decent family she has besides Jules! Remember dinner at Lilah's house? Remember how great that was?"

"Don't bring that up," I groaned.

Fred glanced at me. "Sorry."

"No, you know what? Maybe you're right," I sighed, staring down into my tea and swirling it around. "My mother and I...we may never get along. Our relationship may never be fixed. Especially at the rate we're going now. Even if I can make her see what's happening. I don't know..." I shrugged. "Maybe the sooner I get out of there, the better. Fixing our relationship can't be one sided. We both have to want it. And I'm feeling so close to giving up, but another part of me doesn't want to. I just...everyone needs a mother, you know? And a lot of the time I've felt like I only had one in the physical sense of the word." I was quiet for a moment as I continued to swirl my tea around my mug. Then, I looked up at Mrs. Weasley. "But then I met you. You've been the mother I've always wanted. You taught me to cook, you've spent time with me, you've treated me like family and like I mattered..."

"You do matter, dear!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed. "Very much."

I smiled. "I feel closer to you than I do to my real mother. And at times, I feel terribly guilty, but at other times-times like _these, _when my mother refuses to be on my side...I don't feel bad. And I'm very grateful for you and your family." I gave Mrs. Weasley a half smile and I could see tears forming in her eyes.

"We're going to help your dad," she told me, resting her hand on mine comfortingly. "Just-I'll talk to Arthur, okay? See if he has any connections at the Ministry that can help you."

I nodded. "Thanks, Mrs. Weasley," I whispered.

A few minutes later, the twins and I found ourselves making our way back towards the orchard behind the Burrow where the Weasleys practiced Quidditch.

"Brilliant!" Fred said, nudging me. "Giving Mum that speech about how she's been so good to you and the mother you were deprived of."

"Fred, I meant every word. I wasn't doing it to gain her sympathy or something," I said indignantly.

"No, of course not," Fred answered, sending me a wink.

"I'm serious and you know it," I replied with a small smile as we reached the orchard. George opened the broom shed and grabbed some brooms, handing them out to each of us.

Fred hesitated as he picked at a rough spot on his broom's extremely worn handle. Finally, he looked back at me and smiled. "Well, you made my mother really happy," he said. He blushed. "I just mean-well-she's not happy that you can't have a great relationship with your own mother, but-I know it meant a lot that you feel the way you do about her. About us. It means a lot that she could help you and make up for what you've lacked where your mother is concerned."

I smiled. "She's great, Fred. You're lucky to have her. Remember that when she starts to get on your nerves."

Fred chuckled. "She is pretty amazing, isn't she?" He hesitated. "Don't worry, George and I are well aware of all that she's done. It's just..." he blew a puff of air out of his mouth. "It's hard when she throws out products and order forms you've worked so hard on."

I reached out and squeezed his hand as I smiled sympathetically. "I know. But just think...soon you'll have your own place. You have the money, you just need to find a building. You're almost there."

Fred nodded as his eyes wandered over my face.

"I wish you two would just snog each other senseless," George said loudly. "Get it over with, you know, so we can start playing our game." He held up his broom and wiggled it back and forth a bit.

I blushed and stepped away from Fred, letting go of his hand in the process. I cleared my throat awkwardly and looked at the ground.

"Aw, come on, Lie, you know you wanted to," Julian teased.

"Shh," I hissed, gently swatting at Julian's ankles with my broom as I smiled slightly.

"Ah, no worries," Fred said with a grin as he threw an arm around my shoulders. "She's waiting until we go on a proper date before she agrees to do that again."

"And when exactly will that be?" I asked. "Our date."

"Next weekend?" Fred asked hopefully. "Saturday okay?"

I nodded. "Sure."

Fred smiled. "Okay then, it's a date."

I laughed and looked up at him. "It's a date," I whispered.

* * *

Mr. Weasley was able to pull some strings and get me and Julian in to see Dad during the next week. We went while Mum was at work and didn't plan on saying a word about it to her.

Dad was being held at the Ministry for the time being until they could get a trial going-or not, depending on how unfair they were going to decide to be-and we were allowed to talk to him in a room that only contained a table and a few chairs. Mr. Weasley was kind enough to bring us there and he was going to come back for us when we were done to bring us home.

Julian and I were the only ones in the room when we first got there, but five minutes later, the door open and Dad was escorted in by two Ministry officials.

"Dad!" I exclaimed, jumping up to throw my arms around him. He hugged me back and I buried my face into his neck as tears welled up in my eyes. "I'm so sorry," I whispered.

"What are you sorry for?" Dad asked, pulling back and hugging Julian as well.

"I'm the one who got you into this mess."

"No, I was the one who went after Sam," Dad said, glancing at the two guards who had escorted him in and were now standing seriously by the door.

"We'll be waiting right outside the door," one of them said. He looked at Dad menacingly. "No funny business."

"No, of course not," Dad replied with a forced smile.

"You look terrible," Julian said as the guards left and we each took a seat in one of the three spindly chairs in the room.

It was true. Dad looked incredibly dishevled. He was unshaven and tired looking. He looked thinner and very pale. But I suppose that was to be expected.

"Yeah, well, that's what being kept in a temporary holding cell while you await your punishment does to you," Dad said dryly with a weak smile.

"We know you're innocent," I said fiercely. "You didn't take that key. You didn't steal any money. You would _never _do that. And we fully intend on trying to get some proof that will clear your name. The Weasley's are going to help."

Dad smiled for real. "I appreciate that, Lie, but...how are you going to do that?"

"Why are you giving up?" I asked in annoyance. "That's not like you. You've always been the one to look on the positive side. You've always been the one to keep your head up and keep laughing. Why not now?"

Dad sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. "No, you're right. But...realistically, how do you expect to find good, reliable proof, and quickly?"

"I'm friends with two ingenius pranksters," I said, "or did you forget?"

Dad smiled again. "How are they? The twins. And the rest of the Weasleys."

"They're great," I said. "Harry gave Fred and George his Triwizard earnings. They have enough money to buy premises now."

"That's incredible. Tell them I said congratulations," Dad said. He looked me and Julian over. "And how are you two doing?"

"How do you think we're doing, Dad?" I sighed. "Mum isn't even on our side. If it wasn't for the Weasleys, I'd be so lost."

"Especially since you and Fred have kind of a fling going on, don't you?" Dad asked with a wink. "Looks like Rita Skeeter picked up on something after all."

"Don't even say that," I groaned. "There _was_ nothing going on when the article was published, and even now all I've agreed to is one date. One."

"She definitely likes him way more than she's letting on," Julian said matter-of-factly, smirking at me as he leaned back in his chair.

"Shut up," I said with a tiny smile.

"He's a good kid, Lie," Dad whispered. "And he's your best friend. That's important, isn't it? If you can't trust your best friend with your heart, how can you trust anyone else with it?"

I gave him a look. "Dad, can you get any more corny?"

He chuckled. "I'm not trying to be corny. I'm just trying to tell you to not be so scared. Have a little trust, you know?"

"I trust Fred," I answered.

"And what about yourself?" Dad asked. "Do you trust yourself?"

I hesitated. In all honesty, I wasn't sure if I did. I wasn't sure if I trusted myself. Now that I could add the rough ending with Oliver to my list of things in my life that had ended badly because of me, I was unsure of starting something else that could possibly end in the same way. But the thing with Fred was that if things turned bad with him after a romance, I wouldn't just be losing a boyfriend, I'd be losing a friend. And I couldn't handle that.

"Lilah, you've got to stop kicking yourself for what happened with Oliver."

"I broke his heart," I said quietly, staring down at my fingers.

"You did what you needed to do," Dad answered. "You did the right thing if you want my opinion. If I were in your position, I would have done the same thing. Sure, you broke up with him, but the relationship ending wasn't your _fault_. It ran its course. Do you know how common that is in relationships? Look what happened with me and your mother. That relationship ran its course as well. Our divorce had _nothing_ to do with you or what happened that night. You are not some kind of human tornado that crushes everything in its wake."

I felt a lump forming in my throat as I looked away, unable to look my dad in the eye in case he saw my eyes filling with tears. "Okay, but even with that...what if it happens with Fred? I can't let that happen. I can't lose him. And what about Mum? She'll flip. I don't even know if I can trust her anymore. She'll hate the idea of me dating Fred and if she's still keeping Sam around...I don't want him going after Fred or doing something to split us up. Like I said, I can't lose him. He...means the world to me. Both him and his family." I looked up finally and bit my lip as I tried not to look as worried as I felt.

Dad smiled and leaned back in his chair. "I have a feeling that in the end, you won't let anyone interfere with something you really want. You'll fight for it with everything you have. And if it ends after that..." he shrugged, "then maybe it wasn't meant to be after all. Maybe, like I said, it ran its course. And you'll have to accept it. It'll hurt, sure, but eventually you'll find a way to pick yourself up and move on with your life. It's natural. It happens whether you like it or not." He hesitated. "Remember when I said you weren't a tornado?"

I nodded. "Yeah, Dad, it was about a minute ago."

"You're not a tornado, but life can sometimes be. Sometimes it likes to suck things into it and spit them back out, broken and destroyed. But what happens after a tornado hits? People get up and rebuild their lives. They move on." He smiled. "They don't have a choice really. And before they know it, things have slowly but surely gotten back to, at the very least, some kind of normal."

I stared at him for a moment as I processed what he said. And then, I shook my head and let out a laugh. "This isn't even-Julian and I came here to see you and talk about getting you out of here. We didn't come here to talk about me and my love life. All of that is irrelevant right now."

Dad smiled and made a face at Julian, who laughed.

"So, what should we do? How should we go about-"

Before I could finish my sentence, the two guards came back into the room. "Time's up," one of them said to my dad. They each grabbed one of his arms and pulled him to his feet before escorting him to the door.

"Wait, we're not done!" I exclaimed.

"Can't we at least say goodbye?" Julian asked furiously, jumping to his feet and glaring at the guards.

"Your time is up," the second guard said.

I looked at Dad in desperation and he gave me a half smile over his shoulder as he was pulled from the room. "I love you both. Be good."

"Dad-" I began, standing up and stepping towards him. But the guards had dragged him from the room now and let the door slam shut with a bang.

My eyes instantly filled with tears and I wrapped my arms around myself as I looked at the ground and let a few tears fall down my cheeks. Julian crossed the room in an instant and let out a cry of frustration as he hit his fists against the door.

"They treat him like a criminal!" he cried, turning to face me.

"Because they think he is one," I whispered. "Everyone does." I sniffed and looked up as I hastily wiped my eyes and put on a brave face. "Which is why we have to clear his name." There was a pause. "Except we didn't really get anywhere today, did we?"

"What did you think he'd tell us?" Julian asked. "You thought we were going to sit here and hatch a plan together with those two guards standing right outside? What more could he have told us besides the fact that he didn't do it?"

"No, I-" I broke off, unsure of what to say. I didn't know what I had expected, to be honest. "I thought maybe he could tell his what he knew. Like how that key ended up in his flat or-"

"He doesn't know," Julian sighed. "Sam's too good. That's how being framed works."

"I just feel like...we came here to talk about him and what's happened and we talked about _me_."

"That's how Dad is," Julian said quietly. "He's not worried about himself-well, he probably is, but he's not going to show it in front of us. Instead, he's going to use the time he gets to see us to make us feel better and give us advice." He smiled. "Kind of reminds me of someone else I know."

I met his eyes and smiled shyly as I felt myself blush. "Yeah?"

Julian nodded.

"We have to get his name cleared, Jules," I said quietly.

"We will," he said with a confident nod. He smiled. "That's the thing about tornados-they're never permanent."

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for taking longer than usual to update! It's been a busy few weeks. But I hope everyone enjoys the chapter! And thank you to everyone who has been reading reviewing, favoriting and adding the sotry to their alerts. It really does mean a lot.**


	49. Chapter 49

Fred picked me up at my house for our date, luckily while my mother was out at a work event for the night. I wasn't interested in telling her about the date just yet, especially when I had no idea where it would lead.

When I pulled open the door after hearing the doorbell, I could have sworn my entire body blushed under the look Fred gave me.

"You look beautiful," he whispered.

"Thanks," I whispered back, rubbing the back of my neck nervously. Fred had told me to dress up a bit, so I had put on a royal blue short sleeved dress that reached my knees. Tess had actually helped me pick it out. I also had on the earrings she had given me for my twelfth birthday and the necklace Oliver had given me was around my neck. Despite everything, I hadn't been able to stop wearing it. I loved the thing dearly.

Fred had dressed up a bit as well in a dress shirt and pants and even a tie. I highly suspected he had bought the outfit new with some of his prize money because I'd never seen the outfit before, not that I'd have much of a reason to see him dressed up, though. Anyway, the point was that I had to admit that he looked handsome.

I cleared my throat and pointed at the rose in his hand. "Is that for me?" I asked with a small smile.

"No, it's for Jules," Fred said, peering around me into the house. "Is he around?"

"Right here," Julian said, coming out of the kitchen with a sandwich in his hand. He nodded at Fred. "Hey, Fred."

"Fred brought you a rose," I said to my brother, giving him a smile.

"Oh, wow, it's beautiful!" Julian exclaimed through a bite of his sandwich. He set his dinner back on its plate and reached out for the rose with his other hand. He brought it to his nose and sniffed dramatically. "It smells amazing. Thanks, Fred."

I rolled my eyes. "You're so strange," I said with a laugh.

Julian smiled and gently tapped me on the nose with the flower. "I'll go put this in some water," he said, turning to walk back into the kitchen. Halfway there, he turned and started walking backwards. He pointed the flower at Fred. "Take good care of her, Weasley. Have her home by eleven sharp. Make her cry and I make you cry. Got it?"

Fred nodded and held up his hands. "Got it," he said sincerely.

"You don't have to take him seriously," I whispered. "Julian sometimes thinks he's my prison warden."

"You're one to talk!" Julian exclaimed.

"Hey, I don't act like a _warden_! I just can be a little...protective."

"Yeah, protective, sure," Julian said with a roll of his eyes.

I laughed again and ushered Fred out the door. "Come on, let's just go."

"I mean it, Weasley," Julian called. "Take care of her."

I rolled my eyes and glanced at my brother over my shoulder. "Goodbye, Jules."

Once Fred and I were outside, he smiled at me and slipped his hand into mine.

"Where are you taking me?" I asked.

"You'll see when we get there," he said with a smirk. "Ready?"

I nodded. "Ready." I paused. "But...we have to walk to the woods to Apparate, remember?"

Fred raised his eyebrows at me. "Do you think I got here by Apparating into the woods?" When I gaped at him, he laughed and shook his head. "It's silly to make people Apparate in the _woods_ when you can Apparate between the backyard shed and the hedges behind it."

"Is that much better?" I giggled as Fred began leading me to the backyard.

"Yes, it is," Fred answered. "Tell me, would you rather trek through the woods dressed this nice, or just pop out from behind a shed?"

I groaned. "Either way, we look pathetic. As much as I love my house, well, the neighborhood...not so much." I shrugged. "No friends to play with, no magical people which forces us to have to be sneaky about everything..."

"I don't mind Apparating from behind a shed," Fred said. "In fact, I was thinking...maybe when I bring you back here later, we could make a little stop _inside_ the shed." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Fred, no!" I said indignantly, fighting back a laugh. "I agreed to _one date_. One normal first date. No sheds or closets or anything just yet."

"We'll see if you change your mind once the night's over," Fred winked.

I gave him a look and swatted him as he laughed and pulled me behind the shed. "Okay, now are we ready?"

"Ready," I whispered.

Fred smiled and squeezed my hand before turning on the spot and Apparating us away. When we reappeared and I opned my eyes, I saw that we were standing in front of a restaurant in Diagon Alley. But not just any restaurant. It was actually one of the fanciest in Diagon Alley. My mouth dropped open. I had never been here before and I didn't think Fred had either, but I had heard all about it.

"As it turns out, I get to take you out on a date after all," Fred said, opening the door to the restaurant and gesturing for me to go in first. "Thanks to Harry."

I stepped inside and looked around as Fred followed me in and stood slightly behind me, looking around as well. He let out a low whistle.

"It's really fancy," I whispered. I was suddenly thankful that I had dressed up a bit. I also felt a sudden, odd surge of affection towards Fred. He had just won a ton of prize money and he was choosing to spend some of it on taking me out to dinner. At a really expensive restraurant nonetheless. He really didn't have to do that and yet here we were.

"You really don't have to do this, you know," I said, voicing my thoughts as Fred slipped his hand into mine and led us towards the front desk. "Take me out to the fanciest place just because you can. I don't expect that of you. I told you, I'd be perfectly okay with a picnic in your backyard."

"We can still do a picnic," Fred said. He looked at me. "I just-I _want_ to take you out. I want to bring you to the fanciest restaurant I can find and treat you to dinner. I want to bring you out in public and show you off." He smiled as his eyes wandered over me again from head to toe.

"Is this about Oliver?" I asked. "About how he always wanted to hide and how you never agreed with doing that so now you're trying to make up for it?"

Fred hesitated as he fiddled with his sleeve before looking at me. "Maybe a little," he shrugged. "But honestly, it has less to do with me trying to be anti-Oliver in all the ways he lacked and more to do with me genuinely wanting to brag to everyone that you're my date for the evening."

I smiled and blushed as the restaurant hostess appeared in front of us with two menus and led us to our table, which was right next to the front window with a nice view of the alley outside.

"Wow, this is nice," I said, reaching for my chair.

Fred stopped me before I could pull it out and grinned chivalrously as he pulled it out for me and gestured for me to sit down. When I did, he helped push me back in towards the table before sitting down himself directly across from me.

I smiled briefly at him before picking up my menu and studying it intently. Mostly, I was trying to decide what to order, since that was what menus were for after all, but I was actually also a bit nervous. My stomach was jumping with butterflies and I needed something to do besides look at Fred.

Finally, I couldn't help myself anymore. I glanced up at Fred and to my surprise, he was staring at me over the top of his menu, a small smile playing on his face.

"What?" I asked quietly, a smile appearing on my own lips.

Fred shook his head slightly. "Nothing," he said quietly. He set down his menu. "It's just...you seem nervous."

I looked away and chewed on my lip. "I am nervous," I admitted. "You're one of my best friends, Fred, and I'm sitting here on a date with you." I shook my head. "Besides, I've already talked to you about this. I'm just afraid of things ending, life happening...a lot of silly nonsense." I waved my hand around and made a face. "I'm not going to bore you with that whole speech again." I sighed. "But...I want to try to take what my Dad said into account."

"That none of the huge endings that you've experienced have anything to do with you and that just because a few things in your life ended doesn't mean that the world has stopped turning?" Fred asked wih a smile as he took a sip from the water glass in front of him. I had written him and George about the meeting with my dad the second I had returned home afterwards, telling them both everything about what had happened. We had agreed that we'd just have to take it into our own hands to clear my dad's name. Mr. Weasley couldn't do much else for us and Mrs. Weasley could do even less. So it was all up to us.

I nodded at Fred's question. "Yeah, that."

"I'm glad," he whispered.

The rest of the evening went surprisingly well. After a few minutes, my nerves started to melt away and it felt like I was hanging out with Fred as normally as ever. I forgot we were on a date, I forgot we were in a fancy restaurant and I forgot all about any romantic feelings that Fred and I may or may not have had for each other. It was just like we were two friends hanging out as usual. We talked and Fred made me laugh like everything was normal. He made me forget, for the first time in weeks, what was going on at home. He made me forget about my mother and Sam and that my dad was being framed. Maybe later that would make me feel guilty, but for now, it felt good to forget.

Once we were done eating our dinners, which were incredibly delicious, Fred paid the bill and stood up, offering his hand to me as he did so. "Come on," he said. "I have something to show you."

I looked at him curiously, but he just smiled, so I took his hand and let him pull me to my feet. He turned and led me from the restaurant, taking us back out into Diagon Alley. From there, we turned left, heading in the opposite direction from where we had come at the start of the night.

"Where are we going?" I asked as we walked, still hand in hand.

"You'll see," Fred said with a playful smile.

"Okay," I answered, sighing as he continued to lead me down the cobblestoned alley.

"You really do look beautiful," Fred whispered, looking down at me. "Excellent choice of outfit if I do say so myself. Although..."

"Although what?" I asked with a sigh and a smile, waiting for what was no doubt going to be a joking line of criticism.

"I do like you better in green," Fred winked.

I smiled wider. "I can't live only in the color green."

"Why not?" he teased.

"I'd get incredibly sick of it," I laughed. There was a pause. "By the way, you don't look half bad tonight yourself. I don't think I've ever seen you dressed up before. Besides the Yule Ball of course."

"Such a tragedy," Fred sighed. "You've missed out."

"You'd like to think so," I snorted. I giggled and smiled up at him. "Thank you. For tonight. I really had a wonderful time. I somehow managed to forget everything tonight. I felt normal. I felt the happiest I've been in a while."

Fred smiled. "Glad I could help. But the night's not over yet. Like I said, I have to show you something."

We reached the end of the alley and slowed to a stop. "Fred, we're at the end of the alleyway..." I said.

Fred nodded. "Exactly. And what do you see?"

I looked at him curiously only to see him nod in encouragement. I slowly let a puff of air out of my mouth and turned back to the alley. "A tall, empty building that used to be a musical instruments shop before they moved to another location down the alley," I said. It was the truth. That was all that was in front of me, the tall building that marked the end of the alley.

"What else do you see?" Fred asked. "Look closer."

I scanned the building in front of me, searching for whatever it could possibly be that he wanted me to see. Finally, my eyes fell on a sign in the window. I dropped his hand and walked closer so I could read it. It was a For Sale sign, but another smaller piece had been placed over the part that said _For Sale_. Sold, the smaller piece read, in bold black letters.

I stared at the sign in confusion for a moment before reaching out and touching it, slowly trailing my fingers over the letters as my brain caught up and came up with an idea of what Fred was telling me.

"Fred," I whispered without turning around. I swallowed. "Fred, is this-did you buy-did you-"

Fred suddenly joined me at the front window and stared at the sign too. He stuck his hands in his pockets and happily rolled up on the balls of his feet before falling back onto his heels. "You're looking at the future premises of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes." He grinned.

I swallowed again, feeling in a state of shock. I turned to look at him. "You mean to tell me," I whispered, "that you and George bought this place? And you're going to put your shop here?"

Fred nodded. "We can move in whenever we want, but the plan is to move in at the end of the next school year, once George and I finish school. We'll finish setting the place up and then hopefully open by July. Beginning of August at the very latest. We want to be open so that people will be able to buy prank items to bring back to school."

I gaped at him for a few more seconds, trying to fully process it all.

Fred laughed. "Lilah, say something."

I let out a happy laugh of my own before flinging myself at him and throwing my arms around his neck in a giant hug. He wrapped his own arms around me and buried his nose in my neck as he laughed again.

"You did it, Fred," I whispered, pulling away and gently taking his face in my hands. "You did it. You have your own place!"

Fred grinned and nodded. It was probably the happiest I'd ever seen him. And, if I was being honest, it was a beautiful sight.

Fred pulled away and headed for the door, pulling out a key as he did so. He slipped the key into the lock and turned it, successfully unlocking it with a click. He pushed the door open and gestured for me to go first. I did as he said and lit my wand when I got inside to give us more light in addition to the moonlight slanting through the huge front window. Fred joined me and did the same with his own wand. He turned and looked back up at the top of the door as it shut behind us.

"The bell you gave me for my birthday is going to go right up there," he said with a smile. "George and I both agree it's the first thing we're going to put up."

"Really?" I asked, following his gaze to the door.

"Really," Fred answered. He smiled at me again before leaving my side and starting to wander around the room. I followed him as he began describing his vision of the place. "This first floor will be the shop area," he said. "I was thinking that we could set up some pretty impressive displays in the windows, then start arranging our products on the wall shelves alphabetically." He gestured to the shelves covering the wall we were in front of before pointing across the room to the identical set of shelves on the other side of the room. "And then in the middle, we'll get some more shelving and displays. Awesome displays, mind you. Colorful ones. Bright ones. The whole place is going to be bright and loud and colorful and..." He sighed happily. "It'll be perfect."

"It will be," I said, sliding my hand into his again. He grinned before leading me towards the back of the room.

"Cash register goes here," he said, gesturing to what had been, I assumed, the check out desk of the previous shop. "And back here," he continued, sliding back a curtain covering a doorway behind the register, "will be the workroom slash stock room. We're going to set up tables and cauldrons so we can work on inventions back here. And we're going to keep our inventory here as well." He pointed to a back door. "That leads out back where the trash cans are. That's where George will be sleeping."

I laughed. "Does George _know_ that?" I teased.

"Nope," Fred answered with a laugh of his own as he led me towards the stairs on the other side of the room. "And these," he said dramatically, "lead up to the flat." He paused and looked at me. "Want to go up?"

"Are you kidding?" I asked. "Yes!"

Fred laughed and led the way up the stairs. He pushed open a door at the top, which opened into a short hallway. At the end of a hallway, instead of a door, there was a small rectangular archway that opened up into a bigger room. To the left, the room opened up to what I assumed would become the living room. There was a fireplace on the far wall and, on the wall adjacent, the prettiest window seat I had ever seen. It curved in a slight semi-circle shape, following the curve that the windows made, jutting it out over the alley below.

"That's beautiful," I said, pointing.

"There's a pretty incredible view," Fred answered. "Go look."

I dropped his hand and made my way over to the window seat, gingerly sitting down and looking out the window. I smiled as I saw the enitre alley spread out below me, right at my fingertips. I pressed my hand lightly to the glass as I looked at the lights of the streetlamps illuminating the cobblestoned street around them as well as the benches that sat beside every light. "Amazing," I whispered, turning back to look at the rest of the flat. Across from me was another archway that led to another short hallway, where more doors branched off.

"Bathroom's the first door on the left," Fred said, "George's room will be the second. Directly across the hall will be my room, and next to my room is a closet." He turned and pointed to the other side of the flat, the part that extended to the right of the doorway we had first come in. "Kitchen's over there," he said.

Sure enough, I walked across the room and pushed open the door to reveal the kitchen, which already had appliances but not much else. Just like the rest of the flat, it was pretty barren, but I knew that once the twins moved in, the place would be filled with life in no time.

"Fred, it's amazing," I whispered, closing the kitchen door and turning to face him. I walked back towards him, my shoes echoing on the wooden floors due to the emptiness of the room. When I finally reached him, I looked up into his face and smiled as happy tears actually came to my eyes. "This place is perfect. You have _no_ idea how proud of you I am."

Fred smiled and lightly reached up to wipe my tears away with his thumb. "And you have no idea how you telling me that makes me feel."

"Good, I hope," I whispered.

Fred nodded slowly. "Even more than good, actually." He smiled. "Your reaction is the icing on the cake. Buying this place was amazing and very rewarding, don't get me wrong. But if you didn't lke the place, or-" He let a puff of air out of his mouth as he shook his head. "Having your approval makes it one hundred percent worth it. You've been so supportive that I want you to love this place as much as George and I do."

I didn't answer. Instead, we stood staring at each other for a moment. And that was when Fred leaned in, a bit hesitantly at first as if he were trying to gauge my reaction. When I didn't move, it seemed to bring back his confidence full force and he swiftly pressed his lips to mine.

I found myself reacting almost immediately by kissing him back just as fervently as he was kissing me. I couldn't stop myself. One of my hands had found its way to his cheek while the other was trailing through the hair at the back of his neck. I could feel Fred's arms around me too, one hand on my lower back and the other resting gently on the back of my head, both pulling me as close to him as possible.

"Fred," I whispered, pulling away slightly.

"Hm?" Fred asked distractedly as he leaned in to kiss me again. It was like he never wanted to stop either. I gave in to one more kiss before pulling away again.

"Stop for a second," I whispered, sliding my hands down to his chest and pushing slightly.

"What's wrong?" He asked as he looked down at me. One hand was still at the back of my head and the other was still on my back. It felt so comfortable and, well, _good_, to be standing here like that. And maybe it freaked me out a little. It had been faster than I had wanted to go but I had really enjoyed it.

"Nothing," I said, shaking my head. "It's just-well, I thought we might have been moving too fast. But on the other hand, it really-it felt-I...it felt good."

Fred smirked. "You _so_ like me."

I blushed. "So, what's our next move?"

Fred stepped away from me and smiled. "You go find a seat and I'll bring us some butterbeer," he said. "I brought some ahead of time. It was just easier since George and I don't own a tea kettle yet. Otherwise I would have offered you that." He paused. "Plus, we don't have the appliances actually working yet. Nothing works until we move in for real. I had to stash the butterbeer in a cooler of ice."

"I don't mind," I shrugged. "Butterbeer is fine."

Fred nodded and began walking towards the kitchen. "Go ahead, make yourself comfortable," he said.

Once he had disappeared, I returned to the windowseat and sat down again, resting my head against the window and closing my eyes as I sighed. I couldn't deny it anymore. I liked Fred. A lot. I wanted to be with him constantly, even more so than I had wanted to be around him as a friend. And it didn't help that he was a very good kisser either. So if we were going to move forward with a relationship, what was I going to do? It was what I wanted, but I couldn't hide it from my mother forever. It would be so exhausting and I knew Fred wouldn't want to do that. Plus, if I made him keep our relationship a secret from her, wasn't that almost what Oliver had been asking of me? On a smaller scale, perhaps, but it was still the same thing. And that wouldn't be fair. It would actually be pretty hypocritical.

But what would my mother do? She was scary enough on her own, but now with Sam on her side, things could be different. Sam was smart and manipulative. I was afraid of him doing anything to get rid of Fred on the account of my mother not liking him. And it would be yet another ending to something good. Could I really pick myself up again this time? I knew Dad said it happened to everyone eventually and I had gotten back up after every other ending I'd been through, but did I have a limit? And if I did, when would I reach it?

"Don't tell me you're falling asleep," I heard Fred say as his footsteps moved back towards me. "I didn't think my company was _that _dull."

I opened my eyes and looked up to see Fred taking a seat beside me and holding out a butterbeer bottle for me to take. I smiled and took it before letting out a giggle. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but yeah, being with you is really boring."

Fred laughed before giving me a serious look. "What's going on?" he asked, taking a sip of his drink.

I shrugged and looked out the window again. "Just thinking. About you. Me. Us." I looked back at him. "I'm worried that you're getting yourself into more than you might want to bargain for. My mother-"

"Lilah, I don't give a damn if your mother likes me or not," Fred interrupted. He paused. "I mean, sure, it would be _nice_ if she liked me, but if she doesn't, I'm not going to lose sleep over it. You're the one I want to be with, not her."

"But she's still with Sam. I'm worried he'll do something to you and George, claiming it's on her behalf. He knows she's not your biggest fan and me dating you would _go against her wishes_." I rolled my eyes. "I don't want anything to happen to you."

Fred smiled and reached out to put a hand on my knee. "George and I will be fine. We have tons of prank products, which are only increasing in number by the month. We'll be ready for anything Sam throws at us."

"But what about what he's doing to my dad?" I asked. "If he does anything like that to you, I-"

"George and I do have some semblance of intelligence," Fred joked. "I think if we put our heads together, we can figure something out. But why are you getting so ahead of yourself?" He asked. "I was under the impression we were going on _one _date and that you'd decide what you wanted afterwards. So, unless you've made a decision, you don't have to worry about your mother just yet." He smirked at me cheekily and I laughed.

"I have made a decision, Fred," I whispered, taking a sip of my drink and peering at him over the edge of my bottle.

"Oh yeah?" he asked with a smile. "What would that be?"

"You," I whispered. "I want to be with you."

Fred grinned wider. "Yeah?"

I nodded.

Fred met my eyes and held my gaze as he took another sip of his drink. "Tell me that one more time?" he said, lowering the bottle from his lips and looking at me expectantly.

I narrowed my eyes. "Do not coax me into boosting your already giant ego, Fred Weasley," I said.

"Fine," Fred answered, leaning forward and setting his drink on the floor before scooting closer to me. "But I want to be with you, too," he whispered. "Every minute of every day. I want to hear your laugh, I want to see you smile...I want to be able to call you my girlfriend and I want everyone to know how lucky I am to have you."

I fought back a blush as I smiled. "So, you're asking me to be your girlfriend?" I asked.

Fred nodded. "If that's what you want...but I'm fairly certain you do. Like I said, you _so_ like me." He chuckled and winked.

I sighed, but still let out a laugh of my own. "I wonder if I can handle such an amazing title. Fred Weasley's girlfriend. It has a nice ring to it, don't you think?"

Fred nodded. "It does." There was a pause. "So, that's a yes?"

I hesitated, something that Fred immediately picked up on. He slid even closer and put his hand on mine.

"Lie," he whispered. "Stop making this so hard for yourself. It's not hard. It's very simple, actually. Stop thinking about your mother. Think about yourself. What do _you _want? Don't think, just answer."

"I want to be your girlfriend," I answered before I coud stop myself.

Fred grinned. "There we go," he whispered. "Stop being so afraid. We're going to handle Sam once and for all for what he did to your dad and after that, he'll hopefully be out of the picture for good. And then we just have to worry about your Mum, who hopefully won't be so bad without Sam."

"This is what I mean about you," I said with a sigh. "You always have a plan; you always have an explanation. But-"

"But nothing," Fred replied, shaking his head. "I promise you, Lie, we're going to take care of Sam. He's not going to make you feel this way and get away with it. He can't mess with you and think it's okay."

"Fred," I whispered, reaching out and resting a hand on his cheek. I rubbed my thumb back and forth across his skin as I looked at him affectionately. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it, Lie," Fred whispered with a small smile. Then, he leaned in to kiss me again, sliding a hand from my knee to my thigh to my hip and once again making me completely forget about everything else that was going on in my life like only he could.

* * *

Three days later, I was in the Burrow's kitchen with Mrs. Weasley, who was teaching me how to cook her famous chicken noodle soup, that apparently worked wonders whenever someone in the house was sick. I had originally come over to hang out with Fred and George, but then had found myself standing in the kitchen with Mrs. Weasley. Fred and George had disappeared upstairs after a few minutes of hanging around, grumbling about being bored and how I was ditching them for their mother.

Just as I was following Mrs. Weasley's instruction to add the chopped carrots to the pot, Fred reappeared in the kitchen, grabbing a piece of carrot I'd forgotten on the cutting board and popping it into his mouth. "We have to talk to you," he whispered in my ear before leaning over to smell the pot of soup. "Smells good, Mum," he commented.

"Thank you, dear," Mrs. Weasley said with a warm smile, patting his cheek before bustling off to the other side of the room and starting to look through the cupboards.

"What do you need to talk about?" I asked quietly, turning to face him as I leaned backwards against the counter.

"Something," Fred said vaguely with a glance at his mother.

"Ah, _something_," I replied with a smile. "Sounds important."

"It is," Fred whispered, leaning forward and resting his hands on the counter on either side of me, trapping me in place. He leaned forward even more, a smile spreading over his face as he stopped with his lips an inch from mine.

"You're teasing me," I muttered, trying to keep my breathing even.

"Mhm," Fred replied, tilting his head closer in order to finally close the gap between us. But I smiled and pulled away before he could.

"Two can play at that game," I laughed.

Fred let out a quiet whine and pouted.

"Stop that," I laughed. "I know you aren't much of a pouter either. You can't fool me, Freddie."

"Then just kiss me already," he said.

"What a baby," I answered, gently taking hold of his chin between my thumb and index finger and leaning forward to give him a quick kiss. He smiled and leaned in for another one before turning to face his mother, who was still searching through cupboards on the other side of the room.

"Mum?" he asked. "Can I borrow Lilah for a second?"

"Why?" she asked curiously, turning to look at him. She put her hands on her hips. "You aren't planning on causing any trouble, are you?"

"No, of course not," Fred said. "I just miss her is all. You've been hogging her all afternoon."

Mrs. Weasley smiled slightly and sighed. "Go ahead," she said.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "The soup-"

"Is very nearly done," she interrupted. "Go on, go have fun. I know you really come over to see the twins."

"No, that's not entirely true," I said with a smile. "I love learning to cook from the best chef I know."

Mrs. Weasley beamed at me. "Thank you, Lilah, but really, you can go."

"Great, thanks Mum," Fred said quickly before grabbing my hand and dragging me out of the room and up the stairs. He pushed open the door to his bedroom where I saw George sitting at his desk, staring out the window in thought. When we came in, he swiveled in his chair to face us and smiled.

"Lilah, we have an idea," he beamed. "Take a seat and we'll tell you all about it."

"What?" I asked in confusion, looking at Fred. "Has he lost his mind?"

Fred shook his head and grinned before gently pushing on my shoulders until I had sunk down to a sitting position on the edge of his bed. "As he said, we have an idea. An idea that'll get Sam to confess everything."

"Really?" I asked in surprise. "You do?"

Fred nodded as he began to pace back and forth in front of me. "We just finished preparing this actually and we thought we could spare a bit in order to help you. I don't know why we didn't think of it before. Maybe because we didn't know if we'd do it right, but George and I just tested it on each other while you were cooking with Mum and it works for about half an hour before it wears off. Normally, it'd last an hour so we're going to have to try again until we can get that right. But we don't really have time in your instance so we're just going to have to give you some now and-"

"You're rambling, Fred," I said. "I don't understand what's happening."

"George and I needed to make a batch of Veritaserum for a new product we're making. It'll be various candies laced with the Veriteserum. We're going to call them Candid Candies."

"You sure like to make a lot of candy joke products," I commented with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, well we're working on branching out, obviously," Fred shrugged. "But candy and sweets are easy. You offer them to people and they say yes and then just like that," he snapped his fingers, "something happens to them."

I let out a small laugh as I rolled my eyes. "So, the point of telling me this is that you think we should use Veritaserum on Sam?"

"Yeah, like I said," Fred continued, "we have some. And we brewed it correctly We can spare a bit to let you use it. It's our only hope."

"But how would I sneak him some?" I asked.

"Put it in his drink or his food or...anything really," Fred shrugged. "Not that hard."

I gaped at him. "Seriously, Fred? What if he's...hovering or something? Or if Mum is? I can't visibly dump something into his drink."

"Well, no, you have to be discreet, Lie, obviously," Fred laughed. "That's the point. You have to be sneaky."

"Yes, but _how_?" I asked in frustration. "This is your area of expertise, not mine."

Fred and George looked at each other and sighed before Fred sat down next to me and turned so he was looking at me. "You're more sneaky than you think, Lie," he said.

"Is that good or bad?" I asked him with an amused expression.

Fred laughed. "Depends on what you use your sneakiness for," he said. "Anyway, you just need to have a little faith in yourself and...do what George and I would do in that situation. Just...keep channeling us and you'll be fine."

"Again with thinking things are so easy," I whispered, shaking my head and looking away as I buried my head in my hands and rested my elbows on my knees. "This could go horribly wrong, you know. If I get caught..."

"Do you want to get the truth out of Sam or not?" Fred asked urgently. "I was under the impression that you did since it's your dad's freedom on the line here, Lie."

I looked up at him. "Fred," I said sternly.

"What?" he asked. "You know I'm right."

I gave him a long, hard look. "Fine," I quipped. "Hand it over."

"That's what I thought," Fred said smugly. He leaned over and gave me a quick peck on the lips before standing up as I huffed and crossed my arms.

"Ooh, touchy," George joked, spinning around in his chair as he laughed.

I glared at him before turning back to Fred, who was crossing the room to George's bed. He knelt down and reached under it, dragging out a small cauldron filled with the clear, odorless potion. He pulled a vial from his pocket, uncorked it and filled it with some of the liquid. Then, he recorked it, pushed the cauldron back under the bed and stood up before crossing the room again. He held the vial out to me with a grin on his face. "Use it well," he said as I took it.

I stared at him for a moment before averting my gaze to the vial in my hands. I turned it around a few times slowly, thinking it all over.

"Hey," Fred whispered, crouching down in front of me and gently taking my chin between his thumb and index finger before carefully tilting my face up to look at him. "I know it must feel wrong, but you're doing the right thing. You can't feel guilty about this. Not after all that he's done to you, okay?"

I looked at him for a second before nodding. "Okay," I whispered.

Fred smiled and leaned up to quickly kiss me again before taking a seat beside me once more.

"You think I should do it tonight?" I asked. "Sam's coming home from Greece...it'll be the first time I'll see him since the third task."

Fred and George nodded. "I think so," Fred said. "The sooner the better, right?"

"I second that," George piped up.

I swallowed. "Yeah, okay then."

"You're scared, aren't you?" Fred asked quietly. "You're scared of what'll happen when he realizes what's going on."

I nodded. "This could go incredibly right but also terribly wrong."

It was quiet for a moment as the twins shared a look with each other before turning back to me. "If he says or does anything, you let us know and we'll be there in a second," Fred said. "But I don't think we'll need to. Because this is going to work. It'll all go according to plan, he'll confess what he did in front of your mother and she'll have no choice but to alert the Ministry and get Sam hauled off to Azkaban."

"I'm scared she won't," I whispered. "I'm scared she'll still take his side." I looked up at Fred. "Is that awful? That I don't even trust my own mother?"

Fred was quiet and I saw him glance at George again before looking me in the eyes. "She hasn't always given you a good reason to trust her, has she?" he asked. "She's already taken Sam's side once."

"So you don't have much faith in her either?" I said with a dry laugh as I looked away. "Great."

"Lie, look at me," Fred said. When I did, he half smiled. "I'm telling you that it's not _awful_ to feel the way you do and that you may have a reason to. But I also think that despite everything, your mother can't take Sam's side once she knows the truth. She's not _that_ bad of a person."

"How do you know?" I whispered.

"Lie," Fred chuckled. "Come on. Your mother's tough and she hasn't been easy to deal with, sure. But she's not stupid. Once she's forced to come to her senses, I think she'll come through."

I shrugged. "Maybe."

Fred leaned forward and kissed my temple. "Come on," he said. "Mum should have finished up the soup by now. Trust me, it'll make you feel a lot better."

"I don't have a cold, Fred," I said with a smile.

He smiled back. "No, but still, everyone feels better on a full stomach. Especially if it's full of Mum's soup. So what do you say?"

"I have a feeling that there's only one thing I _can _say and that's yes," I said. "Otherwise, your mother would just laugh and hand me a bowl anyway."

"You got that right," Fred said, standing and gently pulling me with him before leading the way down the stairs.


	50. Chapter 50

I stood just inside the front door that night, clasping the Veritaserum vial so tightly in my hand that it was becoming slippery with sweat and my knuckles were beginning to ache and turn white. I peered out one of the narrow windows that framed either side of the doorway and watched as my mother helped Sam unload his bags from the car before giving him a kiss. I fought the urge to start retching.

He had just returned from Greece and my mother had spent the last five minutes before his arrival primping herself in the hall mirror. Then, when the car had pulled up, she had dashed out to meet him. But only after instructing Julian and I to be nice and polite and respectful. We promised we would. And it was the truth. I _was_ going to be nice, polite and respectful, but to myself and to my dad, and ultimately my mother. She had no idea that the toxic relationship she had was with Sam, not my dad. She had no idea just how badly she needed to get herself out.

I had told Julian about the Veriteserum the second we had gotten home. Mostly to prevent him from jumping on Sam the moment he saw the filty git. I wanted him to know there was a plan to out him once and for all. He had grinned at me before agreeing with what Fred and George had said. If anything went wrong, he'd be the first one to give Sam the punch in the face he deserved.

I watched as my mother and Sam walked up the front walk together, each holding one of Sam's bags. I watched as they both laughed and Sam put his arm around my mother, kissing her temple as he did so. For a second it looked so believable. They looked so normal and so truly happy. It was weird. Because maybe my mother's reaction was genuine, but I knew Sam's was not. He was just that good of an actor.

And for a second, I felt sad. If it turned out that Sam was framing my dad and he did confess tonight, would it break my mother's heart? Probably. Could I put her through that? Despite all the ways she had hurt me in the past and despite the resentment I held for the way she made me feel, I hated the thought of hurting her feelings in return. I just wasn't that kind of a person. I didn't like to fight fire with fire. My mother's divorce from my dad hadn't only been an ending for me, but her as well. And if she did really like Sam, then this would be another ending to something she thought was good. And I knew what that felt like. But that was the problem. She _thought_ this was a good relationship, but it wasn't. Not at all. And she needed to see that. This needed to be done. Her continuing to date Sam would do us more harm than good, and after all I had been through at the hand of this one man alone, I needed this and I thought that I actually deserved it. I deserved to know the truth and I deserved justice. And so did my dad. His freedom was the most important thing right now.

"It almost looks real, doesn't it?" Julian asked from his position at the window on the opposite side of the door.

"I was just thinking that," I answered, stepping away from the window and looking at him. "You ready?" I asked, holding up the vial before slipping it into my back pocket.

He nodded and smiled. "Ready."

"He'll probably want something to eat when he comes in," I said. "And then all we'll have to do is figure out when-" I abruptly stopped talking as the door opened and Mum and Sam came inside. My stomach instantly clenched at the sight of him in our house again. It was gross.

"Lilah, Julian," Sam said with a smile. "Good to see you two again."

I bit down on my tongue slightly as I tried to force back all the horrible things I wanted to say to him.

"Didn't you two hear him?" Mum asked, giving us a look. "Sam's speaking to you."

"Good to see you too," I said flatly as Julian simply grunted out a greeting beside me.

"You'll have to excuse them," Mum said. "It's been a long day. We spent the morning cleaning the house up for your arrival and then Lilah and Julian went to the Burrow for a bit."

I snorted. Mum had said _we_ had spent the morning cleaning, but it was more like me and Julian had while Mum had gone into work for a few hours. Not that her own work was less tiring than cleaning, but still, she didn't have to make it look like she had a part in the clean house when she really didn't.

"Ah, still friends with those Weasleys?" Sam asked with a slight smile.

"Yes," Mum said curtly, "they are."

I fought the urge to scowl. I hadn't told her about me and Fred yet, mostly because I wanted to wait until we got Sam out of the picture. I _wanted_ to tell her, mostly because I didn't want to keep my relationship with Fred a secret, but if Sam found out that Fred and I really did end up together after that article had been published, he'd have some kind of twisted field day.

"Are you hungry?" Mum asked Sam. "We have leftovers from last night. Meatloaf. Lilah made it. It was actually pretty good, believe it or not."

"It's actually Mrs. Weasley's recipe," I said, trying not to roll my eyes at my mother's surprised tone.

Sam made a face-subtly, of course, but still noticeable. "Really," he said flatly. He sighed. "Well, I suppose that'll be fine. How about a firewhiskey to go with it?"

I glanced at Julian, who smiled slightly and gave me a small nod.

"Yeah, I'll go get it," I volunteered.

"And I can go heat up the meatloaf while you put your things away," Julian said, gesturing to Sam's bags.

Sam looked at us for a moment before smiling. "Thanks. That sounds great. I'll leave my bags here and maybe one of you two can actually bring them upstairs later," he said. "It's been a long day and I'm aching to put my feet up." He grinned before heading off to the living room, my mother on his heels.

I groaned in disgust once they had left the room. "He's ridiculous," I said.

Julian smiled. "I know. But with any luck, he'll be out of here in no time," he said. He tilted his head towards the kitchen. "Come on, let's go get his dinner ready and once he takes one sip of his firewhiskey, he'll be spouting the truth in no time."

I nodded and slid my hand into my back pocket, wrapping my fingers around the vial and giving it one quick squeeze before removing my hand and following Julian into the kitchen.

Five minutes later, we joined Sam and Mum in the living room. Sam was sitting on the couch while Mum busied herself with lighting a fire. Julian handed Sam his plate of food while I set the open bottle of firewhiskey down on a coaster that I arranged on the coffee table.

"All set?" I asked with a smile as I reached back and touched the now empty vial in my back pocket, almost as if I had to make sure it was still there and hadn't fallen out onto the floor in plain sight. Or as if it were a reminder that this was it. This was our plan and it could be what finally set the truth free once and for all. The moment was only seconds away now.

"All set," Sam repeated, the smile I hated so much crossing his face. "Except..."

"Except what?" I asked.

"Maybe another firewhiskey," Sam said with a smirk. "One that you haven't tampered with."

Julian and I both gaped at him. "What are you talking about?" I asked, composing myself enough to look innocent. I glanced at my mother, who was still across the room and out of earshot. Thank goodness.

"You set the bottle down with the top off," Sam said. "Seemed a bit unusual. I just had to kind of wonder...why would you do something like that? Why would you care when normally you'd assume I'm more than capable of doing it myself?"

"Just trying to be a help," I said, forcing a smile on my face.

Sam smiled. "It's no secret I'm not your favorite person, Lilah. It's no secret you have no desire to do anything for me that would be a _help_. Plus, theres something in your back pocket that you keep touching. Looks like some kind of vial to me."

I fought the urge to swear. Why did I have to bring attention to the stupid vial by fiddling with it? Stupid. So, so stupid.

"I don't know what you're trying to do here, but I suggest you drop it," Sam said. "Unless you want me to have a talk with your mother." He smiled and tilted his head towards the other side of the room, where my mother was standing.

Julian and I both scowled. "Does this really make you happy?" I asked. "Manipulating teenagers? And all for what? So you can steal money from a charity? Is that the only reason why you're with my mother? First it'll be the charity money, then it'll be _her _money."

"Ah, so that's what this is about," Sam said, leaning back against the couch and noding slowly, his smile widening. "I figured you'd start desperately grasping at straws once you found out about your dad. Look, you're smart kids. Figure it out. I know he's your dad, but the guy's a loser and-"

"Drop the act," Julian snarled, crossing his arms. "And we already have figured it out."

"Unfortunately, no one will believe you without actual evidence or proof," Sam shrugged. "And you don't have any yet. Meanwhile, your father's going to be awaiting a trial that may or may not take place this summer. The Ministry's been split about whether or not he deserves one. If it were up to me, he would've been tossed in jail already. I mean, there was actual proof. The key was in his flat. How can you two ignore proof like that?"

"Because he's our dad and we know he would never do something like that."

"Looks like you're in for a rude awakening then," Sam retaliated. "Sometimes a person doesn't turn out to be who you thought they were."

"Clearly," Julian snorted, looking Sam up and down menacingly.

"Lilah, Julian," Mum said airily, returning from lighting the fire in the fireplace. "Have you taken Sam's things upstairs yet?"

"No," I growled.

"Well, get to it," Mum said with a smile. "They can't stay out in the foyer, that's for sure."

Julian and I turned and left the room in a hurry. As much as I didn't want to do anything to help Sam, being in the same room as him was way more excrutiating, so taking his bags upstairs was actually kind of a reward at the moment.

"What are we going to do now?" Julian asked. "Get more Veritaserum from Fred and George?"

"I suppose, but I'll bet they've already started using it for their inventions," I sighed, levitating Sam's suitcases up the stairs with my wand as Julian and I trailed behind it. "Besides, Sam already knows we tried to use it and it would be harder to try and use it again."

"Maybe not," Julian said. "Maybe since he already knows we tried it once, he won't expect us to try it again."

I shrugged. "Maybe, Jules, but I don't know..."

"Okay, so what do we do, then?" Julian repeated. "We're back at square one. And Sam's right. Time's ticking. If dad goes to trial, all the proof points to this being his fault. So we have to get evidence before that. We have to prove Sam is guilty so Dad can be released and Sam can go to jail."

I let a puff of air out of my mouth. "I don't know. I've honestly got nothing. I feel like an idiot."

Julian sighed and leaned against the doorframe to his bedroom. "We'll talk to Fred and George tomorrow. Figure something out. Four heads are better than one. And maybe Ron or Percy or someone will have some ideas."

"Percy?" I asked. "He'd kill us all if he knew how sneaky we were being."

"Yeah, but maybe he has an idea that...isn't so sneaky," Julian answered. "He is the 'smart Weasley' after all." He smirked as he made quote marks in the air.

"They're all smart," I said with a smile and a roll of my eyes.

"I know that. Hence the air quotes," Julian said. He paused. "But that sounds good to you?"

I nodded. "Sounds fine. Just as long as someone comes up with an idea that works. I don't care who it is."

* * *

"You mean to tell us that Sam _knew _you put something in his drink just because you handed it to him with the top off?" Fred asked, his mouth agape. He sighed and leaned back in his desk chair as he swiveled it around. "Bloody hell, this guy _is_ good."

"It makes sense, I suppose," George said slowly. "I mean, it would be easier for Lilah to just hand him the bottle as it was. And it's no secret that she's not his biggest fan, like he said. Why would she go the extra mile?"

"Yeah, but making the jump between actually going the extra mile or doing something nice to putting something in his drink is..." Fred trailed off and shrugged. "I wonder if he gets his drinks spiked often. Or maybe he's the one doing the spiking." He made a face as I snorted.

"Well, he also saw me touching the vial in my pocket. So, I guess it's my fault."

"No, Sam's just...really smart and really perceptive," Fred said with a sigh. "I hate to say it, but it's true. I guess it's kind of like George and I. Years of being sneaky makes you really in tune to when other people try their own hand at it."

"But the only difference is that you two use your powers for good," Julian said.

"That's actually up for debate," I snorted as Fred flung a pillow at my head.

"You must be disappointed," George said. "Way more so than you're letting on."

"Sure," I answered, looking up. "I am, but I think I need to focus on a new plan right now instead of moping, don't you think?"

"We do," George said with a smile. "In fact, you practically stole the words right out of our mouths."

I smiled back, but before I could answer, the sound of raised voices sounded from downstairs.

"Wonder what's going on," George remarked.

"Maybe Mum's yelling at someone," Fred said eagerly. "Let's go check it out. I do love it when someone else is on the end of Mum's anger for once."

"But if there's an argument going on, shouldn't we keep it...private?" I asked as I watched the twins stand and cross the room to the door.

Fred snorted as he reached out to grab the doorknob. "It's not private anyway. If we listen hard enough from here, we could hear everything. But why do that when you could get front row seats?" He smiled and tilted his head towards the hallway. "Coming?"

I looked at Julian, who shrugged. Finally, I sighed and stood up before following the twins out of the room, Julian on my heels.

A few steps down the stairs, though, the twins came to an abrupt halt and looked at each other in surprise.

"What's wrong?" Julian asked.

"It sounds like Percy and _Dad_ arguing," Fred whispered.

"So?" Julian asked.

"So Dad usually leaves the yelling to Mum," George hissed. "Mum yells at us all the time, but Dad's only shouted at the two of us once. When Fred and Ron tried to make an Unbreakable Vow."

I snorted before my face became serious. The twins did have a point. Now that they were mentioning it, I had never really heard or seen Mr. Weasley get mad or raise his voice. He did usally leave it up to Mrs. Weasley, who did enough yelling for both of them when she was angry enough.

"And," George continued, "he's arguing with _Percy_. Mum and Dad never argue with perfect Prefect Percy."

Fred grinned. "This I've got to witness for myself. I wonder what he's done to get yelled at. And by _Dad_, no less." And with that, he took off down the stairs, the rest of us following close behind.

When we got to the kitchen doorway, we came to another abrupt halt as we all gaped at the scene. Percy and Mr. Weasley were standing in the middle of the room on opposite sides of the table, their faces red and contorted with anger as they yelled at each other. Mrs. Weasley, on the other hand, was standing on the opposite side of the room, watching in shock as tears filled her eyes and spilled over onto her cheeks.

"I never thought you of all people would be this illogical!" Percy shouted, pointing a finger at his father.

"Me?" Mr. Weasley shouted back. "_Me_? I never thought _you_ would be this illogical! This-this-_untrusting_! Harry _saw_ You-Know-Who come back with his own eyes. Dumbledore believes him."

"The Minister himself does not believe You-Know-Who has returned," Percy argued. "He is largely responsible for the safety of the wizarding world. Don't you think he'd be the first to admit the worst so that he'd be able to _do his job_ and keep the rest of us safe?"

"He's obviously not _doing his job_ if he's refusing to take action," Mr. Weasley said. "How else do you think that girl died, Percy?"

"There were plenty of dangerous obstacles in that maze!" Percy cried. "People have died in that tournament before!"

"So you're saying that this tournament," Mrs. Weasley finally piped up shakily, "this tournament that your brothers competed in, wasn't that safe after all? That Dumbledore and the Ministry didn't do anything and everything in their power to make sure that what happened before didn't happen again? That it _would_ be entirely safe this time?"

"Didn't you see it for yourself?" Percy practically roared. "They competed against a dragon and were forced to stay underwater for an hour! Did you notice or are you blind?"

"Do _not _talk to your mother that way!" Mr. Weasley shouted as the twins let out identical cries of anger at Percy's addressal of his mother, which finally drew attention to the four of us in the doorway.

"You four stay out of this," Percy said. "It doesn't concern you."

"We could hear you arguing from our bedroom!" Fred shouted. "And it does concern us when you're talking about how safe everyone's going to be now...or not. And it does concern us when you start talking to Mum like that."

"Really, Perce, that's not like you," George added.

"You're too young to understand!" Percy said. "Who are you to tell me what's like me or what isn't?"

"We're of age!" Fred and George shouted. "We have every right to know what's going on. We're adults!"

"You may be of age, but you're still just teenagers," Percy scoffed. "You know nothing. You're still in school. You haven't even set foot out in the real world yet, so it would do you good to keep your mouths shut about things that you couldn't possibly know a thing about, much less actually understand."

Julian and I looked at each other in shock. We didn't know what to do. The polite thing to do would probably be to leave and let them argue in private. But we _had_ heard this much already and I suddenly found myself rooted to the ground. I couldn't move or walk away even if I wanted to. It was like a car wreck or something. Awful and horrifying, but hard to look away.

"And what do _you_ understand, Percy?" Mr. Weasley was asking. "Do you have your own understandings or are you just going by what Cornelius Fudge has been saying?"

"And what about you?" Percy asked. "Have you been doing the same with Dumbledore?"

"Dumbledore knows what he's talking about! He's one of the greatest wizards in the world! And you've known Harry for years! You mean to say you don't trust him after all this time? You don't trust Dumbledore after all the years you went to school under his watch?"

"Harry had been through a lot at the time of the tournament's end," Percy said dismissively, flapping one hand around and using the other to adjust his glasses. "He had been through an enormous amount of stress. He probably didn't know what he was saying."

"Wow, Perce," Fred snorted, "your head really is too far up the Minister's ass."

"Watch your language," Mr. Weasley snapped at Fred.

"Well, it's true!" Fred exclaimed. "He's choosing the Ministry over us!"

"Is that what you're doing, Percy?" Mr. Weasley asked, turning to look at his third eldest son. "You were right when you said that you were of age and had some time out in the world. You can make your own decisions now, but you also have to be prepared to face the consequences."

"What consequences?" Percy snorted. "The Minister says that You-Know-Who is not back, and I believe him! I think it makes sense! You people are entirely too ready to jump on the bandwagon just because Harry Potter _saw_ it happen and Dumbledore believes him. A girl dying in the tournament does not mean the darkest wizard of all time has returned. It just means exactly what happened: that she _died in the tournament_. People die every day and it does not mean that You-Know-Who has returned. Why would you want to take precautions for something that isn't happening? That's only going to put people into a panic that we don't want or need. Is that what you all want?"

"What we _want_," Mr. Weasley continued, "is for people to be informed. _Correctly _informed. We want them to be prepared for the worst and we want them to be safe and well protected. But none of that will happen unless the Minister admits the worst and listens to the advice Dumbledore gave him."

"He doesn't need to listen to _Dumbledore's _advice!" Percy cried. "He's the Minister of Magic! It's his job to do what he sees fit."

"Wow, Perce," George snorted. "I thought you were supposed to be the smart, mature one. But instead, you're being idiotic this time, not us."

"What is this fight even about?" Fred asked, looking his older brother up and down scathingly. "What made Perce decide to show his true colors?"

"Your brother has gotten a promotion," Mr. Weasley send tensely. "He's been offered the position of Junior Assistant to the Minister."

"Why?" Fred and George cried. "Didn't he get in trouble over the fact that he didn't report that Crouch was being controlled by You-Know-Who?"

Percy let out a scoff and rolled his eyes. "Mr. Crouch was not being controlled by anyone. He got sick. Went mad."

"Sure he did, Perce," Fred muttered sarcastically.

"_I _think Fudge only promoted him so that he could have a spy," Mr. Weasley said quietly. "He wants Percy to spy on our family and on Dumbledore."

"How dare you!" Percy suddenly roared, smacking his hand down on the wooden table so hard that I was surprised it didn't break. I flinched and turned away at the sound. Then, I gently grabbed Julian's hand.

"Maybe we should-," I began in a whisper, but before I could finish, I felt something grab my other hand. I looked up to see that Fred had slipped his hand into my own. He wasn't looking at me. Instead, he was still vigilantly watching the argument in front of him, his expression stony and his face red with anger. But he had grabbed my hand in a signal that he wanted me to stay. So I did.

"How dare you say that!" Percy said. "How _could _you believe that all my hard work wasn't the cause for this promotion. You know how much work I've put in to get a job like this and when it happens, you immediately think it's because the Minister is using me to spy on _you_? I've had to work extra hard after I was originally hired at the Ministry. I had to work extra hard to make my own impression and not withold the one _you _have!" He jabbed his finger at Mr. Weasley in anger. "I've worked my tail off for _years _and _that_ is what got me this far. If only you had the same ambition, the same could have happened to you. But you don't. You have no ambition and that's a big reason why we're so bloody _poor_!"

Everything seemed to dissolve into an uproar at once. Fred and George let out cries of anger and lunged at Percy, which I could understand, even if I didn't like it. But what surprised me was that _Julian _did the same thing. It took all I could to grab ahold of my brother and yank him backwards. But I couldn't hold him, Fred _and_ George back. Luckily, though, Mr. Weasley grabbed the twins and held them back, away from Percy, who frowned and stepped backwards, watching his brothers struggle and protest against Mr. Weasley.

"Boys!" Mr. Weasley shouted. "Calm down!"

"He's the biggest bloody idiot on the planet!" George yelled.

"How can he think he can just get away with yelling all that stuff at you?" Fred added. "Just let me punch him once to get it out of my system!"

"No!" Mr. Weasley yelled as Fred and George continued to shout over him.

Finally, there was the sound of loud clanging. We all looked up to see Mrs. Weasley banging a whisk against a metal pot. "Quiet!" She yelled. "Now!"

The kitchen fell into immediate silence that was more deafening than the yelling, if you wanted my opinion. I took in all the red, angry faces, including Mrs. Weasley's. She was still standing there holding the pot and whisk and it would have been funny if it wasn't so serious. And scary. I had witnessed-and even been apart of-my fair share of family arguments. But watching another family argue was always bad enough. And this arguement was pretty bad. It was terrifying.

"Percy, dear," Mrs. Weasley finally said, her voice quiet now and her face melting into a tired, sad, hopeful smile. "You don't mean what you said, do you? You just said it in the heat of the argument. "

"No, I do mean it, Mum," he said firmly. "I do. And if you are going to refuse to take the Ministry's side-" he shrugged. "The Minister has made it clear anyone siding with Dumbledore can clear out their desks. So the second he finds out for sure where Dad's loyalties lie, Dad gets fired. And that'll be on you because my loyalties lie with the Minister. And if yours _don't_, then-" he took in a breath, "then I intend to make certain everyone knows I'm no longer associated with this family."

"What?" Mrs. Weasley asked her voice coming out in a squeak.

"Fine," Mr. Weasley snapped. "I guess you'd better get started, then, because I've already told you how I feel. I believe Dumbledore and that's final."

Percy nodded curtly. "Okay, then that's that. We'll be free of each other in about twenty minutes. That's all I'll need to pack my things." And with that, he stormed out of the room, brushing past me and Julian, who were still standing by the door.

There was a moment of stunned silence before Mrs. Weasley promptly burst into tears. I felt incredibly uncomfortable. I felt like I shouldn't have been there any longer. Despite what Fred had wanted, it hadn't been right to stay and listen to the entire fight.

"Erm...Julian and I can leave and give you all some privacy. We shouldn't-"

"No," Fred said sharply. I blinked in surprise and his expression suddenly relaxed and softened as he realized how harsh he had sounded. He looked at me with a half-smile. "Stay," he whispered.

"I don't think I was meant to hear any of that," I muttered awkwardly, fiddling with my sleeve.

"Well, you did," Fred said. "And it doesn't really matter to me. If you hadn't witnessed it for yourself, I would've ended up telling you anyway."

"It's your family's business," I said. "It's private."

"And you're basically family anyway," Fred said. He met my eyes. "Stay. Stay for dinner. Please?"

I glanced at Mrs. Weasley, who was busy at the stove, wiping her eyes every few seconds and not paying any attention to us. Mr. Weasley had taken a seat at the table and was rubbing his hands over his face.

"Fine," I sighed. "I'll stay."

Just then, there was the sound of loud thumping from the stairs. I glanced around the corner to se Percy dragging his trunk down the wooden steps, another bag slung over his shoulder. "Perce..." I began, not even sure what I would say to him if he let me speak. I half-hoped he would realize how much he was hurting his whole family by doing this. That, most likely, once he calmed down and had a chance to think, he wouldn't feel this way. But he paused and met my eyes for only a fraction of a second before brushing by me again. Then, he made a beeline for the door, opened it, stepped outside and let the door slam behind him. This brought on a new wave of tears from Mrs. Weasley.

Fred and George both glared at the front door before looking at their mother, who was being comforted by Mr. Weasley now.

"What an absolute _git_," Fred said hotly. And with that, he and George stormed out of the room and up the stairs. Julian and I stared at each othere before glancing back at Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. They still weren't paying attention to us, so we took the opportunity to follow the twins up the stairs. On the first landing, we came to a stop as Ginny's bedroom door opened and she stuck her head out, her face as white as a sheet and her expression a mix of shock, fear and sadness.

The twins hadn't noticed their sister and were continuing to head up the stairs, talking to each other in low voices, most likely about Percy. I turned to my brother. "I'll take Ginny, you take the twins," I whispered. "Tell them I'll be up in a bit."

Julian nodded and jogged up the stairs after the twins while I turned to Ginny. "You heard?"

"I heard all of it," she said. "Every word. It got kind of loud."

I took in a slow, deep breath before letting it out just as slowly. "Can I come in?" I gestured to her bedroom with a tilt of my head.

She nodded and stepped aside. "Yeah, of course."

I walked inside her room, which was sunny and bright, light pouring through the window that had a great view of the yard. Ginny sat down on her bed and I gingerly took a seat next to her.

"I can't believe he left," she finally whispered sadly. "He's my big brother and he just walked out on us! I mean, I was prepared for him to move out on his own; I've gone through that twice now with Bill and Charlie. And they moved all the way to Egypt and Romania! Bill's back now, but..." She trailed off as she seemed to realize that she was rambling. "I just wasn't prepared for one of my brothers walking out on us-possibly permanently. This is different than him simply moving out."

"How could you ever be prepared for that?" I asked. "It's not something you usually have to worry about being prepared for."

Ginny shrugged. "I always knew Percy was ambitious and that he loved his work. But for him to disagree with Dad like that and tell Dad _he_ had no ambition at all...It doesn't seem like him. I always thought that in the end, he'd choose family over his work. I can't understand why he didn't. And it hurts, you know?"

"I do," I said, reaching out and wrapping my arms around her, pulling her to me in a hug. She rested her head on my shoulder and sighed. "I mean," I continued, "I've never had a family member _walk out_ on me, but...I know what it's like to feel as if someone you love is choosing other things over you. Whether it be work or another person who you know is going about things the wrong way. And it does hurt, no matter what. It never gets easier, I'm sorry to say. It doesn't feel great to not be put first by the people you thought _would_ put you first."

I heard Ginny sniffle and glanced down to see her lip trembling and her eyes filling up with tears. She was doing a pretty decent job with holding it all in, though. Ginny had never been one to readily break down, especially in front of people.

"Gin?" I whispered. There was a pause that I took as confirmation to go on. "You can cry if you want to. Merlin knows I've become a leaky faucet way more times than I would've liked in the past year. So I'm the last person who will judge you for it."

Ginny let out a quick watery breath of laughter before it suddenly turned into a sob. "Sorry," she said before she fell quiet and her shoulders shook a few times with silent sobs. And then that was it. She sat up and rubbed her eyes as she took a deep breath. "I'm okay."

I stared at her, half in sadness and half in amusement. "Gin...I've done what you're doing enogh times to know exactly what you're doing and why. And you don't have to."

"What exactly am I doing?" Ginny asked innocently, looking at me in confusion.

I sighed. "Okay, fine," I said. "But just know that I don't want you to feel as if-well, if you want to-if you want to just let it all out, you can. As I've said, I won't judge you. None of the people in this house will, actually. Not that we don't admire how strong you are, but...just putting the invitation out there." I half smiled.

Ginny nodded. "Okay. Thank you. That actually means a lot."

I leaned over and gave her another hug and we sat in silence for a few moments until Ginny was called down to help with dinner. The two of us went down together and found Mrs. Weasley in the kitchen, her eyes red and puffy, but dry at least. She put on a smile for us when we got there. "I thought we'd eat outside tonight. It's actually a very nice evening, so why not, right?" She smiled again before handing Ginny a stack of plates. "The twins and Julian are outside setting up the tables now. Dinner will be ready shortly."

Ginny took the plates before leaning in to quickly kiss her mother's cheek and heading for the door. Mrs. Weasley handed me napkins and utensils with another weak smile that I returned. "For the record," I said quietly, "I think your husband has lots of ambition."

Mrs. Weasley chuckled and it actually sounded genuine. "Thank you, dear," she said, patting my cheek. "I think so too."

"I'm sorry about Percy," I added.

"Don't you worry," Mrs. Weasley said, turning back to the stove. "He'll see reason eventually. He'll be back before you know it."

I smiled at her. "I hope so," I said. And with that, I turned and headed out to the backyard to help finish setting the table for dinner.


	51. Chapter 51

**A/N: So I uploaded this earlier, but I don't think the email alerts went out about the update so I'm trying it again to see if it works. So if you did already happen to see an update from me earlier today, this is the same chapter. And sorry if anyone ends up getting two alerts for the same chapter at some point. Anyway, I hope everyone likes the new chapter!**

* * *

"When are you going to tell her?"

I shrugged. Fred and I were hanging out at my house. It was the weekend after our date, the third week out of school and the third week that my dad had been in custody. They were still holding him at the Ministry because there were apparently more 'urgent' matters to handle first and worse criminals to have their fate decided first. So Dad had taken a backseat at the moment. I was actually kind of glad. I'd rather have him at the Ministry than in Azkaban.

Mum and Julian had gone to St. Mungo's. The patient Julian had read to last summer as part of the reading program had been discharged and Mum had taken him to the hospital so that he could be assigned a new one. Tomorrow, I'd be reading to Grace again, as I planned to do for the rest of the summer. Unless she was discharged, too, of course. But it didn't look as if that were going to happen, sadly.

Sam was supposedly working today and I had been assigned to clean up the house a bit. Not that it needed it. I hadn't had much to do, so in the end, Fred had decided to come over for a bit. We had gotten on the subject of why I hadn't told my mother about our relationship yet and Fred wanted answers. And rightly so. Me keeping him a secret from my mother wasn't right and he didn't deserve to be subjected to that. Which was why I did fully intend on telling my mother. I didn't want us to have to hide. I just wanted Sam out of the way first.

"I planned on telling her once we got Sam out of the picture. Honestly, I did-I do-intend on doing that. But Sam's still here, unfortunately. We'll be getting rid of him soon, though, and then I promise I'll tell her. She won't be thrilled, I'll bet you anything, but I don't care. I'm not keeping us a secret. It's exhausting and I know you don't want to be kept a secret either. Doing so would make me no better than Oliver, I suppose, would it?"

"Wood wanted to keep you a secret from a whole bunch of people, not just one," Fred shrugged, "so maybe it makes you a tiny bit better." He smiled. "But not by much."

"Hey!" I protested, tossing a grape at him. He opened his mouth and quickly moved his head so that the grape landed right in his mouth. He smirked at me and chewed the grape while I rolled my eyes and pursed my lips as I tried not to smile. We were lying on our stomachs on the living room floor, eating grapes and reading. Well, _I_ was reading. Fred was inventing. This time it was something about a punching telescope. It seemed dangerous to me, but according to Fred, the telescope wouldn't actually _punch_ anyone. There would just be a puff of smoke and the user would have a black eye that could only be removed with a special cream or ointment that the twins were planning on inventing next. The only thing I made them promise was that they wouldn't test the telescopes until they invented the ointment. They agreed immediately. They didn't like the idea of having black eyes indefinitely either.

Fred stayed for another hour before reluctantly announcing he'd have to be heading home for dinner. At the doorway, he reached into his pocket and handed me a small, rectangular object with some buttons on it. "Here," he said.

"What's this?" I asked in confusion, taking it from him and flipping it over a few times in my palm.

"It's a Muggle device," Fred said. "A tape recorder. It apparently records sounds when you press this button." He pointed to the one he meant, situated at the top of the device. "My dad had this in his shed. The one filled with Muggle devices. I convinced him to try and get it to work again because he had it all taken apart. So...he's been tinkering with it for the past few weeks and it works. We tested it last night. It'll record when you hit that button and it stops when you press it a second time. Then, you press this button here to rewind it and..." He searched the device before pointing again, "this button will play it back. Look." He took it from me and hit the rewind button before pressing play. His own voice crackled through it once he did.

"Lilah Fitzgerald snores like a mountain troll when she sleeps!" Then, there was the sound of the twins both laughing before the recording stopped.

I glared up at Fred. "Refresh my memory," I said. "How old are you?"

Fred just grinned at me and leaned against the door frame as he crossed his arms.

"I don't snore," I told him matter-of-factly.

"Well, maybe not like a _mountain troll_, but..." Fred smiled and shrugged as I sent him another glare. He laughed and handed the tape recorder back to me. "Anyway, this is small enough so it can easily be concealed anywhere. Even in your pocket. And it's flatter than that Veriteserum vial, too. I mean, just as long as you don't keep _touching_ it like you did with the vial, of course." He shook his head at me. "I swear, it's as if you haven't been paying attention to how George and I operate at all."

I stared at him for a moment. "So you're giving me this to try to record Sam confessing?"

Fred nodded. "If the moment strikes, you know? If you can't get him to do it in front of your mother. I think he's too smart for that. So maybe if you're ever alone with him..." He shrugged. "It's worth a shot, isn't it? I mean, is it the route I'd prefer to go to bring the ugly git down? No, of course not. I'd rather go for something a bit more dramatic. And perhaps harmful on his end. Or at least amusing. But I suppose that when time is of the essence..." He shrugged.

I smiled again and leaned up to kiss him. "Thank you. I'll still owe it all to you if it works."

Fred leaned in for another kiss before saying goodbye and stepping outside. I stood at the door and watched him disappear around the corner of the house, heading towards the shed in the back, where he'd slip between it and the bushes before Apparating home.

Sighing and sliding the recorder into my pocket, I closed the door and leaned against it for a moment before smiling to myself and heading upstairs to my room, where I scribbled a note on a piece of parchment and tied it to Casper's leg. "Bring this to Fred, okay?" I whispered before opening the window and letting my owl fly out. I leaned against the side of the window and smiled again as I imagined Fred's expression when he read my note. _Missing you already_, it had said.

Finally, after an agonizing wait that seemed like a lifetime, I got a response back. _I just left your house, you lunatic. _I laughed and dropped the note down on my desk. Just then, I heard the front door open. Wondering if it was my mother and Julian finally returning from St. Mungo's, I slipped out of my room and jogged down the stairs, heading into the kitchen to investigate who had returned. "Mum? Jules?" I asked.

But when I got to the kitchen, I was disappointed to see that it was Sam who had come inside, not my mother and brother. He was standing at the fridge with his back to me, rummaging through it for a drink. My stomach dropped as I realized something then. It was just the two of us in the house. Alone. It was as if all the stars had aligned for the first time in months and were providing me with the opportunity to get Sam to confess right after Fred had given me the tape recorder. Which reminded me... Before Sam had the opportunity to turn around, I pressed the record button on the tape recorder and then positioned myself so that I was on the opposite side of the kitchen table from him, and also behind a chair. He wouldn't be able to see me from the waist down this way.

"Hello, Lilah," he said with a smile, turning from the fridge with a bottle of firewhiskey in his hand.

"Hi," I answered flatly.

"Your mother still out with Jules?"

"Yes," I answered, my tone still flat as I crossed my arms over the back of the chair. I hated that he called my brother _Jules_. I didn't feel as if he had earned the right to call my brother by a nickname. To me, nicknames always symbolized a sign of friendliness or affection. Or both. And Sam was most definitely not a friend.

Sam nodded and wiggled the bottle of firewhiskey by the neck as he smiled. "Glad to see you haven't tried to drug me any more."

"That doesn't mean I've given up," I said. "I'm going to prove that you're the one framing my dad," I said.

"Oh, no, we're back to this again?" Sam asked condescendingly, popping open his drink and taking a sip. He sighed. "I don't know what it's going to take for you to stop being so utterly ridiculous and realize that your dad is simply a criminal."

"He's not," I insisted. "I know he's not."

"I don't understand why you won't let this drop," Sam went on. "That would be the smart thing to do, wouldn't it?"

"I won't let it drop because I'd do anything for my family! I'd do anything to keep them safe and to take care of them."

Sam laughed. "You feel the need to take care of a grown man? You feel the need to take care of your father? He should've taken care of you and he failed."

"No, he didn't," I scowled.

"He did," Sam said. "Why else would you feel like you had to be so protective of your brother? So much so that you practically suffocate him?"

"It has nothing to do with my dad!" I cried. "I just-"

"You care too much," Sam said. "_Way_ too much. And that's never going to get you anywhere. You'll just be left devastated when you find out that people don't care that much about you in return."

I swallowed, caught a bit off guard by that. "People care about me," I said defensively.

"Perhaps," Sam shrugged nonchalantly. "But if you're always the person who cares the most, everyone else will always care less than you. It'll always be a letdown. Every time."

I scowled at him again. "You know what? It's just us here now so you can cut the act. You're just playing games with me at this point. I know it's been you this whole time. You're the only person besides my mother who knew where she kept her key. You've been stealing the money from the reading program, haven't you? Tell me, were you really in Greece on assignment? Or did you go on a little vacation with the money you stole? Is that all you were in this for? Was this your plan all along? Date my mother, who already had a lot of money to begin with-money that you used to buy Julian's broom and the tickets to the World Cup. Money you used to win him over. And then you used me and Fred for a story to get my mother's charity more money so that you could steal it with _her_ key that you then used to frame my dad!"

Sam peered at me over the top of his drink. "You think you've got me all figured out, don't you? You've even formulated a nice little story in your head. You know, maybe you should consider getting yourself checked out. Making up stories, formulating false accusations, jumping to conclusions...At this rate, we'll have someone coming to read to _you_ at St. Mungo's." He looked at me thoughtfully. "But do they even allow guests to visit the mentally ill?"

"How did you do it?" I asked, ignoring his words, even as I felt my stomach twist at how harsh they were. This wasn't about me. It was about getting my dad out of going to prison. "How did you get the key into my dad's flat?"

"I didn't," Sam said. "Your dad did because he's jealous and angry over his divorce from your mother. He's jealous that she's doing so well while he sits at his own dingy flat, lonely and nearly as poor as he was all those years ago."

"He's not. He's doing a lot better," I said defensively. "And he's great at what he does."

Sam gave me a fake look of sympathy. "He'll be going to jail soon enough, Lilah. You have no proof that I did what you're claiming. All you're going on is a hunch. A very wrong hunch."

"No he won't go to jail," I said, deciding it was time for me to start bluffing. "And you say we have no proof, but...the night the key went missing and supposedly appeared in his flat, he was spending time with Uncle Jesse. I've talked to him. He's going to testify at the trial and say that Dad never left the house. Uncle Jesse's a Muggleborn. He knows how to get Muggle food delivered to people. That's what they did and he kept the receipt. Physical proof."

Sam stared at me. His face was expressionless, but I saw the way he seemed to freeze for a second. It was as if he had turned to stone for a moment. He even paled slightly. "You're lying," he said. "If that were true, you would've told me this ages ago. The second it happened. You would've made sure I knew that your dad wouldn't go to jail. You wouldn't have to use Veriteserum to try and get me to confess."

"I wanted to use the Veritserum so that you'd confess to my mother," I said. "The court is one thing but she's another. I want her to know not only that my dad is innocent, but that _you_ are the real thief and you framed my dad. You wait until she catches on. You wait until she finds out the truth."

Sam laughed, a loud, psychotic sound. "She won't," he said. "She already believed I had nothing to do with that article. She's still with me. She believes anything I say. If what you say about your dad's friend is true, it doesn't prove I did anything. You'll have a hard time proving that. I'm very convincing. And she's always chosen me over you and why wouldn't she? I'd choose just about anyone over you, too."

I whipped my wand out and pointed it at him faster than lightning, but somehow Sam was even faster. He had disarmed me in a matter of seconds.

"You're unbelievable!" I screamed, my blood practically boiling at this point. I didn't care what I yelled at him. It was all true and I was done. "I can't believe you're getting away with this! I hope you get what you deserve one day and I'm going to do anything it takes to make sure people know what kind of person you are! Starting with my mother!"

In a flash, Sam had crossed the room to me and pinned me against the wall with a hand to my throat. I screamed, but he tightened his grip slightly, causing me to splutter and gasp to a stop. I began to panic, attempting to pry his hand off, but he was too strong. I was crying now, tears streaming down my face.

"I suggest you quit while you're ahead," he whispered menacingly in my ear. "If you continue digging for proof, I'll make sure you end up exactly like your father. I already ruined his life, I can ruin yours even more than I already have. I can make sure you end up just like him. Or worse. Do you understand me?"

"So you admit it?" I gasped. "You admit you framed my dad and stole the money?"

"Why would I need to admit it when you've already figured every bit of it out yourself," Sam snarled. "But here's the thing: you still don't have proof against me yet. And I swear, you keep digging and you'll end up just like that sorry excuse for a man that's sitting in custody at the Ministry. You understand?" He tightened his grip around my neck.

I let out a strangled sob and tried to pull his hand away again, but it didn't budge. My vision was spotting and for a second, I was sure I _was_ going to die here.

"I SAID DO YOU-" Sam began, but he was cut off by another body slamming into his and knocking him to the floor.

Gasping for air, I scuttled backwards, putting distance between myself and Sam, who was now lying on his back underneath none other than my brother. Julian was on top of Sam, throwing quite a few punches. Good ones, too, I might add. I wondered where he had gotten such good aim.

I wanted to pull my brother away before he got hurt, but I couldn't move. I felt sick. My stomach was churning and I was trembling. I was afraid that if I tried to intervene, I'd only get hurt even more. I was just about to try and locate my wand when Julian and Sam were blasted apart. They landed on opposite sides of the room, both breathing heavily. Sam's face was covered in blood and Julian's lip and above his eye were both bleeding. His knuckles also looked terrible. I could tell from where I was. I whirled around to see who had cast the spell and saw my mother standing in the doorway.

"Mum," I said, my voice cracking. "Sam was-"

"I know," Mum said shrilly. "I saw him. Julian and I walked in the room just when he-when he...came at you." She whispered the last three words before swallowing and turning to Sam. "I've already put an anti-apparition charm on the house and I've already alerted the Ministry. They'll be here any minute."

I blinked in surprise. Saying I was shocked was almost an understatement. I couldn't believe it had worked out this way. I was so thankful, though. Thankful I didn't have to plan anymore. Thankful I didn't have to stress about how to outsmart Sam. Thankful my mother had seen it all with her own eyes and wasn't taking Sam's side. Just thankful in general about what had happened.

"Joanna," Sam said calmly, getting to his feet and taking a step towards her. "Come on now, you can't really-"

"You attacked my daughter!" My mother said. Her voice was high-pitched and angry, but it also sounded a bit scared as she pointed her wand at him. "I trusted you and this is how you repay me!"

Sam's expression instantly darkened. "You're going to be sorry you ever did this, Joanna," he said. "You're going to be very, very sorry."

"I already am sorry," she said. "Sorry I allowed myself to trust you and sorry I let you manipulate me."

Sam raised his wand again, which I was surprised he still had, and Julian and I immediately rose to our feet, ready to make a move. But we didn't have to seeing as there were loud, harsh knocks on the door just then. The officials from the Ministry were here.

Mum let them in and the next forty five minutes were a blur. We went into the living room, which seemed as if it became full of people. Too full. There were four officials from the Ministry. Two of them dealt with getting Sam out of the house while the other two stayed and began asking us questions. Julian, Mum and I all had to give accounts of what happened and they also examined Julian's face and the injuries from fighting with Sam as well as my neck, where I had scratches and red marks from Sam's hand. They even took a few pictures. They asked some more questions and we had to repeat our stories what seemed like a million times. I explained about the tape recorder and took it out of my pocket. I played back the tape with Sam's confession. The Ministry officials wrote some stuff down and then took the recorder from me, putting it into a bag. And then they finally left, leaving the three of us alone in the quiet. I felt exhausted as if I had just run for miles.

"Lilah," Mum said quietly. She was staring straight ahead, unblinking, her hands folded neatly in her lap and her back ramrod straight. "Why don't you take Julian upstairs? The two of you can get cleaned up and rest a bit before dinner."

I nodded and stood up, gesturing for Julian to follow. He did and we made our way up the stairs in silence. Julian headed into the bathroom and I followed, getting out the first aid things I needed for his injured face and knuckles. We always kept a supply of Muggle first aid stuff on hand for when a few reasons. One, because some injuries were better left to heal on their own. It was healthier that way. Bruises were an example. Secondly, Julian and I were always encouraged to deal with small cuts and scrapes on our own while we were too young for magic, but old enough to take care of our own injuries. And thirdly, while I could now use magic legally and I knew a few basic healing spells, I was no healer. The spell to heal basic cuts was easy, and oddly enough, so was mending broken bones. One spell and a quick, painful snap into place, and it was all done. Small cuts were the same way. Simple. But bigger cuts were trickier and more of a problem. And so were injuries like Julian's knuckles that looked like they had worsened in the time we had spent talking to the people from the Ministry. There was no way I was using magic on those.

"You're certainly a sight for sore eyes," I whispered with a smile as Julian took a seat on the closed toilet and stared down at his knuckles, bruised, scraped, red and bleeding slightly. He didn't answer and I didn't say anything else as I grabbed a bottle of cleaning potion as well as a rag to put the potion on and bandages to wrap his hands in. Then, I stood beside him and sighed. "Jules, you need to look at me so I can clean up your face."

"I don't care about my face," he said. "Or my hands."

"Jules, your lip is busted open, you have a cut above your eye and your knuckles are a mess. They need to be taken care of."

"He was going to kill you, Liles," Julian said, looking up at me seriously, his green eyes staring into mine. I felt my chest tighten and my throat constrict at his expression and when I noticed his hands were trembling.

"He wasn't," I whispered, shaking my head slightly. "He wasn't." But the truth was, I didn't know that. At the time, with Sam's hand pressing into my neck, I had, in fact, been sure I was going to die.

"He threatened you, first of all," Julian said. "He basically _threatened_ to kill you. At the worst. At the least, he threatened to get you locked away with Dad. That's serious enough. And..." he swallowed and looked away, staring at the wall, "I walked into the house to hear your scream, then ran into the kitchen to see him pressing you against the wall, his hand around your _neck_ and this insane look in his eyes. Manical." He paused. "What if Mum and I had come home ten seconds later? A minute? An hour? What would we have found?" He looked back at me as he shrugged one shoulder helplessly. "What would I ever do without my big sister?"

I let out a sound that was a half sob, half laugh as a tear escaped my eye and ran down my face. "You're really grown up now, Jules," I said. "You're fifteen and already taller than me. You're smart. You're kind. And you _do_ do a good job of taking care of yourself and being responsible. You don't really need me. Something I keep forgetting."

"Lilah, of course I need you," Julian whispered. "How could you ever think I don't? How can you _possibly_ say what you just said?"

I hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to say. Unsure if i should tell him what Sam had said. But then I decided against it. I knew what he would say and I knew he'd be right. He'd tell me to ignore Sam because he was wrong. He'd ask why I'd ever consider believing that lunatic. And a large part of me didn't. But I just wasn't able to help some small part of my brain. And then I hated that part of my brain for making me look pathetic.

"You always accuse me of sufficating you," I finally said. There was a pause. "I care too much. Way more than I can expect in return."

"Lilah, are you crazy?" Julian asked. "You think I don't care about you as much as you care about me?" He shook his head. "I'm always going to need you, Lilah. Maybe the _exact_ needs are going to change. For instance, I can cross streets on my own now and dress myself. I can do buttons. They're not so hard anymore." He smiled briefly as I let out a breathy laugh. "Maybe I don't always need you to physically take care of me, but I will always need you around," he said. "You're my sister, Lie, and I love you."

"I love you too," I said.

"And I definitely care about you just as much as you care about me. I just show it differently. So I don't get beaten up, you know. Teased mercilessly for admiting I love my sister." He smiled.

I smiled back. "And on the contrary, I think I show it _too_ much."

"Mm, maybe sometimes," Julian said with a smile as I laughed and swatted him.

"Okay, look at me," I told him, "so I can help get your handsome face back to normal."

Julian tilted his head upwards, allowing me to gently dab at his lip, then the spot above his eye with the rags dipped in cleaning potion. And after that, it was time for his knuckles. I bandaged them in silence, wrapping the soft white material around and around his hands. "Where did you learn to hit like that?" I finally asked as I finished up.

"I don't know," he answered softly, staring down at my handiwork. "It's not like I've ever _really_ hit someone before. But it was like...I just acted. I just moved. He was attacking you and I was angry. It was like instinct or something."

I smiled. "Well, thank you," I said. "I'm glad I have you around to protect me."

Julian smiled back before his eyes shifted to my neck, where I was sure the red, finger-shaped marks as well as the scratches, still remained. "Can you make them go away?" he asked.

I nodded. "I should be able to. They're minor enough. More minor than yours, believe it or not. I guess it's a good thing. I don't want to have to see them."

"Me neither," Julian said, standing up and looking down at me. We just stared at each other for a moment before Julian wordlessly pulled me into a hug and just held me to him, which, I realized, was exactly what I needed.

* * *

Later that night, I was sitting in my bed, dressed in my pajamas with my knees pulled to my chest. I felt like all my insides were aching. I was still shaken up by what had happened earlier, but I also couldn't get what Sam had said out of my head. I knew I shouldn't have believed him or taken what he had said to heart, but..._She's always chosen me over you, and why wouldn't she? I'd choose just about anyone over you too. _It upset me and it also made me mad that I was letting it upset me. It was completely ridiculous and untrue. Just because Sam felt that way doesn't mean everyone else did. Obviously. But what if he was right about my mother? She _had_ always chosen him over me. Until tonight. Tonight she'd had the truth thrown in her face and she couldn't deny it anymore. She had come to rescue me and practically sent Sam off to jail. But what would happen now? Would she think I was at fault for bringing this upon us? Would she think I was at fault for giving her no choice than to do what she did?

I tried to prepare myself for her to feel that way. A part of me wouldn't be surprised. I was always at fault for everything with her. It always felt like she put me last, as if she thought I were ridiculous and worthless. It always felt like no matter what I did, I couldn't win. I couldn't get her on my side. It may have sounded crazy, but it made me think of what Sam had said when he'd said everyone else would always care less than me because I always cared too much.

I knew that was insane, though. I knew he was trying to get under my skin and make me feel insecure and insane. I knew it made no sense. Julian loved me. My Dad loved me. Oliver had loved me. My friends loved me. But sometimes when things got bad-and tonight had been the worst of them all-I just wondered if there really was something wrong with me.

Just then, I heard a soft knock on my door. Jolting out of the trance I had been in, I looked up.

"Come in," I said quietly.

When the door opened, I was only mildly surprised to see my mother. She looked awful. Worse than me, actually. And in a strange way, that made me feel better. She had feelings after all. Who knew?

She cleared her throat and sat down gingerly on the edge of my bed.

"Lilah," she began, her tone flat, "what Sam did was extremely wrong. Worse than wrong, actually. It was unforgivable. All of it, but especially what he did to you."

"I don't know, I think _framing_ dad is pretty bad," I said.

"He could have _killed_ you."

"He could've sent Dad to Azkaban for something he didn't do," I argued.

Mum pursed her lips before sighing. "I knew that sounded odd, but I didn't want to-if there was evidence-I never suspected-"

"You didn't act like it sounded odd," I said.

"I-" Mum began. She broke off before tring again. "When your dad was brought in, I-I was-I couldn't..." She trailed off and looked away as she closed her eyes, unable to get the words out.

"Why did you side with Sam after the article came out?" I asked. "Why couldn't you have believed me? Listened to me? Heard me out? If Dad being accused sounded so weird to you..."

"Because it didn't make _sense_ to me," Mum sighed. "It didn't make sense that Sam would do this. All evidence pointed to your father."

"It was easier to believe that I-your own daughter-cheated on her boyfriend than to believe that _your_ boyfriend blackmailed me and helped create a made up article about me?"

"They both sound pretty outrageous, actually," Mum said with a shrug.

"You have to know how hurt I was by all that happened," I said. "My own mother wasn't on my side. Isn't that your job?"

My mother sniffed. "Everything seemed to point to you being in the wrong, Lilah. What was I supposed to think?"

"Please, Mum, don't start that again. I'm still your daughter," I answered. "And I'm just trying to tell you how I feel. It did hurt to know you didn't believe me. A lot."

"I'm sorry you feel that way," Mum said, standing up and smoothing out her shirt.

I gaped at her. _I'm sorry you feel that way_? That's all she had to say?

Before either of us could say anything more, there was a series of loud bangs from the front door. I could vaguely make out muffled shouting from outside. The voices sounded oddly like Fred and George. I half-smiled. I was willing to bet anything that Julian had written to them about what had happened that day.

"What in Merlin's name is _that_?" Mum asked.

"I think it's Fred and George," I said. "Probably wanted to check up on us."

"Hm," Mum said. She turned towards my bedroom door. "I don't think it's best if we have guests over tonight. After all that's happened-"

"No, Mum, I want to see them," I protested. "Can we please let them in?"

"No, Lilah, I don't-"

"Please?" I begged. It was a long shot, but I was desperate.

Mum pursed her lips. "Fine," she said curtly. "But only for a little while. Half an hour."

"Okay," I agreed with a smile. "Thank you."

Mum nodded once. "Go let them in, then, before they break down the door."

I smiled wider and jumped off my bed before quickly heading down the stairs and over to the front door. I grabbed the doorknob and turned it before pulling it open to reveal the twins, who both nearly fell inside after the door swung open and they had nothing to bang on anymore.

"Lilah!" they exclaimed, hurrying inside without waiting for an invitation. Fred immediately grabbed me in a tight hug, backing me up a few steps with his momentum. When he pulled away, his eyes roamed over my face.

"Julian wrote us," he whispered. "Told us everything." He paused. "Are you alright?"

I nodded solemnly. "I'm okay."

"And Jules?" Fred pressed on.

"He's fine," I answered. "A little banged up, but otherwise fine."

Fred nodded and gave my face a once-over again before leaning in and kissing me. I immediately relaxed and leaned into him as he pulled me closer. I never wanted it to end, but unfortuantely, we were forced to pull away from each other when someone cleared their throat from behind me. My mother, no doubt.

Sighing, I turned to face her, slipping my hand into Fred's as I did so. She was standing on the stairs, a few up from the bottom, her hand poised lightly on the bannister as she looked at us with raised eyebrows.

Fred cleared his throat before smiling widely. "Hi Mrs.-er-_Miss_ Matthews. It's nice to see you again."

"Mum," I said slowly, tilting my head towards Fred. "Fred and I have been..."

"Dating," Fred said firmly, looking at me. "We've been dating."

I met his eyes and smiled slightly before turning back to my mother. I knew what Fred was doing. Giving my mother the whole blunt truth before I had a chaance to soften it up for her, or worse, chicken out of telling it completely, which wasn't what I wanted to do, but who knew what could've slipped out of my mouth if I had hesitated too long.

"I can see that," Mum said airily as she gazed between us.

Julian suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs. He leaned forward on his elbows, resting them on the bannister as he smiled down at us. "They make a pretty disgusting couple, don't they?" he asked.

"I'll have you know," Fred called up to him, "that Lilah and I are a _stunning_ couple."

Mum cleared her throat again. "For how long?" she asked. "Since the article? Was it true after all?"

"No, Mum, honestly!" I cried in frustration. I glanced at Fred before lowering my voice a bit. "We went on our first date a week ago."

"But I've been hoping she'd go out with me since February," Fred added with a grin as he nudged my side, getting a tiny smile out of me as well.

"Mum, you can't seriously think I'd cheat on Oliver," I said. "You can't seriously be re-thinking the truth now."

"Yeah, Lilah took forever to agree to even go out with me," Fred said. "And as I said, I've only been asking her out since February. A whole two months after the article came out."

"He's telling the truth, Mum," Julian said. "I've been with them at school all year." He paused. "And believe me, Fred really likes Lilah."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Mum asked.

"It's only been a week and I wanted Sam out of the picture before I did," I replied. "Besides, it's not like it's always easy to tell you things as it is."

Mum shot me a look. "Well, I would have appreciated it if you could have said something. As you can imagine, finding out by witnessing you two..._attached at the lips, _isn't ideal. I'd have prefered you to talk to me like an adult."

"I planned on it," I protested, "but as I said, I wanted Sam out of the way. I didn't know what he'd do if he found out. But now that he's gone...I was going to tell you, I swear. I didn't know the twins were coming over tonight."

"We wanted to make sure Lilah and Julian were okay," George said. "Julian told us what happened."

"They're fine," Mum answered. Her tone was flat. Not quite angry, but also not quite accepting. I didn't know what to make of that. "They're a little shaken up, however, as I'm sure you can imagine. So I'm also sure you'll understand when I ask that you limit your visit to only half an hour."

Fred and George were quiet for a moment as they looked at each other before looking back at my mother. "Fine," Fred finally answered. He didn't bother to hide his irritation and I nudged him.

Mum nodded curtly before heading into the kitchen. At the doorway, she paused and half looked over her shoulder. "Would you boys like a cup of tea?" she asked, her tone clipped and strained. But nonetheless, something flickered inside me-a little bit of hope maybe. Hope that this was her way of trying to give them a chance instead of only asking to be courteous. But then again, I reminded myself, having hope with my mother was dangerous. It was also plausible that she was just too exhausted to start a fight tonight. Maybe, under the circumstances, she was biting her tongue. I couldn't figure it out yet. I wouldn't be able to figure _her _out for a day or two.

"Er...sure, yeah, we'd love some," Fred said.

"Anything in it?" Mum asked.

"Nothing for me," Fred said. "George likes sugar, though."

"Just a spoonful," George added.

Mum nodded again and looked at me. "Lilah?"

"Sure, I'll have some."

"Julian?" Mum called up to him.

"Yes, please," he called back, a smile turning up the corners of his mouth.

Finally, mum left the room to go make the tea and Fred turned back to me as Julian descended the stairs to stand beside us.

"Are you sure you two are okay?" Fred asked, looking from me to my brother.

"We're fine," I said. "What did Julian tell you, exactly?"

"Just that Sam told you the truth while he and your mother were out and when he came home, he heard you scream." His face paled slightly as his eyes wandered to my throat. He tilted my chin up so he could get a better look. "You did a good job of getting rid of any marks. I don't see anything."

"They were there," Julian piped up. "It was all red."

"Yeah, and what about you?" I asked. "Busted lip, cut over your eye, and not to mention your hands." I nodded to his hands, still wrapped in the bandages from earlier. "We should also probaby change those soon."

Julian sighed. "_Yes_, Lilah," he said in mock-frustration. Well, at least partly mocking anyway. I knew he was still somewhat serious.

Fred let out a low whistle as he smiled. "Wow, Lie, the kid defends you and you still have to worry about him."

"_Seriously_," Julian muttered. "Just let me bask in the glory of being a good brother for a bit."

"You're a _great_ brother," I told him quietly, giving him a small smile. "And I'm glad you were here today."

Julian grinned and came over to wrap me in a hug, quickly kissing the top of my head as he did so. "Love you, Lie," he whispered.

My throat constricted slightly at the words. "Love you too," I answered quietly as I pulled away and looked at the twins. "Thanks for coming over," I said. "Even if we didn't ask you to...it means a lot that you wanted to check up on us."

"Personally," Fred began with a smirk, "I came for Julian, not you. I couldn't care less about you, Lilah."

"Ouch," I said with a snort. Even though I _knew _he was joking, I couldn't help but wish he hadn't said that. After the weird mood tonight had put me in, it just wasn't the best choice of words. But it wasn't like Fred could even possibly know that.

"When's your dad going to be released?" George asked.

"Soon, hopefully," I said. "Maybe within the next few days." I shrugged. "And now Sam will be the one in custody."

"I just can't believe that piece of trash almost _killed_ you!" Fred said. "I should have stayed over until he got home. If I hadn't left-"

"Fred, why would you think today was different than any other day?" I asked. "Sam's never gotten violent like this before. Why would you think he had reason to?"

"I don't know," Fred shrugged. "But I just-maybe things could have been different if I had stayed."

I smiled. "You have no reason to worry. Julian did just fine on his own." I looked over at my brother and smiled widely. He returned it proudly. "Besides, I got Sam to confess. He probably wouldn't have done that if you had been here."

Fred looked between us solemnly for a moment, the expression odd on his usually jovial face. Finally, he smiled slightly and gave my hand a squeeze. "I'm just really glad you're okay. But...if I ever see that man again, I'm going to let him have it."

"I won't stop you," I said with a smile. "But I have a feeling you won't have to go through all that trouble. With any luck we'll never have any reason to run into him again.


	52. Chapter 52

A few days later, my Dad was released from custody. Fred, George, Julian and I waited outside his flat for him to return. When he did, Julian and I immediately greeted him by running into his arms.

When he saw Fred and George, he gave Fred a once-over before shaking his and George's hands and seriously telling Fred he'd heard of some of the products he'd invented and he wanted to know if he intended to use any of them on me.

I burst out into laughter. I knew he was asking the question just to torture Fred and make him sweat a little. I was sure Fred knew this as well, but he did a good job hiding his smile. It only flickered across his face very briefly.

"No, sir," he answered, meeting my eyes over my dad's shoulder. "We wouldn't want to hurt her." He paused and smirked. "Which is why we'll wait until our products are perfected before testing them on her in her sleep."

I gaped at him, mock-offended as he smiled before turning back to my dad, whose eyebrows had shot up. They stared at each other for a moment before my dad finally broke into a laugh and reached out to shake Fred's hand.

"Good luck with that," he said. "I'm sure she'll let you hear it when she wakes up."

Despite the fact that I knew Fred hadn't been _all _that nervous about my dad, something in his face relaxed marginally at my Dad's acceptance. "Oh, I know she will," he answered. "But it's worth it. Plus, I know that in the end she can't resist my charms."

"Oh, really?" I asked crossly. "If you'll remember ever so kindly, I resisted them for months before I finally agreed to go out with you."

"That's all water under the bridge," Fred said, waving his hand. "You _did_ agree in the end and that's all that matters."

I stuck my tongue out at him as he laughed and threw an arm around my shoulders, kissing my temple in the process.

"Congratulations on getting your own place, by the way," Dad added. "That's huge. I can't wait to see what you do with it."

"For that, you'll get a discount the second we open up," George beamed.

"Hey, he compliments you once and he gets discounts? I've been complimenting you for years and you've never offered me a discount!" I exclaimed, pretending to be offended.

Fred and George both laughed. "You think we'd give _you _a discount?" George guffawed, pretending to wipe tears of laughter from his eyes.

"Why on Earth would we do that?" Fred asked with a grin.

"Because I've been your biggest supporter for the longest amount of time," I said matter-of-factly. I hesitated and smiled. "And...because I'm your girlfriend." I smiled at him sweetly and batted my eyelashes.

Fred smiled. "True. Which is exactly why you won't be getting a _discount_. Not in the sense where we'll deduct a small portion of the price at least. No, you can get anything you want for free."

"For free?" I asked, giving him a look of appreciation. "Nice."

"And what about me?" Julian chimed in. "What kind of discount do I get?"

"You'll have to pay double," Fred said seriously. "You know, to make up for what Lilah _isn't_ paying." He shrugged. "George and I have to make a profit somehow." He looked at Julian sympathetically and patted him on the shoulder. "Sorry, Jules."

Julian glared at him. "I don't think that's a very funny joke at all, you know."

"Ah, well, it's a good thing _we_ do," George said with a smile.

"Of course you do," Julian answered. "You find _everything_ funny."

"Which is why we're so good at what we do," Fred replied with a wink. I snorted and rested my head on his shoulder, feeling as if everything was finally looking up for the first time in a while.

* * *

"So you're leaving? Just like that?"

It was a few days after my dad had been released from custody. I was in Fred's room at the Burrow, resting against the edge of his desk, watching him and George pack their bags. Fred had written me that morning, telling me he had something to tell me and that I should come over. When I had, he broke the news that his family was leaving that very day to go to 'headquarters'.

"Yeah," Fred said now. "It's safer for us there. I've told you how it is. We're not safe now that You-Know-Who's back. The Order thinks we'll be safer at headquarters. Nobody can find us there, so we'll be safe if anyone chooses to...attack." He fiddled with the sloppily folded shirt in his hands before snapping out of his thoughts and dropping it into his trunk.

"But what-and where-are these headquarters?" I asked. "And the Order? What's that?"

"Dad said it's an organization that Dumbledore put together during the first war," George said, closing his trunk and turning towards me. "It's really top-secret. I don't even think we're supposed to be telling _you_ about it. But we know we can trust you. And it's not like we're telling you where headquarters are."

"_We_ don't even know where they are," Fred said with a shrug. "Like George said, it's all really secret. But it's safe."

"Fred, are you sure this is necessary? Do you really..." I trailed off and swallowed. "Do you really think you're in danger right now? Do you really think there's a high chance you'll be attacked?" I looked up and tried not to let him see how concerned this had all made me. It had all happened so fast that it made me think that the Weasleys knew something I didn't.

Fred gave me a tiny smile before walking over to me and trailing his hands down my arms until he reached my hands. He gently picked them up and held them in his before looking up at me and just staring at me, taking me in.

"Do you know something?" I asked.

Fred shook his head. "No," he whispered. "All I know is what I told you. And as far as if we're really in danger or not...I already told you we would be if You-Know-Who ever came back. I don't know if we're in any danger right _now_, but eventually we could be targeted, yeah."

"But I don't even know where you're going," I said. "Even if we'll be able to write, I won't be able to see you. Not for the whole rest of the summer."

"You'll live," Fred said with a smile. "Come on, you're stronger than that. As much as a part of me hates to acknowledge it, I know you can live without me."

"No, I know, I _can_," I shrugged. "But that doesn't mean I have to like doing so."

Fred snorted. "Someone sure is obsessed with me."

I rolled my eyes and aimed a light punch at his shoulder. "Shut up." I paused. "Are _you_ going to be able to survive without _me_?" I asked with a smile as I peered up at him.

Fred laughed again before smiling back. "Of course I will. I'm really looking forward to partying it up this summer and forgetting all about you. I'm not going to think about you once, I can promise you that."

"Thanks, Fred, really," I said with a laugh. "That makes me feel so great."

"I know you're worried, Lie, but don't be," Fred said. "There's no need. I'll be okay. And so will you."

"Yeah, Lilah, you're super independent," George added. "You don't need that buffoon around all the time."

I laughed. "That's not the point, George," I said. "The point is that I'm going to miss you all. And it's not fair. You said that Harry and Hermione will end up joining you and...you'll all be there together while I'm sitting at home thinking about you."

"Do you really think your mother would allow you to come stay with us at this secret, unknown _headquarters _place for the entire summer?" Fred asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No," I answered with a sigh. "I know she won't."

"How's she been, by the way? Has she said anything about me and you?"

I shook my head. "Not a word." It had been nearly a week since Mum had found out about me and Fred and she hadn't spoken a word about it. Not one. She hadn't addressed it at all, which was odd. I expected her to go off about it for hours. Instead, however, she was ignoring it completely. As if she thought it would go away if she pretended it didn't exist. On the plus side, she hadn't freaked out about it, but she also hadn't been warm and welcoming either. She never asked about Fred or attempted to start over with him and the rest of his family.

But she also had been throwing herself into her work. More than ever, actually, which I didn't know was possible. The whole thing with Sam had naturally really upset her and she needed a distraction which had always been work for her. So, I didn't really see her that much anymore, if at all. It actually felt like Julian and I were living in our house alone. Before we'd see her here and there and she when she was with Sam, she had been around for dinner almost every day. But now she wasn't there at all. But we were used to it by now. Every time something went wrong she threw herself into her work to cope. It was nothing unusual.

"Have you tried talking to her about it?" Fred asked.

I shook my head. "I'm afraid bringing it up again will bring on the fireworks," I shrugged. "And I don't want that. I'd rather have her ignore it than her get mad and yell at me over it. She knows and that's the important thing."

Fred just stared at me a moment. "You're okay with that? With her just ignoring it?"

I nodded. "I'm prepared for her to never totally accept this. You know how things are. She's coping with a lot and maybe right now our relationship is the least of her worries. But she's never exactly _liked_ you, unfortunately."

"So you think once she has time to think about it, she'll get angrier?" Fred asked.

"Maybe." I shrugged again.

"Well, on the bright side," George piped up, "Sam isn't around anymore. He's getting sent to Azkaban, isn't he?"

"Most likely," I said. "There's probably going to be a trial this summer, but the odds of him going to prison are good. So that's a positive thing." I smiled briefly up at Fred before looking out the window. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Fred glance at George before he looked back at me.

"Lie, what's wrong?"

I looked back at him. "I know I've always been one to take care of myself," I said, "but maybe after all that's happened...I mean, it worked out well. Sam's gone, my dad's out of custody...But what happened that day did kind of freak me out."

"Understandably," Fred whispered, his eyes sweeping over my face.

"And maybe I _can_ get through it alone, or even with Julian-I just-"

"What?" Fred prodded.

"I still _want_ you here," I told him, chewing on my lip. "And maybe I do need you, too. Just a little. I mean, for the trial and all. That would would be nice."

Fred actually let out a quiet chuckle. "Thanks, Lie. But you do have Jules. Like I said, you'll be fine. You have all your other friends. Tess, Ange, Katie, Alicia...You'll be so busy with them, you won't even notice I'm gone."

"Oh, please, _everyone_ is able to notice when you and George are gone. Everything is unnaturally quiet."

"That _is_ true," Fred said, sighing dramatically.

Suddenly, Mrs. Weasley's voice sounded from downstairs.

"Fred? George?" she called. "We're leaving. Hurry up and bring your stuff downstairs!"

The three of us looked at each other for a beat before George yelled back, "Okay, Mum!" his eyes still on me and Fred.

I sighed as I pushed off from leaning against Fred's desk and brushed passed him. "I guess you'd better get down there," I said, coming to a stop in the middle of the room.

Fred and George were quiet for another moment before George stood up and made his way over to me. He gave me a tight hug. "We'll be seeing you before you know it," he whispered before pulling away and giving my hand a squeeze.

I smiled. "Yeah, hopefully," I said.

George smiled back before looking over the top of my head towards his brother. "I'll leave you two alone." He grabbed the handle of his trunk and levitated Fred's in front of him before leaving the room, Fred's trunk floating in front of him and his own trunk dragging behind.

I sensed Fred come to stand behind me and a second later, he was wrapping his arms around me and resting his chin on my shoulder. "I know you're not happy about me leaving," he said.

"No, I'm thrilled," I said with a roll of my eyes and a wry smile.

Fred laughed. "But George is right. We'll be seeing each other again before either of us knows it. And like I said, I'm going to try to pull some strings so that you can come visit."

"You think you can do that?"

"Have you forgotten how charming I can be?" Fred asked.

"You're _not_ that charming," I said. "That's the problem."

Fred pretended to scoff as he let go of me and stuck his nose up in the air. "Fine, then maybe I won't even try to pull any strings. You'll just have to survive the next few months without me."

I rolled my eyes before turning around, placing a hand on Fred's cheek and kissing him.

Fred's hands found my waist again at once as he pulled me to him and returned the kiss. My head emptied almost at once in the annoying way it usually did whenever I was kissing Fred. My hands slid to his hair and he sighed against my lips as he pulled away slightly. I pretended I didn't notice and kissed him again. I wasn't sure what had come over me, but I wasn't ready to stop. The longer we stayed up here, the more we'd prolong his departure. Or so I hoped.

"Lie, what's gotten into you?" Fred laughed as he pulled away again and gently pushed on my hips to keep me from kissing him again for the time being.

"Procrastinating," I answered simply.

Fred let out a laugh. "So you're using me?"

"Not necessarily," I answered. "I was genuinely enjoying myself while putting off your leaving."

Fred smiled and leaned in for another quick kiss.

"Fred!" Mrs. Weasley called from downstairs. "Come on, dear, hurry up!"

Fred half-smiled at me before holding his hand out for me to take. "Come on," he said.

I shifted my gaze from his face to his hand, his long fingers outstreched, waiting for me to fill the gaps between them with my own. I did and the second our hands met, Fred closed his fingers over mine and squeezed before lifting our hands to his lips and kissing the back of mine. And just like every other time that he had grabbed my hand, I felt okay. I felt hopeful. I felt as if everything really would be okay and that maybe I was worrying more than I should have been.

* * *

A few nights later, my mother finally made a comment about Fred. She was actually home for dinner, a rare occurance. But she was practically scarfing it down so she could go up to her home office and do more work. As if she hadn't done enough of that all day.

"I noticed that boy hasn't been around much," she said. "And you haven't been going to his house." She looked me up and down. "Have you broken up with him, then?"

"No," I said with a sniff. "He's...away."

"Away where?" Mum asked curiously.

I sighed and looked at Julian, who simply shrugged.

"We don't know," I answered slowly, staring down at my plate and picking at the carrots sitting there.

"What do you _mean_ you don't know?" Mum asked, her tone a mix of surprise and irritation. "He's your...boyfriend, isn't he?" Her nose wrinkled slightly-and quickly, too. The expression of distaste had left her face so fast, it was almost as if I had made it up. "He doesn't even have the decency to tell you where he's going?"

"He couldn't," I answered, determined to provide answers that were as short and vague as possible. I really didn't want to get into this discussion right now. Or ever. I just wanted her to be quiet about the whole thing because I didn't think she'd have anything nice to say. And if you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all, right?

"Why not?" Mum asked. "What is his family getting themselves into, Lilah? If they're getting themselves into some kind of trouble, if they're running from the law, then I must insist you-"

"Mum!" I exclaimed as Julian dropped his fork in surprise at Mum's theory and gaped up at her.

"They aren't running from the law," he scoffed. "That's ridiculous."

"Well, then why did they run off so suddenly and why can't they tell you where they're going?" Mum asked. "It sounds to me as if the whole thing is very...shifty."

"Shifty," I repeated dully, staring at her in disbelief.

"They're in danger," Julian finally said. "They had to go somewhere very well protected because now that You-Know-Who's back, they're going to be targeted more than others most likely."

Mum's eyes widened. "And why's that?"

Julian and I silently shared a look that wondered if we should tell Mum the truth-that the Weasleys were blood traitors. Neither of us had ever told her for understandable reasons. We didn't need her freaking out about them any more than necessary. But now there didn't seem to be any other way around it. She knew they weren't Muggleborns.

"They're blood traitors," I said bracingly. "I mean-Mr. Weasley loves Muggles. He's all for wizards and Muggles being equal, which obviously makes him and the whole family very unpopular with the Death Eaters and You-Know-Who."

"I just thought he had a strange _fascination_ with them!" Mum said, putting down her fork, the fact that she needed to eat and head upstairs to do some work clearly forgotten at this point. "I didn't know he was _that _obsessed!"

"What, just because he's for equality, it makes him over the edge?" I asked. "I mean, I think it sounds like a good idea, too-equality, I mean-and I don't collect plugs. And besides, he's really not _obsessed._ He's just...fascinated. Nothing wrong with that."

Mum rubbed her hands over her face as she sighed. "Lilah, the point here is that-you just said it-they're being targeted. Do you get what this could mean for you? By association, you could be targeted as well. You, Julian, the whole family, really.

"That's silly," I said. "We're purebloods. We're not blood traitors..."

"No, but what if the Death Eaters try to use you for interrogation? Or for bait or something? You don't remember clearly enough what it was like back then. They're ruthless people." She hesitated and picked up her fork again. "This is all assuming that You-Know-Who really is back, of course."

Julian and I looked at each other again.

"He is," I said flatly, looking at her in disbelief. "Harry saw him."

"And who else saw him?" Mum asked. "Nobody. All any of us have to go on is what one person is claiming."

"It's Harry," I said. "Isn't that enough? Besides, Gabrielle died. How do you think that could have happened? An accident, like everyone else seems to think?"

"A tragic accident, yes," Mum answered. "That young girl being killed by one of those terrible maze obstacles sounds a lot more plausible than You-Know-Who coming back! Honestly, don't you hear yourself? You sound just as unstable as Harry Potter!"

"Harry is not unstable!" Julian cried, jumping to his feet.

"Julian, sit down at once," Mum said sternly.

Julian glared at her steadily for a bit, not moving a muscle. Finally, I grabbed his sleeve and gently tugged, getting him to sit back down in his chair.

"Mum, Harry's not-" I began.

"He's been through a lot lately," Mum said. "An unbelievable amount of stress. I'm not surprised he cracked, to be honest. But putting his own name in illegally was ridiculous and attention seeking as it was, so maybe-"

"Don't say he deserved it," Julian said tensely, shaking his head. "And he didn't put his name in at all."

"That's what Dumbledore is claiming," Mum said. She looked at me. "And what about that boyfriend of yours! He put his name in illegally too! He and his brother both did!"

"Mum, no, I-"

Julian suddenly nudged me hard in the side. I broke off and looked at him to see him staring back at me, his eyes wide and his jaw set. He shook his head slightly, telling me to keep quiet. I knew why he was telling me that, of course. If I told Mum it had been me that put the twins' names in, that would be it. I'd never hear the end of it. I'd be in humongous trouble. But I couldn't let Mum continue to trash talk Fred and George like this.

"Now, getting back on the subject of your...friend. I really don't think it's a good idea that you two date. I've been trying to hold my tongue, but now...now that he's run off. I mean, what kind of person runs off without telling their girlfriend where they're going anyway? You have no idea if what he says is true or if you can trust him! How do you know he's really going into hiding?"

"Mum, I trust Fred!" I exclaimed. "I trust all the Weasleys."

"And," Mum plowed on, "that's not to mention what I said earlier. If he's being targeted, you could be targeted too by extension." She met my eyes, her expression cool and blank. "So, I really don't think it's a good idea that you continue to see him."

I stared at her. "Mum, I really like him," I whispered. "I hoped you weren't going to react like this. Please, give him a chance." My eyes filled with tears and even though I tried to blink them back, my mother saw.

"Don't give me that," she scoffed.

"Fred really likes Lilah," Julian said. "He'd do _anything _ for her. In that respect, he's no different than Oliver. He really cares about her. He'd drop everything to help her if she needed it." He met my eyes and half-smiled. "Trust me, I wouldn't allow him within ten feet of her if that wasn't the case."

I returned the smile and reached over to put a hand on his knee.

"I've given him a chance," Mum said. "And you know I didn't like what I saw."

"You gave him one chance when they were over for dinner. And it's not like you got a chance to really know him. You don't know what he's like besides the jokes and the pranks. He's funny as hell. He makes me laugh like no one else can. He has so much energy that it's contagious. I can't help but feel as if I'm on top of the world when I'm with him. I feel _good_. And safe. He's smart and passionate and determined. He never gives up. And most importantly, he's compassionate and kind and a brlliant friend."

Mum stared at me and something flickered in her face. Something nostalgic. "What happens when one day you realize many of those traits have somehow become irritating instead of endearing? When the jokes stop being funny, the constant energy just makes you more tired."

"That'll never happen," I said, catching on to what she was getting at. "We're not you and Dad."

Mum's expression turned angry at once. "How dare you," she hissed.

"I thought something was changing between the two of us," I said. "I thought after the whole thing with Sam, we could try to make things better between us and try to start a real relationship. But I don't think that's going to happen as long as Fred's around, is it?"

"I admited I was wrong about Sam, Lilah, but this is a whole different story. This is something different entirely. I'm trying to protect you."

"If you don't believe You-Know-Who is back," I said, "then I don't have to worry about being _targeted_ _by_ _extension_, do I?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Either way, I don't think it's best for you to be in a relationship wtih this boy. All I see in your future is a repeat of what happened with me and your father if you keep this up. Trust me, I was young and in love once too. And one day, it was all over."

"You can't possibly know that'll happen to me and Fred. Besides, when did you get so bitter?"

"I'm not _bitter_, Lilah," Mum said briskly, standing up to clear her plate. "I'm just...logical. And I've grown up a lot since I was your age. I'm just trying to help you."

"I need to make my own decisions and risk making my own mistakes," I said. "If dating Fred turns out to be a terrible choice then it's my mistake to make and learn from. Protecting me from something you don't know is going to happen is going to help me."

"Suit yourself, then," Mum said with a shrug. "Just keep in mind that if our family is put in danger because of this _boy_, well, just know that it'll be on your shoulders."

And just like that, she breezed from the room as if nothing had happened.

* * *

Days went by with letters being the only contact I had with Fred. I never got word about if I was allowed to visit, which made me feel a little bit hurt at first, but then I thought that it was all most likely part of keeping him and his family safe. If they couldn't let anyone else know their location, then they couldn't do it. I tried to remember it wasn't personal, but I missed Fred. I missed all the Weasleys, but I really wanted to talk to Fred about everything my mother seemed to think, but I didn't want to write it in a letter. It wasn't the same.

In the meantime, I hung out with my other friends. I went shopping for school supplies with Katie, Alicia and Angelina, who had received news that she had been made Quidditch captain this year, which was amazing and something she definitely deserved. I couldn't have been happier for her. I hung out with Tess and found out that she and Connor, the boy she had gone to the Yule Ball with, had finally started dating officially. It had certainly taken them long enough. But despite the normalcy of hanging out with my other friends and despite Angelina's good news, I still thought of the twins nearly all the time. I was constantly wondering how they were doing and _what_ they were doing. I missed them, to say the least.

I also ended up having to serve as a witness for Sam's trial, which ended up taking place in the beginning of August. Mum, Julian and I had to go and talk about what had happened. We had to not only give accounts of what happened on the day Sam confessed, but answer questions about his behavior and actions since the day we met him. It was terrible and I hated sitting there alone, in the middle of the room, all eyes on me while I talked about everything Sam had done. And in the meantime, Sam himself sat off to the side while I talked, glaring at me menacingly. I kept my hands in my lap, toying around with my fingers in order to keep my hands from shaking. I never looked at Sam once, instead choosing to keep my eyes on whoever was asking me a question. And when it was all over, Julian and I trailed behind Mum as she determindly led us through the building and out the front doors.

The good thing was that Sam had been found guilty for not only stealing but also for assault and battery from the day he threatened me and pinned me up against the wall. The bad thing was that he was only asked to pay a fine and also serve a year in Azkaban. If you ask me, he should have been thrown in there for life.

"At least it's something," Julian said half-heartedly as we left the building. "It's nowhere near good enough, but it's still _something_."

"I suppose," I had answered as Julian slid an arm around my shoulders and squeezed. It was actually an enormous comfort. Despite how often I put so much effort into protecting and comforting my brother, it did feel really great to have him comfort me this time. But I also wished Fred could have been there. I found myself wishing I could have felt his arms pulling me into a hug or wrapping around my shoulders. I wished he was here trying to make me laugh. Trying to make me happier instead of worried about having to testify at Sam's hearing.

I spent the weeks afterwards not wanting to bring up the trial or Sam in general at all, which everyone else was incredibly glad to do. Nobody else wanted to talk about him either-no surprises there. So instead, I continued to spend my last few weeks of summer spending time with my friends and doing things we'd normally do while we waited for September 1st to arrive.

"You're doing it again," Tess told me, nudging my leg with her big toe as we sat on her bed, looking through magazines. It was the last week of summer and the two of us were spending time at Tess' house, enjoying our last few days of our summer holiday.

"Doing what?" I asked nonchalantly.

"Daydreaming about Fred," she answered with a giggle. "You've been staring at that one page for about five minutes straight. Your eyes weren't even moving, which means you weren't reading."

"I just...I haven't heard from him much," I said. "He writes sometimes, but not much. He says he's been busy...But it would be nice to get some reassurance that he really is safe, you know? And I want to talk to him about my mother and the trial. It didn't feel right putting that in a letter. I want to tell him in person."

"Your mother doesn't know what she's talking about," Tess said calmly. "All that stuff with You-Know-Who...I think she's wrong. And Fred will say the same thing."

I smiled. "I'm glad someone agrees with me."

"Fred's not going to be happy when you finally do tell him," Tess pointed out. "He's going to dislike your mother even more than he already does."

"He doesn't _dislike_ her," I protested slowly.

"Come on, Lie," Tess snorted. "She doesn't exactly like him and he doesn't exactly like her in return. It's no secret. Fred just isn't as rude about his dislike."

"You're calling my mother rude?" I teased with a snort of my own. "I wonder what gave you reason to think that."

Tess smiled. "We've both always known how your mother is."

"I thought things were changing with her," I said quietly, letting out a soft laugh and shaking my head as I turned away to look back down at the magazine. I finally flipped the page and stared down at it without really seeing anything. "I thought-"

"What, that you two would be best friends and share everything?" Tess asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No...Merlin no." I scoffed. "But I thought she'd be _different_ at the very least. I thought maybe we wouldn't disagree so much and she wouldn't be so...mean."

"There isn't _that_ much magic in the world," Tess said.

I gave her a look before breaking into a smile. "No, I know, but I just hoped..."

"I know," Tess answered sympathetically, reaching over to place her hand on my arm. "I know."

* * *

"Where do you think they are?" I stretched up on my toes to see better of the tops of all the heads in the crowded station.

"Running late, as usual," Julian shrugged.

It was September 1st and Julian and I were waiting on the platform after being hurriedly dropped off by Mum (nothing new there). I had hoped to meet the Weasleys here even though we had no definite plans. It had been torture going nearly the whole summer without seeing them, but now the summer was over, a new school year was starting and I'd be able to see them soon. If only they'd show up.

"Look," Julian pointed. "I see them."

I looked towards where he was pointing and, sure enough, the trademark bright red hair of the Weasleys was visible coming towards us. I could also notice a few things from where I was standing. Harry and Hermione were with them, and they were also surrounded by a group of other people that included Mad-Eye Moody, Professor Lupin and a woman with bright pink hair.

I watched them draw closer and closer and finally I could see Fred clearly. He was walking next to George and behind Ron. He and George were both laughing to themselves as Fred attempted to sneak something into Ron's bag without him noticing. To me, it looked like a rubber spider. I laughed to myself. I was sure Ron would love that.

Finally, Fred managed to get the spider in Ron's bag. He and George both grinned and high fived. And then Ron had spotted my brother. With a yell of joy, he quickened his pace until he, Harry and Hermione had reached my brother and greeting him happily. I smiled. I knew that it had been just as hard for Julian to be away from his friends all summer as it was for me to be away from the twins.

When I looked up again, I saw Fred standing just behind Ron, looking straight at me and smiling his lopsided, casual smile. He looked older somehow, as if not seeing him for a few months had made him age a bit faster. But in a good way. He was taller, for one thing. And his hair actually looked shorter. I'd bet anything Mrs. Weasley had coerced him into letting him cut it. Apparently, she had a hard time convincing her sons to cut their hair, especially Bill.

"Hi," I whispered, meeting his eyes and smiling. "I missed you."

Fred smiled too before tilting his head and raising an eyebrow. "Then get over here and act like it," he answered.

I grinned before letting go of my trunk handle and flinging myself into Fred's arms, throwing my arms around his neck as his arms wound around me, one curling around the top of my back,near my shoulderblades, and the other around my waist. He kissed my cheek before pulling away and kissing me on the lips.

"I missed you too," he said, grinning down at me. He pulled back completely and held me at arms length as he looked me over. "You look nice."

"It's only been a few months," I giggled. "I'm sure I don't look that different."

"No, but you look...older," Fred said slowly. "And your hair's longer." He reached up and tugged on the ends of my hair, which now reached a point just past my shoulders as opposed to being even with them.

"Yours is shorter," I commented.

"Yeah, well, it was time for a change," Fred said, reaching up to run a hand through his own hair, making it stand up haphazardly. "George and I both agree this haircut will help us get all the girls more effectively than our previous haircut."

"That's funny," I said, narrowing my eyes a bit, "because I thought you already had a girl."

"Nope," Fred said, shrugging and looking at me innocently. "I'm not sure to whom you could be referring."

"Okay," I said with a shrug of my own. "I guess I was mistaken then. I'll just have to go tell Marcus Flint I'm free to go on that date with him."

"Marcus Flint?" Fred asked, wrinkling his nose.

"Oh, yeah, he's so _gorgeous,_" I said, fluttering my eyelashes. "And smart. And polite, too. And we can't forget charming. He's ever so charming." I grinned up at Fred and tried not to laugh.

"I don't want to ever hear _you_ talking about Marcus Flint and dating ever again," Fred said in a low voice as a grin spread over his face and he leaned in to kiss me.

"Lilah dear," Mrs. Weasley said, practically grabbing me out of Fred's hold and pulling me into a tight hug. "It's so good to see you again. We all missed you terribly this summer."

"I missed you all, too," I said with a smile.

"Ah, so you must be the Lilah we all kept hearing about."

I looked up to see the woman with pink hair standing beside me, her arms crossed over her chest and a smile on her face. She didn't look much older than me-maybe around Charlie's age, actually, but I didn't have any idea who she was.

"Yeah, I am," I said, holding out my hand. The girl smiled wider before reaching out to shake it.

"Nymphadora Tonks," she said. "But I go by just Tonks. Hate to be called Nymphadora, actually."

"Unless it's Remus calling her Dora," Fred said with a smirk.

"Dora is different," Tonks said, shooting him a look as she smiled.

"No, not really, but the person using the name is," Fred said. "Come on, it's no secret you're all goo goo gah gah for the guy."

"Shut up before he hears you!" Tonks hissed, glancing in Professor Lupin's direction. She lowered her voice even more. "And you two would have never been on this bandwagon if Ginny hadn't told you what she _thinks_ is going on. So, whatever you think is going on is just a theory."

"Sure," George said sarcastically.

Tonks turned back to me. "Anyway, moving on from my love life, Fred told me all about you. I've been dying to finally meet you in person. He showed me a photo, but I don't think it's the same, personally." She grinned. "It's funny because we went to school together. I was a sixth year when you were a first year."

"She's the same age as Charlie," Fred told me. Ah, so I had been right.

"Hufflepuff, though," Tonks said, "so it does kind of make it harder for us to cross paths. I had Herbology with Charlie, but we never really spoke."

"Oh, and guess what else?" George asked excitedly. "She's a Metamorphmagus."

"Really?" I asked in awe. I had never met a real Metamorphmagus before.

Tonks smiled and instead of answering, she turned her hair a light shade of blue before going back to pink.

"Wow," I said with a laugh. "Impressive."

The train's whistle blew just then and we had to say a hurried goodbye to everyone before lugging our things onto the train. It was nearly eleven and the train always left right on the dot, so we couldn't afford to waste much more time.

"It was nice to meet you!" I said to Tonks.

"Likewise," she answered. "Hopefully I'll see you soon!"

"She seems nice," I said to the twins as we made our way down the train.

The twins nodded. "Yeah, she is," George said.

"So, when can you tell me where you were?" I asked. "_Can_ you tell me at all?"

The twins looked at each other before glancing over their shoulders.

"In here," Fred said, ushering me into the last compartment on the right. Luckily, it was empty. The twins both heaved their trunks onto the overhead racks before Fred grabbed mine and did the same.

"I could've done that," I said with a small smile.

"I know," Fred answered, smiling back, "but I wanted to do it for you. Can't a guy be nice?"

"Sure, but not you," I said. "You're devious. If you do anything nice, there's usually a sneaky reason behind it."

"True," Fred said. "Mostly. But it's not true this time. I swear."

I smiled again as I took a seat next to the window. George sat across from me and Fred beside me.

"So..." I began, "what _can_ you tell me?"

Fred took a deep breath and let it out. "We don't know much ourselves," he said. "Mum wouldn't let us into the meetings, even though we're seventeen. She'd put up Impeturbable Charm on the door so even our Extendable Ears wouldn't work."

"Extendable Ears?" I asked. "I remember you making sketches for those! You finished making them?"

"We did," Fred nodded.

"Mum found them and threw them away, though," George sighed, "so we had to nick them back out of the trash. We tried to use them whenever we could, but like Fred said, Mum usually had a charm up so we couldn't hear."

"Okay, so let's start from the beginning," I said. "_Where_ were you?"

The twins were quiet for a moment. "Sirius Black's childhood home," Fred said.

"Really?" I asked in interest. I knew Sirius was innocent after what had happened at the end of my fifth year. Despite the fact that most of the world still thought Sirius was a murderer, my brother, Harry, Ron and Hermione had explained the story of that night over and over after it had happened and it made total sense to me. I believed them. It was my brother and his friends. I trusted them all, so if they said Sirius was innocent, they only had to say it once for me to believe them.

The twins nodded. "I know we didn't write much," George said. "But we were busy. We were working on our products a lot and Mum put us to work cleaning, like we said earlier."

"The house was a mess," Fred continued. "No one's lived there in years, so it was full of dust. There were doxies hiding in the drawing room curtains and a boggart hiding in the desk."

"And then there was Mrs. Black's portrait," George said.

"And the house elf heads," Fred continued.

"And Kreacher," George finished. They both shuddered.

"All terrible things," Fred said. Then he laughed. "But remember when Tonks kept tripping over the troll umbrella stand and waking up the portrait? So finally Sirius picked up the stand and threw it out the back door?"

I looked at them blankly and, not for the first time since they'd been away, I felt left out. Even though I had had Tess, Angelina, Katie and Alicia to hang out with over the summer, I had hated not being able to see any of the Weasleys. And Julian had hated not being able to see Harry, Ron and Hermione, despite the time he spent with Neville, Dean and Seamus. I hated myself for feeling this way too. It wasn't like they had been off on vacation. They'd basically been in hiding. But they had all been together and clearly had done what they could to make the situation a little brighter. I could only imagine them all hanging out while Tonks changed her hair color and facial features at everyone's request, while everyone laughed and called out more suggestions. I imagined them all spending time together without me, getting to know Sirius better and exploring his childhood home. Discovering things like the portrait, the elf heads, and Kreacher (whoever-or whatever-that was). Even though they were apparently terrible things, they were all things the Weasleys could talk about together. Maybe the house wasn't the greatest place to spend a summer, but I would have done it if it meant I could be there with Fred. He and George always had a knack for turnng the worst scenarios into funny or amusing ones, so I knew their summer had to have been at least somewhat interesting.

"What do you mean she _woke up the portrait_?" I asked.

"Oh, there was a portrait of Sirius' mother in the hallway," Fred said. "It was covered by a curtain and whenever there was a loud noise, the curtain would fly open and Sirius' mother would start screaming."

"Loudly," George jumped in. "Screaming about how there were Mudbloods and blood traiters in her house. Lots of horrible things, really. My personal favorite was how we were all scum of the earth."

"I'm sorry," I whispered, my shoulders slumping. Any feelings of being left out had vanished. I knew it had been silly to feel that way. Silly, stupid and very selfish.

"And then there was Kreacher," Fred continued, reaching over and picking up my hand. He kept his eyes on our fingers as he threaded his through mine and rubbed his thumb back and forth over my skin. "Kreacher's the house elf who lives there. He'd throw just as many insults at us as the portrait. But he wouldn't scream them, so that was a plus."

"Fred," I whispered, closing my eyes. "I'm so sorry, that must have been awful."

"Only if we'd let it get to us," Fred said. "Which we didn't, so it wasn't as bad as you might think."

I looked up at him and smiled slightly. "You never cease to amaze me."

Fred smiled back and leaned in to give my nose a quick kiss. "Well, I also managed to stay positive by reminding myself that hopefully one day, Kreacher's lifelong dream would be carried out."

"What was his lifelong dream?" I asked.

"On the wall beside the stairs," George began, "there were all these house elf heads just hanging there. Kreacher wants his put up once he dies."

I felt myself pale. "What?"

Fred chuckled. "You should see your face right now."

"Fred, stop, I think I might be sick," I whined, swatting his chest with the back of my hand. "How could any of you stand it?"

"We dressed them up," Fred said. "We added scarves, hats, fake beards...some old pairs of sunglasses Sirius found lying around."

"Fake beards?" I asked. "Where'd you get those?"

"Zonko's," the twins answered.

"Aisle five: disguises," Fred said with a grin.

"You have that whole store memorized," I snorted. "Of course. Why am I not surprised?"

"We've had it memorized since third year, Lie," George said with a laugh. "So you shouldn't be surprised."

"We have other news too," Fred said. "Two things, actually."

"Well, three if you count the hearing," George said.

"Harry's hearing?" I asked. "I heard about that. He was writing Julian like crazy. But Julian was as much in the dark as he was. He was here. Hermione and Ron were the ones at headquarters with you."

"But they didn't know anything either," Fred said. "None of us did. I told you, we were all kept in the dark, even me and George and we're of age. Also, Dumbledore made them promise not to say anything to Harry in a letter. There's always a chance it could be intercepted."

"Okay, well my point was that Julian really couldn't help Harry either, but Harry kept him updated anyway. He was really upset and angry."

"Was he really?" Fred asked in mock surprise. "I don't know, Lie, when he showed up at headquaraters, he was talking to Hermione and Ron so calmly and quietly that George and I had to go tell him to speak up a bit."

George laughed and I actually smiled a bit too.

"It's good that he got off, though," I said. "Expelling him would have been..." I shook my head. "It was self defense."

"Right, and the Ministry knows that," Fred said, "but they're looking for any reason to bring him down. They all think he and Dumbledore are liars. Fudge is so warped by fear that he won't admit what's going on." He paused. "But speaking of trials...I am sorry I couldn't be there for Sam's."

"Don't worry about it," I sighed. "I know you couldn't be."

Fred shook his head. "I should've been, though. If I hadn't had to be at headquearters, I'd have been there in a second. Ron said Julian mentioned the trial in a letter and said that you held your own pretty well, though." He smiled. "I'm proud of you."

I half-smiled and shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."

"I wish Sam got more prison time," Fred added, "but either way if he comes near you again, he's going to be in serious trouble."

"Thanks, Fred," I said quietly, leaning into his side.

It was quiet for a moment until George spoke. "Our next bit of news is that Fleur's back. She's working at Gringott's. And she wanted to improve her English. So guess who she managed to score as her own private tutor?"

"Who?" I asked, my brain still stuck on the fact that Fleur was living here now and working at Gringott's. I had thought about her quite a bit since the final task of the tournament. I'd wonder how she was and how she was coping. I barely knew her and had never spoken to her, but my heart went out to her. She had gone through something that no one should ever have to go through.

"Bill," Fred said with a laugh. "I think she saw him the day of the third task, actually, when he and Mum came to watch. And I think she liked what she saw."

"I'm sure he liked what he saw, too," George added with a laugh of his own. "Who wouldn't?"

"George," I sighed, giving him a look.

"What?" he asked with a shrug. "I'm single, I can make comments like that."

"Anyway," Fred went on, "I think Bill's been a huge comfort to her. I mean, I don't think she wanted to stay in France anymore after what happened to Gabrielle. It was probably too painful."

"But wouldn't coming back to the country where the tournament happened bring back memories too?" I asked.

Fred shrugged. "Maybe, but maybe they're not as bad as the ones that come back from her being in France, where she and her sister grew up. Either way, she's been doing pretty well here. Bill seems to really like her."

"I doubt she'll ever fully recover from what happened," I said sadly with a shake of my head. I stared blankly down at my and Fred's still intertwined fingers before looking up again. "But I'm glad Bill's been helping her out. I'll bet she really needs someone right now."

Fred nodded as his eyes wandered over my face. "Oh," he finally said, "and the other bit of news is that Ron was made Gryffindor Prefect."

"He was?" My mouth dropped open as I looked at Fred in surprise.

The twins nodded. "We were all just as shocked as you," George said. "Who would have thought ickle Ronniekins would be made _Prefect_?"

"He looked surprised himself, but also kind of pleased," Fred added. "Maybe he'll follow right along in Percy's footsteps."

"Don't say that," I said quietly.

Fred didn't answer. Instead, he kept his eyes on the window just past my shoulder and stared stonily out at the scenery passing by.

"I know you're angry with him," I whispered. "And you have every right to be. I would be too if I were you. Actually, I _am_ angry. He was out of line. But..."

"But what, Lie?" Fred asked, finally shifting his gaze to my face. "There is no _but_. You were there. You heard him. You saw him _leave_. And he hasn't contacted us since. Mum still cries if you say his name."

"He's a git," George added vigorously.

"He's your brother," I said almost pleadingly.

"We know that," Fred answered, "but just because you're family doesn't mean you can't have a falling out. Unfortunately, it happens all the time."

It was quiet in the compartment for a moment. "Well," I finally said, "I doubt Ron will do what Percy did. It's not in him to do that."

"You'd be surprised," Fred said. "When we were younger, Ron used to threaten to run away more times than any of us combined. And Mum would just tell him to go ahead. _Go_, she'd say. _If being out on your own and away from your house and family makes you so happy, then go_. So he would. He'd pack a bag and leave. But he wouldn't even make it to the end of the lane before he'd turn around and come back inside saying that he was hungry. And Mum would just smile. She knew he'd never leave. He just gets hot headed and thinks irrationally when he's angry, but he always regrets any decisions he makes when he's upset."

"Okay, so there you go," I said with a smile. "If he ever did walk out on you for real, he'd be back just in time for dinner. Problem over."

Fred snorted with laughter. "True, but Percy, on the other hand, was gifted a normal stomach and the determination and patience to teach himself how to cook, so he's probably doing fine right now."

I gave him a sympathetic look before squeezing his hand and resting my head on his shoulder.

"How was your summer?" he finally murmured, resuming his act of rubbing his thumb back and forth over mine. "Besides having to go to Sam's trial, obviously."

"Fine," I shrugged. "Except..."

"Except what?" Fred asked, caution immediately present in his tone. "What happened?"

I lifted my head off of his shoulder and looking him in the eyes. I didn't know how to begin telling him about my mother. I almost didn't want to tell him at all anymore. But at the same time, I did. Plus, he had every right to know. "Nothing _bad_, exactly," I said. "It's just...my mother."

"What's going on now?" Fred asked with an agitated sigh.

I swallowed and looked down. "She asked about you. She asked why I hadn't been seeing you as much, so I told her you were away. She asked where. I said I didn't know. She started making comments about what that implied. That you had just disappeared without telling me where you were. So I snapped and told her it was for your safety. That you were targets because you're blood traitors. She didn't like that."

"What'd she say?" Fred asked quietly.

"She doesn't think it's a good idea that we see each other."

The compartment was silent. Fred suddenly let out a harsh laugh. "You're not going to listen to her are you?"

"No!" I exclaimed, my eyes widening. "Merlin, Fred, no. Of course not. It's just my mother's opinion. Not mine. I have no intention of listening to her." I glanced out the window for a moment and swallowed before continuing. "She thinks that I'll become a target by extension _if_ You-Know-Who really is back."

"If?" George repeated.

"She doesn't believe he is?" Fred asked in disbelief.

I shook my head. "Nope. She doesn't think Harry's word is good enough. She thinks the stress of the tournament made him delusional."

Fred let out a dry laugh of disbelief. "I don't believe it. It's Percy all over again. But at least she didn't walk out on you."

"Fred, drop the Percy thing for a minute," George said gently.

Fred was quiet for a moment. "Yeah, you're right-not about us right now." He looked at me. "So, what are _you_ going to do?"

I shook my head. "I don't know. I do know that I'm not breaking up with you, though." I looked over at him and smirked. "You wanted me, you got me, and now you're stuck with me. You're just going to have to deal with it."

"Uh-huh," Fred said, a smirk developing on his face. "Well, dealing with being stuck with you won't actually be that hard, actually." He nudged me and I smiled.

Before long, Angelina, Katie, Alicia and Lee had met up with us. Fred and George updated them on the same parts of their summer they had told me-the only bits they were allowed to share. Not that they knew anything else anyway.

And before we knew it, we were changing into our robes and exiting the train. We headed for the carriages that took us to the castle and squeezed into one. As we skirted around the lake, I stared up at the cloudy sky and shivered slightly. As excited as I was to finally get back to Hogwarts and get back to some kind of normalcy, I also had the feeling that even Hogwarts couldn't be an escape for what was happening in the real world.


	53. Chapter 53

The last time I had seen so much pink was when I was a child and Tess' bedroom had been decorated entirely in the color. She had been obsessed with the color back then, but as she got older, she said she felt as if a bubble gum factory had exploded in her room. Because _everything_ was pink and it got a bit overwhelming. She had redecorated soon after and I had gone years without seeing an overwhelming amount of pink in one place. Until now.

At dinner tonight, we got to meet our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for the first time. She was a squatty, chubby woman with bulging eyes and was dressed entirely in the color pink. She even had a little bow in her hair. She had a high-pitched, childish voice and an equally annoying giggle.

"It's the Ministry," Hermione said as we all walked back to Gryffindor tower at the end of dinner. "That's what this means. The Ministry is interfering at Hogwarts."

"She was at my hearing," Harry added. "That woman. I didn't like her much even then."

"Great," Fred groaned. "We're doomed."

"Yeah, I have a feeling she's going to be a real nightmare," George added.

The very next day, we were all given our schedules and I was disappointed to see that I had Defense Against the Dark Arts first thing this morning. "Seriously?" I huffed under my breath.

"Defense Against the Dark Art first thing?" Fred asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, unfortunately."

"George and I, too," Fred said, tilting his schedule towards me.

"Us as well," Angelina said, gesturing to herself, Katie and Alicia.

"Well, at least we can suffer together," I said with a smile. "I'm sure it'll be an interesting class."

"Yeah, I'm sure it will be," Fred agreed.

Interesting was an understatement. And maybe even a little inaccurate. Terrible, upsetting and nauseating might have been better choices of words. The new teacher, Professor Umbridge, wouldn't let us use magic in class and she didn't plan on teaching us how to use any defensive spells or prepare ourselves against any dark creatures, which I thought was the point of the class. Instead, we'd be learning by reading from the book every class. It would be all about theory and nothing about hands-on stuff, which was what we all really wanted and needed right now.

She also told us there would be no need to practice using spells ourselves because there was simply nothing ou there that would want to harm us. She denied that You-Know-who was back and called Gabrielle's death an accident, just like Fudge had said and just like the newspapers had been printing now. Then, she had us read the first chapter of our book. I listened, albeit with my jaw clenched and my fingers gripping my desk in fury. this was definitely not a great start to the year.

The class was quiet for about five minutes, the sounds of flipping papers the only noise. I sighed and looked up from my book, turning my head slightly to look beside me at Fred. His book was only open to the title page and he was doodling in the blank space, not bothering to read at all, just as I suspected. Slowly, I slid my hand across our desk and pressed the side of my pinky against his. He looked up, snapping out of his trance, and met my eyes. He grinned.

"Bored?" he mouthed, raising an eyebrow.

I widened my eyes and nodded slowly. "Very," I mouthed back.

Fred grinned wider and his smile melted from a genuine one to his devious one. He turned back to his book and slowly and quietly began tearing the title page out, his eyes on Umbridge to make sure she didn't see. Then, he slowly did the same to the next page of the book. He rolled one page up so that it looked like a straw. And with the other page, he began making spitballs. He picked one up, as well as the straw-looking paper and prepared to take aim at the front of the room. I assumed he was aiming at the chalkboard, but a few moments later, I was proved very wrong. Of course, I could've been right and Fred had simply missed, but I doubted it. Anyway, the spitball collided directly with Umbridge's forehead.

I couldn't help myself. I let out a snort of laughter into my hand, loud in the quiet classroom. Immediately, everyone turned to look at me, including Umbridge. Meanwhile, Fred snickered beside me, but at least he managed to be quieter.

"Miss Fitzgerald, do you find this situation humorous?" Umbridge asked, reaching up to delicately peel the spitball off her forehead. She dropped it into the garbage pail beside her desk and stood up, placing her hands gently on her desk.

"No, Professor," I said, composing myself and shaking my head.

Umbridge just looked at me for a moment before slowly coming around to the front of her desk and walking down the aisle towards me. Fred hastily began scooping the unused spitballs into his lap. Finally, Umbridge stopped beside my desk and looked down. Her eyes fell on something and I turned to see what it was. I sighed. It was a spitball that Fred had missed and it was lying right beside my hand.

"I believe a detention is in order, Miss Fitzgerald," she said. "Tonight at eight o'clock in my office. For disrupting my class."

"What?" Fred practically spat.

"But-" I began at the same time.

"No _buts_! You are lucky I don't make it two. One for the loud laughter and one for your ever so _classy_ antics." She nodded towards the spitball.

"It was me," Fred suddenly piped up. I turned to look at him to see him glaring at Umbridge with his jaw set. "I threw the spitball." He pushed against the edge of the desk, tilting his chair back in the process and exposing all the spitballs, as well as the spitball cannon, in his lap. "Don't blame Lilah for something she didn't even do!"

"Fred," I whispered.

"Lilah, you're not going to take the fall for me," he whispered back. "I won't let you."

"Well, then I suppose that's a detention for you as well, Mr. Weasley," Umbridge said with a girly giggle. "Tonight at eight, the same time as Miss Fitzgerald."

"What? You mean you're still giving Lilah a detention?" Fred asked in horror.

"Of course!" Umbridge giggled. "Her laugh...if you can call it that...was a rather obnoxious distraction to the other students, who were simply trying to do their assigned work."

I fought back another snort. She was one to talk.

Fred let the front legs of his chair fall to the ground again with a loud thud. "How dare you," he hissed, starting to push himself to his feet.

"Fred, sit _down_," I hissed, mortified, as I tugged on his sleeve.

"Do you want to make it two nights of detention, Mr. Weasley?" Umbridge asked.

Fred opened his mouth to retaliate, probably to say something that would earn him another night of detention for sure, but I tugged even harder on his sleeve.

"Fred, _sit_," I practically growled. "Do _not _earn yourself another detention. I am _not_ worth it."

"You are," Fred muttered, glancing down at me. He looked back up at Umbridge and glared at her for another few seconds before, to my relief, sitting down beside me again. But I still saw his chest rising and falling rapidly in his anger.

Umbridge smiled and giggled again. "Good choice, Mr. Weasley. I suggest next time you learn to control yourself beforehand. Not after it's too late." She glanced at me. "And perhaps on your own next time and without your girlfriend's help." And then she started to walk back to her desk.

Fred started to stand up again, but I grabbed his hand this time and squeezed it. "Don't move," I murmured. "Don't. Open your book. You don't have to actually read it, but at the very least stare at the page. Stare at it until the words run together. Stare at it until you've calmed down."

Fred did as I said, using his free hand to slam open his book. And then he stared at the page, his jaw clenched in fury and his hand still firmly holding mine. I held my breath and stared down at my own book. I counted to fifteen before I felt Fred's grip on my hand start to relax. I looked up to see that his jaw was unclenched and he looked a lot better.

"You okay?" I asked.

Fred didn't answer. Instead he just grunted a response.

"Fred," I whispered.

Fred glanced at me and saw my expression before bringing my hand to his mouth for a quick kiss. And then he lowered our intertwined hands to the desktop again, where they stayed for the rest of the class.

* * *

I walked into the common room after dinner that night looking and feeling totally miserable. I had just about enough time to drop off my things before Fred and I had to head off to our detention. Naturally, I wasn't looking forward to going. It was the first detention that I'd gotten in a long time and it felt pretty awful. Besides, I hadn't even deserved it. But at least Fred and I could sit through it together. That was probably the only plus.

"What's wrong with you?" Julian asked as I passed the couch where he was sitting with Harry, Ron and Hermione. "You look like crap."

I shrugged one shoulder. "I got a detention," I said quietly. "From Umbridge. I have to leave soon for her office."

"What?" Julian asked in surprise as his eyebrows shot up. "What'd you do?"

"She didn't do anything," Fred said, appearing at my side and looking at me. "I shot a spitball at Umbridge. It hit her in the face and Lilah laughed. That's what Umbridge really got mad at and it's what got her to come investigate our desk. And then she thought it had been Lilah that threw the spitball because I missed one sitting by her hand when I cleared off the desk."

"Did you tell her it was you?" Hermione asked.

"Of course I did, Granger, what kind of idiot do you think I am?"

"I don't think you're an idiot, I just-"

"It doesn't matter," Fred sighed. "The point is that Umbridge didn't seem to care. She assigned me a detention for the spitball, but didn't let Lilah off the hook. Apparently, her laugh distracted the class. As if she has any right to complain about other peoples' laughter."

"That's what I thought, too," I said with a smile. Fred grinned back and slipped his hand into mine.

"That's rough," Julian said. "And totally unfair"

"Eh, I'll bet she'll just make us write lines or something," Fred said. "We'll make it through."

"Stilll," Julian said, "it makes me look forward to her class tomorrow even less."

"There are a lot of reasons besides this why you shouldn't look forward to that class," Fred said. "You won't be using any magic for one thing."

"What?" My brother looked shocked as Harry, Ron and Hermione's heads snapped up at the news as well.

"None?" Ron asked.

"None," Fred repeated. "George can fill you in on all of it," he added as his brother arrived at his side. He clapped George on the shoulder and smiled briefly. "Unfortunately, Lilah and I have to get going."

"We'll all miss you dearly," George said, dropping his bag to the ground behind the couch before flinging himself over it and bouncing onto the cushion beside Julian. "Now go have fun. Try to keep the googly eyes to a minimum as you spend the next few hours writing all those lines. I know what a steamy activity that is. It'll surely be so hard to restrain yourselves." He wiggled his eyebrows, actually getting me to laugh.

"I don't know, Georgie," Fred said with a smile as he looked over at me. "I can certainly try, but I can't make any promises about anything..." He trailed off and sighed dramatically as I blushed.

"Oi," Julian jumped in, frowning at Fred. "You can and will promise to restrain yourself at all times when it comes to my sister." There was a pause. "_And_," he added, "no googly eyes."

Fred crossed his eyes at my brother. "How's that for googly eyes?" he asked as Julian shot him a look. I smiled as Fred laughed and gave my hand a gentle tug. "Come on, Lie, let's get this party started, shall we?" He winked and led me out of the room.

* * *

"Bloody hell," Fred muttered under his breath the second we pushed open the door to Umbridge's office.

Even though I refrained from swearing, I did suck in a breath and wrinkle my nose in distaste as I looked around the room. It was entirely pink. The walls had been turned pink, the curtains were pink, the decorations were pink. It was disgusting. And the worst part were the cat plates. The far wall was decorated with multiple plates, each containing a picture of a different cat. There had to be at least twenty or thirty of them. And besides the fact that the plates merely existed, a soft meow would come from each cat every so often as they moved around within the circular plate, licking their paws and stretching.

"Merlin," I finally breathed.

"Will both of you please take a seat?"

Umbridge's girly, high-pitched voice came from across the room, where she stood behind her desk, staring at us with her bulging eyes. She pointed to the space in front of her large desk-one of the only things in the room that was a dark brown instead of a shade of pink. In front of her desk sat two smaller desks. One for me and one for Fred. Each desk had a piece of parchment and a quill on it.

Fred and I looked at each other. I gave Fred a look that clearly said I'd rather be anywhere than here. Fred smiled and squeezed my hand before leading me forwards towards the desks. We each took a seat and stared down at the parchment in front of us.

"You will both be writing _I will not disrupt class_," Umbridge said quietly.

"How many times?" Fred asked coolly.

Umbridge hesitated. "I'd say however many times it takes for the message to _sink in, _Mr. Weasley," she finally said.

"You haven't given us any ink," Fred continued, his voice a bit more tense this time.

"Oh, you won't be needing any ink," Umbridge said airly. She smiled and sat back down at her desk. She poured herself a cup of tea and slowly spooned in a few spoonfuls of sugar. "You may begin," she said, lifting the cup to her lips and smiling a bit wider.

Fred and I looked at each other again, confusion etched on both of our faces. What did she mean we wouldn't need any ink? Unless these were some kind of extra special quills with the ink built in or something, I didn't see how that would work.

"You may begin," Umbridge repeated, her voice slightly louder this time as if she thought we hadn't heard her the first time. "Remember..._I will not disrupt class_," she said.

I took a deep breath and turned back to the parchment lying in front of me. Slowly, I picked up the quill and turned it over a few times in my hand, staring at it wearily. Finally, accepting that I had no other choice, I lowered it to the parchment and began to write. Halfway through writing the first sentence, I happened to feel an odd tingle in the back of my left hand. It was enough to make me stop writing and avert my gaze to my hand. The tingling suddenly turned into a sting and the stinging steadily got worse until all of a sudden, something appeared on the back of my hand. A scratch. A scratch that appeared on its own. But then, I realized, it wasn't just any scratch. As I looked closer at the marks forming on my hand, I saw that they were words. _I will not disrupt class_. And then the worst part dawned on me. That wasn't my handwriting: it was Fred's. Fred's small, cramped chicken scratch was appearing steadily on my hand, carving words into my skin and releasing tiny trickles of blood that dripped across the back of my hand like a red spider web.

I glanced over at Fred, who hadn't noticed anything wrong yet. He was still writing and the words were being etched deeper and deeper into my skin. I fought back tears of not only physical pain, but emotional as well as I realized something else. I had stopped writing, but when I started again, my own penmanship would start to appear on the back of Fred's hand. My stomach began to churn even more. When I looked back down at the hand holding the quill, I saw that it was trembling.

"Something wrong, Miss Fitzgerald?" Umbridge asked.

I hesitated. "No, nothing," I finally said, my voice tight and quiet.

"Then please keep writing," she said.

Biting my lip and fighting back tears as I prepared for what was about to happen, I slowly lowered the quill to the parchment and continued to write. I held my breath until I finally heard Fred let out a quiet grunt of pain. A few tears leaked out onto my cheeks and I sniffled.

I glanced at Fred at the same time that he shifted his gaze slowly to my hand. He had put the pieces together. He raised his eyes from my hand to my face and met my own tear-filled eyes. "I'm sorry," I mouthed.

Fred didn't say anything. Instead, he slammed his quill down on the desk. I hesitated in my own writing to watch him as he stood up, rested his palms on the desk and leaned forward. He was towering over Umbridge, who was sitting in her own chair, looking up at him innocently as he glared down at her. It was amazing that she didn't recoil under his gaze. He looked almost frightening.

"What _is_ this?" he asked. "Besides complete and utter bullshit, I mean."

"Fred," I pleaded, but he ignored me.

"This," Fred said, picking up his quill and waving it in Umbridge's face, "is a form of torture. There's no way this can be legal."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Umbridge said with a sickly sweet smile as she blinked up at Fred. "I wasn't aware that you worked for the Minister." Her grin widened. "No, that's right. You don't. _I _do. So I suggest you stop talking about things you don't even understand and continue writing your lines."

"No," Fred said menacingly. He turned from the desk, grabbed my elbow, and started to pull me to my feet. "Come on, Lilah."

"I suggest you both take a seat," Umbridge called. "Or you will both continue to get more detentions."

"We won't show up," Fred answered.

"Then you will be punished in other ways."

"You aren't the headmaster," Fred retaliated. "You're just a teacher. "You don't have that much power over us."

"Yet," Umbridge said with a smile. When Fred and I were both quiet, she pointed to the desks. "Either you two can finish your detention now, or leave and earn double." She paused. "And keep in mind that not showing up will result in more punishment. I must ask you not to test me on my methods."

"Fred, let's just get it over with," I said, turning to look at him.

"Lilah, no," he answered fiercely, resting his hands on my arms and looking down into my face. "I can't spend another minute sitting here and carving words into your _hand_. I won't sit here and write lines in _your_ blood. I won't do it."

"I know, and I don't want to do the same for you," I whispered. "Trust me, it's practically killing me. But what if she's telling the truth? I don't want to get any more detentions and I don't want to earn us some other horrid punishment. If she can get cleared to use these quills, who knows what else she's got up her sleeve? I don't think we should risk that."

"So you're going to let her win?" Fred asked.

"No, Fred," I sighed, "but sometimes you just have to..." I trailed off.

"Have to what?" Fred asked.

I shook my head. "Please, I don't want to test her. Anything worse than this probably _will_ kill me to have to watch her put you through. Can we suck it up just this once? And then we can stay on her good side and avoid this punishment for the rest of the year." I hesitated. "Or at least not let her catch us doing anything that would make her mad. Because I know this punshment won't stop you from being you. You just have to not get caught."

Fred shook his head. "Like I said, I'm not going to sit here and write in your blood."

Umbridge cleared her throat from where she was still sitting at her desk. "Have you come to a decision?"

"I'm out of here," Fred said with a scoff. "That's _my_ decision." He turned towards the door and reached for the knob. Umbridge immediately picked up her wand and waved it. Nothing happened, but the second Fred's hand touched the doorknob, he yelped and jerked his hand back in pain. "Bloody hell!" He said. "You think it's okay to _burn_ students, too?"

"Next it'll be the Cruciatus Curse on both of you," Umbridge said quietly.

"That's illegal," I answered, gaping at her.

"The Minister isn't going to find out," Umbridge said. "And if you tell him, I highly doubt he'll believe you over me." She smiled sweetly. "So, Mr. Weasley, what's it going to be?"

"Fred," I whispered sadly. "Please, just..." I trailed off. I hated the way I was about to finish that sentence but it was either write lines or be tortured by an illegal curse.

Fred was quiet for a moment. Finally, he let out a frustrated sigh as he rolled his eyes and looked away. "Fine," he muttered. "Fine. If that's what you want."

"I don't _want_ this, Fred. I just-"

"Whatever, Lilah," he said. And then he stomped back towards his desk and plopped down. I followed him, feeling completely miserable.

"Good choice," Umbridge said quietly, taking another sip of her tea. "Now please keep writing."

She kept us there for three and a half hours. Three and a half hours of utter torture. It felt like an eternity, but finally at eleven thirty that night, we were free to leave. Fred and I couldn't get out of the office fast enough. The moment we had left the room, though, Fred took off down the hall, his jaw set and his long legs propelling him forwards in strides that were at least twice as big as mine.

"Fred, wait...please," I said, jogging after him. "Please, Fred, talk to me." Tears were still dripping down my cheeks. I had just been through the most hellish detention ever and now I had the feeling that Fred was mad at me. "Fred!" I exclaimed.

I gasped as Fred suddenly whipped around, grabbed my arm and dragged me behind a tapestry that revealed one of the passageways we had learned from the Marauder's Map.

Practically gasping for breath, I looked up into Fred's face. It was half in shadow and half illuminated by the torch sitting in the bracket behind me. He looked an odd mix of angry and concerned and worried.

"Please...talk to me," I whispered.

"Are you okay?" Fred finally breathed. "Your hand...how is it?"

Without waiting for an answer, Fred picked up my left hand with his and held it up to the light. I swallowed back more tears as it stung a bit at his touch. And then the light flickered across it and I fought the urge to groan. It was all bloody and scratched, as if a cat had attacked my skin. A cat who could write in Fred's handwriting.

"Shit," Fred muttered, his voice strained as he squeezed his eyes shut and looked away. "Lilah..." he whispered.

I flipped our hands over and stared at the cuts on Fred's hand, the words engraved there in the handwriting I knew better than anyone's: my own. And then I looked up to see Fred still looking at the ground with his eyes shut. I sighed and reached up with my free hand to touch his cheek. "Hey," I whispered. "Look at me." I brushed my thumb across his cheek. "Please, Fred, look at me."

Fred finally opened his eyes and raised his head so that he was looking at me. His expression was fierce all over again. "How could that..._toad look alike_ do something like this?" He turned away and hit his uninjured fist against the stone wall.

"Hey, easy," I whispered, "or you'll have two injured hands. And how will you invent anything in that condition?"

"Lilah, don't," he sighed, turning back to me. He ran his good hand through his hair before meeting my eyes. "She can't get away with this."

"She's going to," I whispered. "She works for Fudge. It's them against us right now. The Ministry has a surprising and alarming amount of support. No one believes Dumbledore or Harry. Lots of people think they're crazy. And they'll think we are too for claiming she did this to us."

"We have proof," Fred said.

I shook my head. "Still...no one who can actually do anything can help us."

"When did you get so pessimistic?" Fred demanded.

"I'm not pessimistic, Fred," I answered. "I'm _realistic._"

"Yeah, I got that. You don't walk around with your head in the clouds like I do, thinking anything is possible."

"That's not what I meant," I argued.

"It is, Lilah, and you know it," Fred insisted firmly. "But you know what? It wouldn't hurt you to have a little hope here and there, would it? I know life hasn't given you much of a reason to have any, but that still doesn't mean you shouldn't."

"Fred," I sighed, looking away. "Don't start this again."

"What do you want us to do?" Fred demanded. "Nothing?"

"No, by all means prank her, make her life miserable, do what you have to do, but...be careful. Don't get caught. Don't mouth off to her. Don't throw spitballs at her. That way she can't punish you." I looked back down at his hand. "I just wanted to get through tonight without any more incidents first. Believe me, Fred, I hated doing this to you. But I worry that she's telling the truth. What if she could come up with something worse to punish us with? Like I said, the idea of something worse than what happened tonight...is that what you want?" I looked back up at him. "Did you want to take that chance? What if she _did_ use the Cruciatus Curse? I know you scoff at the idea of playing it safe, but when it comes to you and your well being, I _want_ to play it safe." I paused. "Probably because I care too much. Way too much. About everyone. About Julian, about you...and if that means that you don't care about me the same way, then-"

"Woah, woah, woah," Fred interrupted, holding up a hand. "Who said I don't care about you?"

"No one," I said, "just forget it." I waved my hand dismissively and tried to turn away.

"No, tell me, Lie," Fred insisted forcefully, grabbing my arm and turning me back to him. "What makes you think I don't care?"

"I didn't say you didn't care. Just-if I care the _most_, everyone else has to care less than me."

Fred shot me a look. "Where would you ever get such a rubbish idea from?"

I squeezed my eyes shut. "Sam," I whispered.

Fred let out a dry laugh of disbelief. "Sam," he said. "Sam told you that and you _believed _him? Are you serious?"

I winced. "No, Fred, I know that he's wrong. I know he was messing with me. But sometimes I wonder if maybe he's right. Every time Julian complains I'm suffocating him and tells me to back off, every time you or George tells me to relax, every time you do something irrational that could possibly lead to more trouble or danger-something like tonight that I try to resist so we-_you_-don't get hurt and then you fight me on it."

"Lilah," Fred sighed in frustration. "If Julian didn't care about you _immensely_, would he have attacked Sam the way he did? Your fifteen year old brother _attacked_ a fully grown man for you. If I didn't care about you, would I have flipped out back in Umbridge's office like that? Maybe I didn't think ahead to what would happen if she seriously had other punishments up her sleeve, but that's because I never do. I always think, speak and act as things are happening and back there I was only thinking of getting you out because I _care_ about you." He looked down at me and shook his head. "Get it through your thick skull, okay?"

I couldn't speak, so instead I just nodded. Fred stared at me wordlessly for a bit. I wasn't sure for how long, but it felt like ages. And then, finally, he closed the distance between us and kissed me, his hands finding their way to my lower back and pulling me to him. My hands came to rest on his chest and I gripped his shirt slightly as I felt my back hit the wall of the passageway. Fred's hands slid to my hips and I fought back a shiver as his thumb brushed my hip bone.

"Lie," Fred breathed against my lips before immediately returning to kissing me again.

"Hm?" I asked breathlessly, closing my fists on his shirt again and arching my back slightly.

"Why _do_ you always feel the need to protect people so much?" Fred asked. "I mean, you _do _do it all the time. Julian especially, and now with me. You worry about everyone else way more than _you_ worry about yourself. And then for a small part of you to think that Sam could be right...Why?"

"It's not important," I said, looking away.

"Lilah," Fred sighed, giving me a look.

"Don't worry about it, Fred," I said, trying to turn away.

Fred grabbed my arm. "You're doing it again," he said. "Acting like people giving a damn about you is foreign or unexpected!"

"Because it is!" I cried, throwing up my hands. I shook my head before scoffing. "You don't get it, Fred. How can you? You've grown up a lot differently than I did."

"Is this about your mother again?"

"Yes, Fred, it always is," I said. I gave him a look. "I don't know, maybe I-" I broke off. "I never want anyone to ever feel as worthless as my mother has made me feel over the years. I never want anyone to be as hurt as I've been. Especially Julian. He's already gone through our parents' divorce. He's already grown up with a barely present mother. Maybe I try to compensate for that a bit. In fact, maybe I overcompensate. So what? I don't want him, or you, or anyone else I care about to feel like they're screw-ups or failures or worthless."

"And it's okay for you to feel that way in the process?" Fred asked. "Lie, you can't prevent pain. At all. You'll run yourself ragged trying to prevent anyone else from feeling a _human emotion_."

"Fred, I don't-"

"What, you don't matter?" he asked with a scoff. "Come off it, Lie. You can't walk around feeling sorry for yourself all the time. You can't walk around feeling sad that nobody cares as much as you, but then push people away."

"I wasn't going to say I don't matter," I answered hotly. "And I never said I was sad that nobody cares! Sure, the thought hurts, but I've never come to anyone moping about it. I never told you I wished people cared more. I just stated it."

Fred looked at me for a moment. "Your mother is wrong and we all know it. She's wrong to make you feel the way you do, and Sam was wrong to get inside your head like that. He was wrong to find your weakness and play into it, but you know what? Agreeing with them lets them win. Telling everyone you aren't worth their time or affection lets them win and makes you even more miserable in the process. It's not going to make anyone feel sorry for you."

"You think I want sympathy?" I asked shrilly.

"No, but I don't think you should let your mother and Sam win. You are worth any time and affection people try to give you and I really want you to believe it."

"Well, that's not going to happen overnight," I said. "I'm just not used to being put first. And you know, did you ever stop to think that maybe I'll just never be as confident as you?" I asked. "I'm _not_ you, Fred."

"I know that," he said quietly. "I know."

It was quiet between us for a moment as I chewed on my lower lip and glanced away. "Well, then don't make it seem like it's so _easy_," I said quietly, a smirk turning up the corners of my lips.

Fred snorted before letting out a groan and rolling his eyes. "Oh, Merlin, here we go with that again," he said, throwing an arm around my shoulders as we began our walk back to the common room.

"Oh," I said after a moment, "I think we should keep quiet about our detention to Julian."

"How come?" Fred asked, raising his eyebrows. "Don't you think he should know?"

"No," I said, shaking my head vigorously. "He'll freak, Fred. You know that."

"What did we just talk about, Lie?" Fred sighed. "Your huge need to protect everyone."

"And I told you why," I said curtly. "But this isn't even about that. This is different. I just don't want him to-"

"To worry about you," Fred finished. "I know. But maybe you should let him. As I've said, you're worth it and you should start acting like it. You don't have to go around loudly declaring it at the top of your lungs, but...it's the little things, you know? Besides, you can't keep something this big from him when you tell him pretty much everything already. And even if you wanted to keep it from him, don't you think he'll see the cuts on your hand?"

I swallowed as I thought that over. And then I dropped Fred's hand so that I could pull down my left sleeve, tugging it over my hand and covering the damage. "I'll manage," I said before picking up Fred's hand with my right one again. "I'll bandage it up and clean it of course, but...if he asks, I'll say I fell or something."

"Lilah, really?" Fred said, giving me a look. "What happens when he sees the marks on _my_ hand?"

"Don't let him," I said firmly.

"Lie," Fred sighed.

"Fred," I pleaded. "Please. I don't want him to know."

"If your roles were reversed, wouldn't you want him to say something to you?"

I was quiet for a moment. "Yes, of course, but-"

"But nothing, Lie," Fred said. "I really think you should tell him."

"I'll think about it," I replied. "But in the meantime, please don't say anything. Solemnly swear?"

Fred shot me a look of distaste, but sighed all the same. "Solemnly swear," he muttered in annoyance.

* * *

The night I got back from detention, I cleaned and bandaged the wound on my hand and then did my best to hide it with my sleeve from there on out. But unfortunately, I only managed to get away with my sneaky plan for a little over a day.

I was eating breakfast on the second day after my detention when Julian appeared at my elbow with an impressive glare on his face. "How's your hand?" he asked bitterly.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I replied coolly.

"Don't lie to me, Lilah," he said, his voice low. I noticed that it shook a bit too and that was what got me to stop eating and look up at him. I could feel the twins freeze beside me and I could feel their eyes on me and Julian.

"How'd you find out?" I asked quietly, sticking my tongue in my cheek as I looked at Julian.

"Harry got a week's worth of detention yesterday in our first Defense class because he told Umbridge off when she said Gabrielle's death was an accident and that You-Know-Who isn't back. So last night he comes back, saying he had to write lines and trying to play it off. But then Hermione noticed his hand." He folded his arms over his chest and continued to glare at me. "Any idea what was on his hand? Or maybe Fred can tell me." He shifted his glare to Fred.

"Don't get angry at him," I whispered, looking down at the table. "I asked him to keep quiet."

"Then _you_ say it, Lilah," Julian said. "What did Umbridge make you do?"

I swallowed and gripped my spoon tighter in my good hand as I stared intently at the worn wood of the table in front of me. "Jules..."

"Tell me," Julian said firmly.

I swallowed again, my throat constricting and making a simple action suddenly difficult. "She-she made me and Fred write with special quills that carved the lines we were writing into each other's hands. We were basically forced to write in each other's blood."

"What?" Angelina gasped from across the table as Katie and Alicia's mouths dropped open. "I didn't know _that's _what she made you do!"

There was a surprised pause from my brother. "Wait, she made you two do it to _each other_?" he asked. He let out a low whistle. "That's sick."

I was quiet again as I continued to stare down at the table. I didn't answer. I couldn't.

"Let me see," Julian said quietly as he straddled the bench beside me and reached for my bandaged hand. "Let me see it."

"Jules, no, I don't want you to-"

"Let me see," he repeated quietly. He took my hand and slowly unwrapped the bandage. When it fell away to reveal my still red, raw and scratched hand, I saw Julian close his eyes and look away. "Lilah," he whispered.

"I didn't want you to freak out," I answered. "That's why I didn't tell you."

Julian looked back up at me, a pained expression on his face. "You should have told me, Lie," he said. "This is the kind of thing I'd want to know. And I'm certain you'd want to know if it were me."

"It's not your job to worry about me, Jules. You're younger than me and it's _my _job to look after you."

"Just because I'm younger doesn't mean a thing," Julian shot back. "What does matter is that we're siblings. We're brother and sister and that means it's our job to take care of each other. It can't always be one-sided. That's not how things work, Lilah. I know you have my back and I want you to know I have yours. You don't have to do everything on your own all the time. I'm fifteen and I don't have to be shielded from everything anymore."

I sighed and slowly slid my hand from his grasp. "Fine, but there's nothing you can do to reverse this, Jules. It happened and now my hand looks like...this." I wrinkled my nose and wiggled my fingers, sending a slight tingle of pain to the back of my hand.

"Maybe I can't undo it, but I do know how to help a little bit," Julian said. "Hermione gave Harry a bowl of murtlap last night."

"A bowl of _what_?" Fred asked, raising his eyebrows.

"It soothes cuts and also helps to heal them," Julian said, looking at Fred. "You're welcome to some too. Harry said it did wonders for his hand."

"In that case, I'm in," Fred said.

"Me too," I nodded. "At this point, I'd do anything to help speed up the healing process." I looked up at Julian and half-smiled. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I just-I'm so used to protecting you all the time. I don't want you to ever have to worry."

"I know," Julian whispered, nodding slightly. "But worrying's inevitable and no one can make it go away. Not even you."

I let out a breath of laughter and shook my head. "Are you sure you're younger than me? It certainly doesn't seem like it sometimes."

Julian smiled. "I learn from the best, Lilah. If you think I'm rational and smart and good at giving advice, it's all because I've had you to look up to all these years."

I leaned forward and ruffled his hair. "You flatter me. But thank you. I appreciate that more than you know."

* * *

Later that afternoon, I found myself sitting out by the lake by myself, just thinking. I had managed to sneak away from my friends before dinner and come down here. I was thinking a lot about everything that had happened in the past few days. I was thinking about what Fred had said. That I was worth any time or affection people tried to give me and that I shouldn't act like any of it was foreign or unexpected. That letting myself believe I wasn't worth anyone's time only let the people who made me think that win. But the thing was that I really wasn't used to ever putting myself first. It had always been about my brother, or the twins, or the other Weasleys, or even my dad. I had always felt the need to worry about them way more than myself. But the second someone tried to do the same for me, it was lke I didn't know what to do. Maybe it was part of who I was, or maybe I had let my mother and Sam get to me. Or maybe a bit of both. But like Fred had said, I didn't want to let them win. I didn't want to become everything they'd made me feel like I was. Worthless, average, boring, incapable. So I really didn't want to let them win, but I didn't know how to miraculously change that either.

Just then, I noticed something across the lake. A group of people, merely shadows in the dimming sunlight. Most of them were tall and burly, but there was one figure that was smaller. Tiny, almost. I frowned as I watched the bigger figures start to menacingly shove the smaller person. Their shouts and laughter carried across the lake. Even though I couldn't hear any specific words, I knew they were teasing the poor kid. That was also incredibly obvious by the fact that they were still _shoving_ him around between them.

I jumped to my feet and started jogging around the perimeter of the lake, determined to go break it up, despite the fact that thosekids looked way bigger than I was. As I got closer, I was able to make out some of what they were saying.

"He doesn't know how to swim!" One of the bigger boys laughed teasingly. I scowled. It sounded like Marcus Flint. "What eleven year old doesn't know how to swim?"

"I don't know, but I always heard the best way to learn things is to face them," another boy said. This voice sounded like Montague.

"That's fears, you idiot," Flint snorted. "You're supposed to face your _fears_."

"Same thing," Montague answered. "This kid's afraid to get pushed into the water since he can't swim, isn't he?"

I scowled even more as I started to full on run towards them. But they were all the way on the other side of the lake. It was a far way to get in a short period of time. When I was just about halfway there, Flint and his friends had managed to grab hold of the boy's legs and arms. I started to panic as I pushed myself to run even faster. But I didn't think I'd get there in time. There were mere seconds between now and the moment when the Slytherins would release the boy into the air and then another few seconds between then and the moment he hit the water. And I wouldn't get there before that happened. But that didn't mean I wasn't going to try.

That first year couldn't swim and that group of Slytherins was going to toss him right into the water. Why they would do something extremely dangerous and potentially harmful or deadly just for a laugh was beyond me, but then again, I didn't think like them. Most people didn't think like them, to be honest. They were a species all of their own.

In addition to all that, the first year was somebody's friend, somebody's son, somebody's nephew and somebody's grandchild. He was possibly someone's sibling. And I knew that if any of my friends or if my brother were put into danger, I would do anything I could to save them, even if it meant running into a group of huge Slytherin boys. But if I couldn't do it myself, I would hope somebody else would. And maybe in this instance I could be that somebody else. If I could only run just a bit faster...

I was mere second away by the time the Slytherin boys finally tossed the first year into the lake with a giant splash. They started laughing amongst themselves and high fiving as they jeered at the spot where they had tossed him. In an instant I decided that instead of going for the Slytherins, I needed to save the first year, I ran towards the spot in front of the grou of boys, ready to dive right in, but Marcus Flint stepped in front of me.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asked, folding his arms and sneering at me.

"Move out of the way, Flint," I growled. "That boy can't swim and you're just going to let him drown? If something happens to him, I'll tell McGonagall and Dumbledore just what happened and you'll be getting so much more than just a detention!"

"Not if something happens to you, too," Flint said with a cocky raise of his eyebrow. The rest of the Slytherin boys had filled in behind him now and they were all glaring at me. Merlin, they were huge.

I was distracted just then by thrashing coming from the lake behind them. The thrashing of a kid trying to stay above water. Panic filled me again and I felt on the verge of tears.

"Move!" I demanded

"Aw, is she _crying_?" Montague demanded, making a mock sad face and pretending to cry.

"I'm not!" I insisted, fighting back the tears. I was determined to not let them see me this scared. They'd only feed off of it. "Just move out of the way!" I tried to push past them, but Flint pushed me back, his hands firmly coming into contact with my shoulders and pushing me backwards. I stumbled back and fell to the ground. The Slytherins laughed, but a second later, there were a bunch of yelps and some flashes of light. And the Slytherins were being flung backwards. They all landed a few feet away, unconscious. I turned my head to see three figures running towards me. I could see the the large yellow stripes of their scarves even in the darkness. Hufflepuffs.

"Hey, you alright?"

I blinked, still in shock from all that had happened as Cedric Diggory knelt in front of me, concern etched on his face.

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" another voice behind me said. I turned and saw Justin Finch-Fletchley and Ernie Macmillan standing there. I had known the two of them were friends, but I hadn't known they were friends with Cedric. But they _were _in the same house after all.

"So, what happened, exactly?" Cedric asked. "We heard the commotion and ran right over, but we didn't-"

I suddenly gasped and let out a swear word as I jumped to my feet and pushed past Cedric. "They threw him in the lake and he can't swim!" My eyes immediately found the dark inky, _flat_ water. No sign of anyone triying to fight to the surface. I immediately started to kick off my shoes, but then something else caught my eye. The boy the Slytherins had thrown into the lake was lying on the shore a few feet away, dripping wet and spluttering for air.

"What in the world?" I whispered to myself, my eyes wide. I ran to the boy's side and knelt down beside him. "Hey," I said quietly. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"You saw what happened," he said, still coughing a bit. His voice was raspy and quiet, but he was smiling up at me. Actually _smiling_. His blue eyes were wide and still panicked slightly, but he was smiling. "The Slytherins were teasing me and purposely threw me into the lake because I can't swim. But then _you_ saved me!" He smiled even wider up at me.

I gaped at him. Clearly, something had happened to this kid. Too much water in his lungs or something. "What are you talking about?" I asked slowly.

"You pulled me out of the lake. You dove right in and swam down to me and grabbed me under the arms. You pulled me out and set me here. And now here we are!"

"I'm sorry, but no I didn't," I whispered. "I meant to, but the Slytherins blocked me. Look, I'm completely dry!"

The first year snorted. "You probably cast a drying spell so you could be modest and pretend it wasn't you. But I know what I saw. I mean, I didn't see much of anything while I was underwater, but when I was pulled out and lying here on the ground, I opened my eyes and saw you above me. You smiled and winked and then walked off. I assumed it was to go talk to them." He looked over his shoulder at the Huffleuffs, who were all watching us. "I know them. They're in my house. I've never really spoken to them."

I turned back to him and just stared at him for a moment as I tried to process what he had said. "What's your name?" I finally asked.

"Daniel," he said. "But everyone calls me Danny."

"Okay...Danny." I swallowed and continued to look at him. "And you're a first year?"

He nodded.

"Okay," I said calmly, running a hand through my hair. "Come on, I'll help you up and then I think we should go to the nurse. Just in case. She'll check you out and I'm sure you'll be free to go fairly soon because you seem okay. You can stand, right? Nothing hurts or feels broken?"

Danny shook his head. "Nope."

I helped him to his feet and led him back the way I had come earlier. Back towards the castle. As we passed the Hufflepuffs, I gestured for them to follow. They did, looking at each other in confusion.

"What's going on?" Ernie started to ask, but I shook my head and mouthed that I'd tell him later.

We walked with Danny all the way to the hospital wing where I helped him onoto a cot and explained to Madame Pomfrey what had happened while Cedric, Ernie, and Justin listened intently.

"She saved me!" Danny cried, pointing at me and grinning.

I sent him an awkward smile in return before turning to Maame Pomfrey and lowering my voice to an undertone. "I didn't go in that lake," I explained. "I'm actually worried he could have hit his head down there. I _wanted _to save him, but the Slytherins wouldn't let me past them."

Madame Pomfrey looked at me for a moment, before nodding. "I'll check him over," she said quietly. "And thank you for bringing him to me." She looked at Justin, Ernie, and Cedric. "Thank you boys, too, for helping." She turned back towards me, a thoughtful look on her face. "You know, do you think it's possible he swam out himself? That's the part I don't understand. Even if you didn't save him, he definitely managed to get out of there somehow."

"I doubt he could have swam. He didn't know how," I said. "I honestly don't know what happened, but all I know is that I wasn't the one to pull him out."

I left the hospital wing in total confusion that night. Madame Pomfrey was right. Even if Danny had hit his head or had been seeing things after he had been safely removed from the water, it didn't change the fact that he _had_ managed to end up on dry land when he had made it very clear that he couldn't swim at all. And I hadn't been in that lake tonight. So what the hell had happened?

* * *

**A/N: Just wanted to thank CrowningAster for the awesome mystery storyline idea that I started at the end of the chapter with Danny. I was totally struggling with ideas and she came up with a really cool suggestion, so I wanted to give her credit :)**

**Also, it was totally cool being able to have Cedric in this chapter since he didn't end up dying. I also discovered that he's actually in Fred and George's year, but was born somewhere between September and October 31st. So it makes him older than his classmates and able to enter his name in the Goblet of Fire even though he wasn't technically in his seventh year, just like Lilah and Angelina. So I thought it would be cool to give him a little cameo in my story :)**

**Anyway, I hope everyone likes the chapter!**


	54. Chapter 54

I arrived to dinner a few minutes late that night due to having to help Danny to the hospital wing. The second I did arrive, Fred immediately asked where I had been and I told him the story. Well, him as well as George, Katie, Angelina and Alicia who were all listening in. I just wanted someone to tell me I wasn't losing my mind. I wanted someone to give me some sort of logical explanation for what had happened earlier.

Fred seemed to get stuck on the fact that Marcus Flint pushed me for a bit. I almost regretted even saying anything because I knew he wasn't going to let Flint get away without at least a prank. Plus, he wouldn't even let me finish my story at first. He kept making me repeat what exactly had happened. Just so he could be clear and 'plan revenge accordingly'. I wanted to beg him to let it go, but I knew it would be no use. He'd never listen.

Anyway, Angelina seemed to think that maybe I had somehow saved Danny without realizing I had. Perhaps by using magic, which would explain why I wasn't soaking wet. But I didn't see how I could do magic without remembering doing any. I had been distracted by the Slytherins the entire time.

Nobody else seemed to have any ideas either, so I was back to square one. Just as confused as ever. Fred suggested I just stop worrying about it. Despite what had happened, Danny was safe and he hadn't drowned and that was what was most important. I guess in a way he was right. Maybe this was some weird, fluke thing where everyone had just gone a bit out of it due to stress or fear or something. And now it was over, Danny was fine and we could all go about our normal every day lives. Or so I'd hoped.

Every time I saw Danny from then on, he'd smile shyly at me and wave. "Hi, Lilah!" he'd say. How he'd managed to find out my name, I wasn't sure. He'd probably asked around, which made me feel kind of odd. I just wanted him to forget all about what he'd thought I'd done. Because that was just it. He'd _thought_ I'd saved him, when in actuality, I hadn't done a thing.

"Looks like someone has a crush on you," Angelina teased one morning at breakfast. Danny was staring at me from the Hufflepuff table. He had smiled and waved when he'd seen me look and all of his friends were laughing into their hands.

"You're his _hero_," Alicia sighed dramatically, fluttering her eyelashes.

"I'm not!" I insisted.

"Yeah, she's not," Fred agreed, nodding his head sternly. "So he can bugger off and leave her alone."

"Fred," I snorted. "He's eleven. Even if I did save his life and even if he did have a crush on me...well, like I said, he's _eleven_."

"Is that supposed to make his infatuation _cute_ or something?" Fred asked, raising an eyebrow. "Amusing, perhaps? Because I wouldn't find it either."

I rolled my eyes and elbowed him forcefully in the side. He let out a grunt and I smiled before leaning over to kiss his cheek. "Don't get your wand in a knot. He seems like a sweet kid, but he's not my type."

"Oh yeah? Well what is your type?" Fred asked with a smile.

I pretended to think. "Not redheads," I said. "Or Gryffindors. I like dark haired Ravenclaws. Ones that have no sense of humor. Honestly, being funny is so overrated," I teased.

"Take it back," Fred insisted.

"Nope," I answered with a shrug, going back to my breakfast.

"Take it back," Fred laughed, leaning over to tickle my sides. I immediately began to giggle as I tried to shove him away.

As the week went on, most of the school decided that Umbridge was the worst thing to ever happen to the place. She was by far the worst Defense teacher we'd ever had and probably the worst teacher in general. It's really saying something when a short woman in a pink outfit ranks even more horribly than the one who actually had You-Know-Who on the back of his head.

Fred and I managed to not receive any more detentions that first week. When we were assigned to read chapters of our book in class, I actually did it. Sort of. I started off reading, then started to skim as I fought to stay awake. Not doing magic in class and having to do the same boring routine every day was really terrible and, well, monotonous. Fred and George on the other hand, never read. Never even attempted. They sat there and doodled in the margins of their books or on pieces of parchment. Sometimes the doodles were random or funny drawings, but sometimes they were inventions in progress. They claimed that they wanted to make some use out of the time spent sitting in the class and reading from the book was a waste.

Fred and George also managed to play a couple of rather nasty prank on Marcus Flint. They snuck into the Slytherin dorms one night at dinner and stole half of Flint's underwear. And then they hung them all around the school. But only after smearing them with chocolate. And while they were in the dorms, they put itching powder in his socks as well as the remainder of his underwear. They also transfigured all of his clothes to be pink and sparkly and hid a few Dungbombs underneath his bed, charming them to go off later that night once everyone in the dorm was sleeping. I had to admit, the pranks brought a smile to my face. A part of me did kind of agree with Fred. These pranks _were_ letting him off easy. Even though I knew they were pranking him more for pushing me, he _had_ almost caused a kid to _drown_.

But at least the teachers had acknowledged what he'd done as well. He and his friends lost so many points for Slytherin that they were now very behind in the running for the House Cup. _Very, very_ behind. And they'd all received detentions helping Madame Pomfrey clean up the hospital wing. Which did involve cleaning up buckets used to catch vomit. Without magic.

And speaking of detentions, just because Fred stayed out of detention with Umbridge, there were two things this didn't mean. Firstly, it didn't mean that he stayed out of detention with other teachers and second, it didn't mean he and George let Umbridge get away unscathed. They charmed the chalk in the classroom to jump out of her hand every time she reached for it. They tampered with her chair so that when she sat down, it broke and she ended up on the floor. But that was only after they performed a Temporary Sticking Charm so that when she tried to get up, she couldn't remove herself from the seat. They never got caught because she couldn't prove it was them. As much as she would have liked to point fingers, she couldn't. And the twins were always careful to make sure she couldn't.

Harry had a particularly hard time keeping himself out of her detentions, however. He had difficulty holding his tongue and ended up with quite a few detentions. In fact, it ended up messing messing with Angelina's plan for Quidditch tryouts. She had wanted to hold them the first Frieday we were back at school and she had also wanted the whole team there, but Harry couldn't go on account of his detentions. More importantly, his hand was looking way worse than mine and Fred's combined. It only made sense that it would, of course.

Angelina ended up decing to hold tryouts anyway, despite how upset she was about Harry missing out. Now that Oliver was gone, his Keeper position was up for grabs. Julian was trying out and so was Ron. That actually made me nervous. I knew they both really wanted it, but there was only one spot. And they were friends. What if it caused a rift between them if one made it and not the other? I mean, I knew Julian had other friends, but he and Ron were still fairly close and besides that, we were still close to the Weasleys as a family. I didn't want Ron and my brother angry at each other over something like this.

"Are you coming to watch the tryouts on Friday?" Fred asked on Wednesday night. We were in the common room doing our homework. I was on the floor, leaning up against Fred's legs with my Transfiguration book open in my lap.

I nodded. "Of course. I'm so worried, though."

"About what?" Fred asked.

I twisted around to look at him. "About Julian and Ron. They both really want a spot on the team."

Fred sighed as he thought that over. "I don't think they'll let it get between them. If one gets picked over the other, I mean. Ange is going to be fair and I think they'll understand that in the end. That whatever the decision is, it's a fair one."

"Yeah, they're really good friends, Lie," George added from the other end of the couch. "Even if they do fight, they'll make up eventually."

"Probably sooner rather than later," Katie added. "They're boys. Boys get over arguments really fast."

"Not necessarily," Fred said. "Ron and Harry didn't talk for about a month last year, remember? When Ron was pouting because Harry got picked as a Triwizard champion?"

"So in short," George said. "Ron's a mopey git who will hold a grudge for a month if he has to. Longer if need be and shorter if we're all lucky."

"George, shut up," I groaned. "Whose side are you two on anyway?"

"Not yours, Lie, never yours," Fred said, nudging my back with his leg.

"Mhm, thanks," I snorted.

Just then, Hermione appeared at the end of the couch. "What is this?" she asked furiously, shaking a piece of paper in Fred's face. "What is _this_?"

"A piece of parchment, Granger," Fred answered casually, leaning back in his seat. "I thought you of all people would know that."

"Don't you dare even start, Fred Weasley," Hermione seethed, shaking the paper again.

"Fred, what's she talking about?" I asked. "What'd you do?"

"You mean he didn't tell you? Or you didn't see _this_ hanging on the common room notice board?" Hermione asked, waving the paper at me now.

"No," I said slowly, glancing at Fred and reaching up to take the paper from Hermione. "'Galleons of Galleons'," I read aloud. "'Pocket money failing to keep pace with your outgoings? Like to earn a little extra gold? Contact Fred and George Weasley, Gryffindor common room, for simple, part-time, virtually painless jobs'." I squinted to read the finer print at the bottom. "'We regret that all work is undertaken at applicant's own risk'." I stared down at the paper in silence as I processed that. I knew the twins had wanted to test their products on people other than themselves so that they could know if they worked properly on everyone. In fact, that was a very important factor if they were going to sell them for real. But I also knew why Hermione was angry. What would happen if it turned out dangerous?

"Lie?" Fred asked. "What do you think?"

I looked up at him as I bit my lip. "I know why you're doing this, of course," I said. "But...what if something goes wrong? The purpose of testing this stuff on other people is to make sure that they don't have different reactions. Well, what if they do? What if someone gets seriously hurt or ill?"

"Exactly!" Hermione cried, taking the parchment back from me. "You two really shouldn't be doing this."

"Says who?" asked George.

"Says me," Hermione said. She paused. "And Ron. We're Prefects and we're telling you not to do this."

"Funny, I don't see Ron here now," Fred said, looking around and shrugging.

"Not the point," Hermione said briskly. "_I_ am still telling you not to do this and _I _am still a Prefect, so that should be enough."

"Ron being here wouldn't make it any better, you know," George added casually. "It wouldn't imprrove your chances."

"_George_," Hermione said through gritted teeth.

"You'll be eating your words soon enough, Granger," Fred said, looking up at her. "It's your fifth year. You'll be begging me and George for a Skiving Snackbox soon enough."

"And why would I do that?"

"It's OWL year," George said. "Things get brutal. So many people were getting sick out of sheer stress our fifth year."

"Kenneth Towler came out in boils, remember?" Fred asked reminiscently, looking over at George.

"That's because you put Bulbadox Powder in his pajamas," George said, shaking his head.

"Oh, yeah," Fred said slowly as a grin spread over his face. "I'd forgotten. Hard to keep up sometimes, isn't it?"

"Anyway," George continued, "fifth year is a nightmare of a year-if you care about exam results, that is. Fred and I managed to keep our spirits up somehow."

"Yeah, you got, what was it, three OWLs each?" Hermione asked.

"Yep," Fred said, stretching his arms above his head. "But we feel our futures lie outside the world of academic achievement."

"We seriously debated whether we were going to bother coming back for our seventh year," said George brightly. I turned to look back at the twins in surprise. I hadn't known that. I saw Fred give George a look as well, but George didn't notice and continued to talk. "You know, now that we've got-" He broke off as Fred cleared his throat and gave him another look.

"Got what?" Hermione asked.

"Got our OWLs," George said hastily. I saw him glance over towards where Harry was sitting and I knew he had almost spilled the beans about the money. "I mean, do we really need our NEWTs? But we didn't think Mum could take us dropping school early. Not on top of Percy turning out to be the world's biggest prat."

"We're not going to waste our last year here, though," said Fred. "We're going to use it to do a bit of market research, find out exactly what the average Hogwarts student requires from his joke shop, carefully evaluate the results of our research, and then produce the products to fit the demand."

"But where will you get the money?" Hermione asked. "You're going to need all the ingredients and materials...And premises, too!"

Fred and George were quiet for a second. "As us no questions and we'll tell you no lies, Hermione," Fred finally said with a smile and a shrug. "And as for those tests we plan on doing," he nodded towards the parchment in her hand,"don't worry about it, okay? It'll be fine. Whatever happens to them, we can assure you that they won't _die _or anything."

"Oh, that's reassuring," Hermione snapped. She set the paper down on the coffee table. "This is a warning," she said with a sniff before turning and heading the other way.

"Well, she was quite the ray of sunshine," Fred sighed.

"You were considering not coming back this year?" I asked quietly, turning to stare at him. "You didn't tell me that."

Fred glanced at George before looking down at the quill he was holding. George was turning bright red now as well and he rubbed the back of his neck.

"I didn't tell you because we decided to come back, so I thought it wouldn't matter," Fred said with a shrug. "It was just a thought, really."

"George said you seriously considered it," I retaliated. I wasn't angry exactly, but I just felt it was something that I would've wanted Fred to tell me at the time he and George were considering it.

"We did, but it was briefly," George said. "Like I said, Percy turned out to be an idiot and we didn't think Mum could take us dropping out. Plus, we decided we could use the research. So we decided to stay."

"Oh," I said quietly as I looked back down at my books. "Those were the-the only reasons? I just mean-there wasn't anything else making you want to stay?"

Fred and George were quiet for a bit before I felt Fred gently move his legs from behind me. He slid off the couch and sat beside me before putting an arm around my shoulders and quickly pulling me in for a hasty kiss to my temple. "Lie, of course you were an incentive to stay," he whispered. "That's a given, isn't it? I thought it would go without saying. Going this whole summer without seeing you was hard enough. Doing it for an additional school year would have been worse."

I was quiet as I twirled my quill between my fingers. "No, maybe I was being silly. We would have been fine. If you thought leaving early was best for your shop, then who would I be to tell you not to do it? We could have figured out how to manage being apart. At least we would've been able to write."

"Lie," Fred said quietly. "Come on. Remember what I told you after our detention? You can't just think you're being silly and that I could just leave you here without a second thought. It wouldn't be that easy for me."

"But you'd make it look that way," I told him with a small smile.

"True," Fred chuckled. "It is what I do best after all."

* * *

The very next night, I found myself sitting with Fred, George and Lee at a corner of the common room. I was doing homework, but I wasn't completely focused on it. I was half concentrating on my work and half concentrating on the twins and Lee, who were doing their first round of product testing with a group of first years. Tonight it was the Fainting Fancies, the most recently made Skiving Snackbox.

I watched wearily as Lee passed out one half of the candies to each first year, keeping the other half for himself to put in their mouths later. On the count of three, the first years ate the candies and immediately fainted, just like they were supposed to. And then, the twins went around and took notes on each student and how they reacted.

"Interesting," Fred said. "Looks like this one's getting a slight rash."

"Fred," I sighed wearily from my chair, a knot already forming in my stomach. I didn't like where this was headed.

"Don't worry, Liles," Fred said without turning around. He made a note on his parchment. "I think it'll go away within a few hours. If not, Madame Pomfrey can clear it up in no time. It's not a life threatening thing. It's a rash."

"But what happens when you open your shop and you don't have a nurse on hand to sort any mishaps out?" I asked. "Besides, don't you think Madame Pomfrey has more important things to deal with than side effects of a prank item? Something that could have been avoided?"

"Lie, you've never been a downer when it comes to our pranks, so don't start now," George said. "Also, nobody has to tell Madame Pomfrey that the rash is a side effect of our pranks. And lastly, the whole reason we're doing this is so that there _will_ be no side effects when we open our shop. Honestly, Lilah, you need to get with the program here. All that homework and studying is frying your brain."

"Uh-huh, I'll bet," I sighed. I continued to watch the twins over the top of my book, completely engrossed in what they were doing. They looked so serious-a rare occurance.

All of a sudden, Hermione appeared in front of us. "That's enough!" she cried.

"Yeah, you're right," George muttered. "That dosage might have been a little much. More of the subjects are developing rashes." He glanced at Fred. "Eight out of ten. Make sure you write that down."

"Got it," Fred said, scribbling it on his parchment. "Eight out of ten with rashes."

Hermione's jaw clenched and her eyes widened in anger. "No, I _meant_ that's enough with testing your products on first years! It's dangerous!" She pointed at the students, all still out cold and most of them sporting a bright red rash.

"Ah, don't get yourself all worked up, Granger," Fred said. "They're coming to now, look!"

Lee had stuck the curing end of the sweet into the students' mouths and, sure enough, they were starting to wake up. They looked confused and disoriented, but they were alive and looking healthy-despite the rashes, of course.

"See, look, they're fine!" George exclaimed. He looked down at the first years. "How do you feel?"

Most of them shrugged and mumbled out a few "Fines" before standing up. Fred and George helped them all to their feet before paying them all and sending them on their way.

"Don't you think you should send them to the nurse?" Hermione asked.

"For what?" Fred asked.

"Those rashes!" Hermione exclaimed. "And the fact that you caused them to all _faint_!"

"The rashes will all have cleared up by the morning," Fred said. "I'm sure of it. There's nothing in these products that will cause lasting damage."

"How can you _know_ that?" Hermione asked.

"Look, we told them that if anything happens, they should see Madame Pomfrey," Fred said. "So they are aware of what they should do. But, as I've said, the rash will be gone in the morning. It won't last. But obviously, we would like to make these products work perfectly, which means we don't want the rash in the first place."

"Yeah, I'd think not," Hermione snapped. "Look, if you don't stop this on your own, then you'll give me no choice than to-"

"To what, Granger?" Fred asked, crossing his arms and smirking. "Put us in detention? Take some points away from Gryffindor?"

"No, I was going to say that I'll write to your mother!" Hermione retaliated, glaring at them.

Fred and George's eyes instantly widened. "You wouldn't!" they gasped.

"I would!" she responded. "So take this as a fair warning." And with that, she walked off.

"Wow, she means business, doesn't she," I commented from my chair as I peered over the top of my book at them.

"Shut up, Lie," George muttered, dropping into a chair across from me as Fred sat beside me and leaned back as he sighed and ran his hands over his face.

"If she writes to Mum, she'll ruin everything. If Mum knew we were not only still making products, but testing them on students, she'd..." He let a puff of air out of his mouth and shook his head.

"She'd lose her mind," George said.

I was quiet for a moment. Finally, I shut my book and sat up. "Look," I said, "maybe I can try to talk to her. Or I can get Julian to."

"Harry doesn't want anyone to know he gave us the money, though," Fred said. "And it''ll be hard to persuade Hermione to be cool with this without telling her where the money came from. I mean, if she knew we had actual premises, she'd know this is very realistic. She'd know we're not just doing this for the fun of it. But we want to respect Harry's wishes."

"Well, maybe you just have to be sneakier about the testing," I said.

"What do you mean?" Fred asked, looking at me.

"Don't do it here, for one thing," I said, shrugging.

"And where do you suggest we do it?" Fred asked in amusement.

"In a secret passageway or something," I said. "Maybe in one of the ones that have been blocked off. I mean, it won't exactly be the coziest place to do it, but it'll be somewhere that keeps you out of trouble and keeps Hermione believing that you're no longer doing this."

"I guess that could work," George said, looking at Fred, who stared back before shrugging.

"Yeah, I guess I could. I mean, yeah, it's not ideal, but I think we're willing to sacrifice a little to hide this from Mum a bit longer." He looked at me. "Thanks, Lie."

"It's not like it's some genius idea, Fred," I answered. "I'm sure you and George could have thought up the same thing in no time."

"No, but that's not what I'm thanking you for. Not really," Fred said. "Just...thanks for caring so much. Thanks for helping us and never threatening to rat us out to Mum or anybody else."

"You've thanked me for this a million times," I said with a smile.

"We know," Fred whispered, reaching over and resting his hand on my knee. He rubbed his thumb back and forth before looking back up at me. "But it means a lot."

* * *

The next day, I found myself sitting up in the stands of the Quidditch pitch, looking down at the group of people gathered below me. I chewed on my lip. The last time I had been here, the twins had competed in the last task of the Triwizard Tournament and Gabrielle had died. It looked different now, of course. The giant hedges were gone and so was the loud crowd of spectators. But it was still the same place. It was also the same place where I had watched so many Quidditch matches, practices and tryouts-tryouts just like this one. It was where Oliver had told me he loved me. I sighed. It was just odd to me how many different kinds of memories one place could hold.

And today, hopefully, would be the creation of a new memory-a positive one too. With any luck, I'd watch my brother make it onto the Gryffindor Quidditch team. I could spot him from where I was, clutching his broom and looking around at the other people trying out. I couldn't tell if he was nervous or not. Surely he had to be, but he'd always been good at hiding it. Then again, he could sometimes surprise me by being confident in times when I'd be sure he was nervous.

Ron was also trying out. I could see his flaming red hair. He was standing right beside my brother and I felt my stomach flutter with nerves again. I still really hoped nothing would come between them today. I knew how badly they both wanted this.

"Honestly, I do think it comes down to Julian or Ron."

I looked up to see Hermione taking a seat beside me, a piece of toast in her hand.

"How do you know?" I asked. "Do you even know anything about how the rest of them can fly? Do you even know who the rest of those people _are_?" I raised my eyebrows in amusement.

Hermione hesitated. "No," she finally answered. "But I just have a feeling."

"Uh-huh," I said with a smile, continuing to stare at her.

"I do!" she protested. "I mean, Ron's been playing Quidditch for ages. His brothers taught him quite a bit. And Julian, well, even if he hasn't been flying for as long as Ron, he learned a lot from the Weasleys."

I sighed. "I know. I hope he makes it, but I don't want Ron to be upset about it either. I know he'd like to be on the team just as badly."

"Maybe," Hermione said slowly, "but not for the same reason Julian wants to be on it." I looked at her and she paused. "Is it bad for me to say that I kind of _want_ Julian to get the spot?"

"What?" I asked, blinking in surprise.

Hermione swallowed and picked at a burnt corner of her toast. "Julian really loves Quidditch. He truly loves the game. He gets excited over it. Kind of like Harry. Almost like Oliver, too, but on a way lesser scale." She glanced at me quickly as if she thought I'd yell at her for comparing my brother to Oliver or even bringing up my ex-boyfriend to begin with.

"Ron loves Quidditch too," I said quietly.

"Sure," Hermione whispered. "But I'm not entirely positive that's why he wants to be on the team. I think it's more because it'll make him stand out. Think about it. I mean, sure Harry is already practically a Quidditch star and so was Ron's older brother, right? But Bill, Charlie and Percy were all Prefects and that didn't stop him from being proud about that, did it? His mother made a huge fuss over the summer when she found out. Bought him that broom brand new as a reward. So maybe Ron hopes that if he makes the team..."

"He'll be making the family proud by being like his brothers in another way," I sighed. "And last year when he was mad at Harry for getting picked for the Triwizard Tournament..."

"I don't think he was really all that mad at _Harry_," Hermione said. "More like he was just mad that he didn't get picked."

"So that he could have a cool story to tell," I said. "He feels overshadowed." I paused. "Why wasn't he mad at Fred and George for getting picked, then?"

"He was a little bit at first," Hermione said. "But people were talking more about Harry. Because he's younger, you know? And nobody really knew for sure whether or not he wanted it. Everyone knew Fred and George wanted it. So, Harry got more attention."

I nodded slowly. "That's an awful way to feel."

"I agree," Hermione said.

We fell into silence again as tryouts began and person after person performed the drills Angelina told them to do, hoping that they'd be good enough to be picked for the team. Julian and Ron were the last two to go. They both did really well. They were probably two of the best. Personally, I thought Ron may have needed a bit more work, but he was still really good. And I wasn't saying that because I was biased either. It was an honest opinion.

Once everyone had landed again and the tryouts were over, Hermione and I jumped up from our seats and made our way down to the group of people below us so that we could hear who Angelina had chosen as Keeper. Just as we got there, I saw Angelina turn to my brother and say something with a smile before reaching out to shake his hand as he beamed back at her.

"Congratulations," she said, smiling wider. Her eyes flickered upwards to look at me, standing there looking hopeful. "I'm sure your sister will be proud to hear the news."

Julian whirled around and saw me. His grin widened even more. "I did it, Liles!" he cried. "I made the team!"

I broke out into a smile of my own. "Really?" I squeaked.

"Really," Julian answered with a laugh.

I let out a giggle before running towards him and throwing my arms around him. He spun me around and I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Congratulations, Jules, I'm so proud of you!" I laughed. "You really deserve this. Honestly."

"Thanks, Liles," Julian whispered, giving me another hug. "I hated that I did this on the broom Sam gave me, though," he added in a whisper. "Honestly, there have been times when I've debated snapping this thing in half, but then I can't bring myself to do it."

"No, don't," I said with a breath of laughter. "You can't do that. You basically got a free broom off of him. A good broom. You can't just throw it away." I paused. "Besides, maybe now that it helped you make the team, it'll have a good memory associated with it instead of serving as a reminder of Sam."

Julian nodded. "I hope you're right." He half-smiled again. "I-I wonder what Oliver would say if he knew I took over his old position."

I smiled sadly back at him. "He'd probably be really proud of you, too," I whispered. "He always liked you."

Julian nodded and before we could say anything else, Fred and George appeared at our elbows. They each clapped Julian on the back.

"You were amazing up there," Fred said happily. "Amazing job, honestly."

"It's all thanks to you guys, really," Julian said. "You and your brothers. You're the ones who really started getting me out on a broom."

"Aw, stop," George said.

"You're making us blush," Fred added. He smiled. "But really, we were hoping it would either be you or Ron."

"Where is Ron, by the way?" I asked, looking around for him. He wasn't in the now dispersing crowd. He was completely gone.

"I don't know," Fred said with a frown. "He was here a minute ago."

"He really wanted the spot, too," Julian said, looking worried. "Do you think he's upset?"

"Probably," George shrugged. "But believe us, he'll get over it. He'll have to."

I didn't say anything. Instead, I chewed on my lip as Fred took my hand and the four of us headed back towards the castle. I hoped Ron was okay. After the talk Hermione and I had had earlier, I worried that he'd take this worse than everyone else seemed to think. It was hard being so proud of my brother, but feeling so sorry for Ron at the same time. I wished there had been two spots open this year so they both could have had a shot. But it had just been one. The only good side was that next year, five spots would be opening up. Fred and George were leaving and so were Alicia, Katie and Angelina. Perhaps Ron could try out for one of their open positions. He'd just have to not let the disappointment of this years tryouts get to him. He'd have to keep practicing and remember to never give up. The only thing was that sometimes that was a lot harder than it seemed.

* * *

That night, Julian appeared at the side of my armchair in the common room. "Can I talk to you?" he asked, gesturing towards the portrait hole.

I glanced at the twins, who were sitting on the couch and looking just as confused as I felt. "Uh, yeah, sure," I said, slowly closing my textbook and standing up. "Is something wrong?"

"No, not really," Julian answered. "I just wanted to talk to you alone for a second. I need your opinion on something."

"Ooh, is it a girl?" Fred asked, wiggling his eyebrows. "If it is, you know you can always come to us about that subject too, Jules."

Julian smiled and shook his head. "I'll keep that in mind, but no, it's not about a girl." He looked back at me and tilted his head towards the portrait hole again. I gave the twins one last glance before following my brother from the room.

"What's going on?" I asked once we were out in the hallway.

There was a pause. "I think I'm going to tell Angelina to give my spot on the Quidditch team to Ron," he said thoughtfully.

"What?" I cried, my eyes widening and my mouth falling open. "Julian, are you crazy? Have you completely lost your mind? You've been waiting for this chance for years!"

"I know," he said. "And I really wanted it. But...I think Ron's really disappointed that he didn't make it. And I mean _really _disappointed. He says he's not and that I earned it. He says he's happy for me, but I still think he's-he feels-"

"Overshadowed?" I finished. "By almost everyone else?"

"Yeah, exactly," Julian whispered, running his fingers through his hair.

I shook my head. "Well, you know what, Jules? You won that spot fair and square. It's yours. You worked hard for it. You can't give it up for Ron. He has a bunch of opportunities to try out next year. There will be, what, five spots opening up?"

"Exactly. Five spots I can try out for as well."

"What's the difference?" I asked. "If everything goes well, both of you will make it onto the team eventually. This way might even work out better. Now Ron has more time to work on his performance, fix the mistakes he made during the tryouts today, and just make himself better for next year. Seriously, I don't want you to give this up." I paused and smiled. "Plus, if you wait untl next year, I won't get to see you play."

Julian sighed. "I just feel bad."

"I know he's your friend, Jules, but this is life. Sometimes it isn't fair and Ron'll just have to get over it. You're crazy to consider giving this up."

"When did you get so heartless and unsympathetic?" Julian asked. "You're usually the one worrying about stuff like this. Which means you're also one to talk. _Sometimes it isn't fair and Ron'll just have to get over it_? Seriously? That doesn't sound like you at all."

I stared at him, taken aback. "Jules, I'm not being heartless! I'm just-I've been working on remembering that sometimes things happen where you need to get over it and move on. Pick yourself up and keep going. Ron's lucky. He can actually fix this problem. He can try out again next year and work on getting even better. You have nothing to worry about. _You _earned this spot, Julian, not Ron."

"You're starting to sound just like Mum," Julian said, crossing his arms. "Selfish and advising me to do the same and only think about myself."

My mouth fell open. "How can you say that?" I asked furiously. "Jules, I'm really proud that you're thinking of Ron's feelings. It's sweet, but-"

"You don't sound proud," Julian said. "Instead, you sound selfish."

"Why are you lashing out at me like this?" I asked. "Is something else going on? If it is, you need to talk to me. Weren't you the one going off about how we need to have each other's backs?"

Julian let out a laugh of disbelief before stepping back and bringing his hands to his head. "You know what, Lilah? I can't deal with this right now!"

"Deal with _what_?" I asked in alarm.

"You trying to mother me now. Thinking something else is up and nagging me about it. Something else always has to be up every time I get upset! Maybe I'm just upset because one of my best friends didn't get a spot on the Quidditch team and I did! I took something away from him that he really wanted! You didn't see his face, Lilah. I don't think he should feel overshadowed. I think he has potential and he should be able to show it."

"Of course," I said. "Ron's great. But-"

"But I earned this position, right?" Julian snapped. "So I should take it?"

"Yes!" I exclaimed, throwing my arms up.

"It's funny," Julian said, "I thought you'd want me to make this choice. I thought you'd be happy I'd offer my spot up. It's the kind of thing you'd do, isn't it? It's the same kind of thing you'd at least worry about. And instead..." He trailed off before shrugging and letting out a puff of air. "Just forget it." He started towards the common room and I reached out to grab his arm.

"Julian," I began, but he yanked his arm away.

"Just forget it," he repeated. And then he had disappeared into the common room, leaving me alone in the hallway, feeling more confused than ever.

* * *

Another two days went by where I barely spoke to my brother. Or rather, he barely spoke to me. We were both really busy for one thing. He was in his OWL year and I was in my NEWT year, which meant lots and lots of work for the both of us. So, really, I had no idea if he was still mad at me or was just busy.

Umbridge's classes were still as horrible as they always had been. I dreaded going into that classroom now. I knew what I was going to face each time. Reading from the textbook and no magic whatsoever. Our wands were to be kept in our bags for the entire class. It was beginning to become obvious that no one was going to learn anything from her class. We weren't going to learn how to defend ourselves, which was what we all really needed at a time like this.

Finally, a week later, Julian approached me in the common room. I was sitting by the fire at one end of the couch, my History of Magic book propped open on the arm. Fred was lying down, his head in my lap and his wand in his hand as he twirled it aimlessly.

"Lilah?" Julian asked, stopping beside the couch and clearing his throat. "I need to talk to you."

"Mhm, I'm listening," I said absentmindedly, scribbling down a sentence in my essay.

Julian sighed. "I'd like it if you were fully listening, actually," he said.

I looked up at him and set my quill down. "Okay, what is it?" I asked wearily.

"You're talking to her again?" Fred asked, his eyes moving to Julian's face as he tipped his head back slightly in my lap to look at my brother in surprise. "That's really good of you."

"Shut up, Fred," I muttered, glancing down at him as Julian turned bright red.

"I wanted to apologize," Julian said. He sat down on the coffee table and looked at me. "I've had a lot on my plate recently. With classes and all my homework and the fact that it's OWL year and the fact that Umbridge is making everyone miserable...None of those are really great excuses, but I've been pretty stressed, I suppose. And I was stressed about the tryouts, too. And I didn't want Ron to be mad at me like he was with Harry last year with the tournament. I couldn't deal with fighting with a friend on top of it all."

"That's a totally different scale," I said.

Julian nodded. "You were right. Ron can try out next year and apparently he fully intends to, which is good. I talked to him and he genuinely seems okay. I mean, he's not thrilled, but he at least doesn't hate me. And I tried to talk to Angelina about quitting. She wouldn't let me."

I smiled. "No?"

Julian smiled back and shook his head. "Nope, she shot me right down. Told me to come talk to you. Which I would've done on my own anyway. I hate fighting. Especially with you."

I nodded. "Me too."

"I just-I guess that in addition to the stress making me edgy, a part of me wanted to make you proud by being like you. By thinking of someone else, you know?"

I smiled wider. "I appreciate that, Jules, but I _am_ proud of you. Very proud. I'm proud that you were thinking of Ron, but I'm also really proud that you made the team. I know it's what you've wanted for a long time. And you were right too. If I were in your position, I would have worried about hurting a friend as well, but I'm sure you and the twins would've done what I did and told me to get over myself, so..." I trailed off and shrugged as Julian laughed.

"You bet your ass we would have," Fred snorted. "That's what George and I are for. Constant reality checks."

I smiled and swatted his shoulder before looking back up at Julian. "So, we're okay?"

"Yeah, as long as you accept my apology," Julian said.

"Of course," I said quietly.

There was a pause. "Oh," Julian said, "and I didn't mean what I said about you being selfish and acting like Mum. You're not selfish and you're nothing like her."

I half-smiled. "I don't know, Jules," I said. "What if she rubs off on me? What if, no matter how hard I try not to, I just...turn into her?" It had been something I had been thinking about constantly since the fight. I had always sworn that I would never become my mother, but after Julian had told me what he had, I worried that maybe it was inevitable.

"Lilah, that'll never happen," Julian said with a quiet laugh as he shook his head. "Never. I promise you. You're too opposite to let any of her negativity become yours. The person you are now is who you are. Selfless, caring, compassionate and an amazing role model."

I opened my mouth to protest, but Fred cut me off. "Don't argue, _please_. Just say thank you."

"Thank you," I said, glancing at my brother and blushing.

"There is one more thing," Julian added. "I had an idea, so I brought it up to Angelina after she wouldn't let me quit."

"Yeah?" I asked. "What was it?"

"I asked her if she'd make Ron a reserve Keeper. You know, in case I can't play for some reason, he'll fill in for me. I thought it would cheer him up a bit. So that way he could feel somewhat included. I know it's not the same. Not really. And he might not be all that uplifted by the news since he's not guaranteed any time playing, but I just thought..." he trailed off and shrugged.

I stared at him for a moment before I broke into a smile and let out a laugh. "You're unbelievable, Jules. You really are."

"Yeah," Fred added, "no one in their right mind would go out of their way to try and find a solution that would make Ron happier."

"Fred," I scolded.

"Fine," he said, "_George and I _wouldn't do something like that. We'd just let him sulk. Not getting what you want all the time builds character if you ask me."

"Fred," I said again, letting out a sigh.

Fred smiled as he went on. "But then again, George and I aren't always the best people to take advice from. And in this case, Ron still isn't getting _exactly _what he wants, so he'll still probably build plenty of character." He paused and smiled at my brother. "And you know what? There is one person I can think of who would do something like what you did for Ron."

"Who?" Julian asked.

Fred smiled wider. "Your sister."

Julian grinned before glancing at me and back at Fred. "Yeah?"

Fred nodded. "Yeah."

"Thanks, Fred," Julian said with a smile. He hesitated. "But don't tell anyone I love Lilah this much. Otherwise I risk looking...ridiculous."

"I'm sure none of your friends are the type to care," I said.

"Still," Julian said with a grin. "Just in case."

"I won't tell a soul," Fred agreed with a devious grin. "The secret's safe with me. As long as you don't let anyone know how fond I am of her either. Can't have people laughing in our faces, can we?"

"Fred!" I gasped as Julian burst into laughter. Fred grinned cheekily at me as I mock-pouted and pushed him to a sitting position. "Get your head off my lap then." I rolled my eyes. "Jerk."

Just then, Angelina made her way over to us. "Just talked to Ron," she announced. "He accepted the reserve spot. Seemed pretty satisfied with it, too."

"That's great," Julian said happily.

Angelina smiled and pulled something out from behind her back. "I also have Oliver's old Quidditch robes. I wanted to see if they fit you. And if they don't, I can make a few quick adjustments. And then I'll just take his name off the back and replace it with yours and we'll be good to go."

Julian grinned, but then I saw him falter and glance at me. Fred was looking at me as well and Angelina seemed to catch on a second later. She cleared her throat. "I mean, we don't have to do it here," she said awkwardly.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not going to fall apart looking at Oliver's old uniform," I said. But then my eyes traveled to the neatly folded red and gold robes in Angelina's hand and I found myself just staring at them. I felt a quick pang of nostalgia, but that was all. I looked at my brother. "Go ahead, Jules. Try them on."

Julian stood up and took the robes from Angelina before starting to pull them on over his clothes.

"They might be fine lengthwise," Angelina commented thoughtfully, "but Oliver had broader shoulders than you so they might be baggy in some spots..." She began to circle my brother like a vulture as Fred slid an arm around my shoulders and pulled me to him. I rested my head on his shoulder and watched Angelina continue to examine my brother, her brow furrowed in thought as she made adjustments here and there to the robes.

"I saw in the paper that Puddlemere's doing amazing this season," Fred commented quietly. "Oliver's doing great, apparently. Better than ever."

I nodded. "I saw that too."

Fred was quiet for a minute. "Do you think he's-"

"Throwing himself back into Quidditch?" I asked. "Working himself harder than ever? I don't know. Maybe. I haven't seen or heard from him since we broke up. And that was, what, eight and a half months ago?"

"You didn't see him at St. Mungo's over the summer when you went to read to Grace?" Fred asked.

I shook my head. "I saw his parents a few times-they're Healers, remember? I said hello and they were as friendly as ever."

"Why wouldn't they be?" Fred asked. "You didn't do anything wrong. I know it, they know it, and you know it, however deep down."

I nodded as Fred smiled and leaned over to kiss my temple, letting his lips linger there for a moment before pulling away.

Suddenly, our attention was turned away from each other by my brother clearing his throat. "How do I look?" he asked.

Fred and I looked up to see my brother in his newly tailored Quidditch robes that now fit him perfectly. "You look fantastic," I said.

"Really dashing," Fred added. "Almost as dashing as me and George."

"Nah, I'd say even _more_ dashing," Angelina said with a smile. "Seriously, this one's going to have no trouble getting a girlfriend." She patted Julian on the shoulder as he blushed.

"My brother isn't allowed to have girlfriends," I said with a grin. "He's just allowed teddy bears and pajamas with feet built in."

"Lilah, shut _up_," Julian said, sending me a look.

"Oh, I'm sorry, am I _embarrassing_ you?" I gasped.

"Yeah," Julian laughed. "You are."

"Well, you'd better get used to it," I said with a grin, "because that's what big sisters are for."


	55. Chapter 55

By the time the last week of September was coming to a close, most of the school didn't know how much more of Dolores Umbridge they could take. She had apparently spoken with the Minister about how Hogwarts was "far worse than she feared" and, as a result, had passed an "Educational Decree" that appointed her High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. This just meant that she now had the power to go around evaluating teachers, putting them on probation, or even firing them.

Today, she was sitting in on our Charms class. She sat in the back with her clipboard and her stupid girly smile. She had promised when she walked in that we would hardly even know she was there, but she had proved that to be very untrue after she kept interrupting Professor Flitwick while he was teaching. She kept clearing her throat loudly before asking him whatever question she had probably pulled out of nowhere just for the sake of interrupting.

Finally, Professor Flitwick let us get to practicing spells nonverbally. We had learned how to do it last year, but it was sure to come up on our NEWTs and a lot of people still couldn't quite master it. Luckily, I had pretty much gotten it down at this point, so I was able to make the handful of buttons on my desk levitate into the air and soar around the room without speaking a word. The twins had managed to do it as well, but they weren't using this opportunity to practice even more. Apparently, they didn't think they needed to keep up with it so that they'd be in perfect shape for their NEWTs.

"I'll pay you if you send one of those buttons straight into Toad-Face's eye," Fred said as he leaned back in his chair and haphazardly jabbed at his buttons with his wand. One of them jumped the smallest amount off the desk, but only briefly, before it plopped back down again.

"How much?" I asked curiously, sending the buttons soaring around Fred's head as I glanced at Umbridge, who was walking around the room, surveying our work and asking questions about the class. She kept jotting everyone's answers down on her clipboard and smiling. I only hoped she'd find the answers suitable enough.

"That depends," Fred replied. He tried to swat at the buttons, but I smiled and charmed them to fly out of his reach every time.

"On what?" I asked.

"Whether you aim correctly. You don't get anything if you miss. The closer you get to her eye, the more money you'll get."

"You're ridiculous," I sighed. "Is everything a game to you?"

Fred shrugged. "We have to make even the most boring tasks fun in some way," he said. "Otherwise my attention span drops significantly."

"Of course," I sighed, lowering my buttons back down to my desk. I aimed my wand at one and wordlessly caused it to enlarge a bit before shrinking it back down again. And then I made it switch from black to purple to green to orange.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Fred teased, nudging me with his elbow.

"Nothing," I giggled. "It's just that it all makes sense. You never focus on anything unless it involves a joke or a laugh."

Fred opened his mouth to answer, but before he could, a girly voice sounded to our left. "It doesn't appear that much work is going on over here, does it?"

Fred and I looked up to see Umbridge standing at Fred's elbow, grinning down at us.

"We're working," I said.

"Yeah, Lilah just levitated her buttons, made them fly, changed their sizes and their color." He picked up my orange button. "See? This one used to be black. Now it's orange." He pointed his wand at the button and turned it pink. "Now it's pink," he said with a cheeky smile. "Matches your outfit perfectly."

Umbridge scowled. "What about you, Mr. Weasley?" she asked. "What have you been doing this entire class period besides demonstrating an obnoxious attitude?"

"I already know how to do non-verbal spells," he said, tossing the button back onto the desk.

"And you still don't feel the need to practice any more? To keep yourself on top of things in preparation for your NEWTs?"

"No, because Professor Flitwick's a great teacher and he taught us really well," Fred said. He tried to peer over at Umbridge's clipboard. "Are you going to write that down?"

Umbridge yanked her clipboard out of Fred's reach. "From my observations, Mr. Weasley, it does not seem like the majority of the class has mastered non-verbal spells, leading me to believe that Professor Flitwick has failed to teach you all sufficiently."

"Non-verbal spells are very difficult," I added. "And actually, I think about eighty percent of the class has mastered them by now, which is the majority. And as long as we all master them by our NEWTs, well, that's what's important, isn't it?"

"Are you saying my observations and assessments are wrong, Miss Fitzgerald?" Umbridge asked, raising her eyebrows at me.

"No," I began slowly, "I-"

"Yes," Fred answered. "That's exactly what she's saying."

"Fred," I hissed. "Stop."

Fred glanced at me before looking back at Umbridge. "You can't twist facts around just for an excuse to fire a teacher."

"I suggest you quit while you're ahead, Mr. Weasley," Umbridge said.

"Unless you're just bluffing, which I actually hope you are," Fred went on. "You can't fire all the professors. We won't have a school left. Or is that what you want?"

"Detention, Mr. Weasley!" Umbridge cried. "Tonight in my office. Eight o'clock."

"No!" I cried. "You can't."

"Would you like one as well, Miss Fitzgerald?" Umbridge asked. "We can have a nice little repeat of your last detention."

I fell silent as I bit my lip and looked down at my desk.

"That's what I thought," she said. "Now, I think it would be more beneficial for Mr. Weasley if he wasn't being so...distracted." She looked me up and down. "So, Mr. Weasley, I'll kindly ask you to switch seats with..." she gazed around the room. "Miss Cole over there." She pointed across the room to a quiet Hufflepuff girl, who was obediently doing her work.

"Seriously?" Fred scoffed. "You can't move my seat. You don't teach this-"

"Fred, don't make her give you another detention," I muttered.

"Lilah," Fred said, turning to look at me, his expression stony.

"The more detentions you go to, the more permanent the marks on your hand will become," I hissed. "Remember that."

"I don't care," Fred hissed back. "That's not the point. The point is standing up to-"

"I _know_, but please, can we try to pick our battles here? Don't argue with her about this."

Fred stared at me before scoffing and angrily gathering his things before making his way over to the other side of the room. The girl from Hufflepuff made her way over to the seat next to me and sat down without a word. Umbridge smiled and walked away, leaving me to glare at her retreating back before resting my chin in my hand and poking at the buttons resting on my desk again.

* * *

"One of these is for Fred, when he comes back."

I looked up to see Hermione standing in front of me. She set two bowls of murtlap on the table in front of the common room couch before taking a seat in the armchair next to the fire.

"Thanks," I said quietly. "He'll appreciate that."

"The second one's for Harry," Hermione said. "Umbridge gave him another detention tonight, too."

"That's rough," I said.

"He won't go to Dumbledore either," Hermione said. "Doesn't want to give Umbridge the satisfaction."

"How much do you think he can even do?" I asked. "He doesn't have a say about her being here. I'm not sure he can do anything."

Hermione was quiet for a moment. "I've been thinking," she finally said, "and I've come up with an idea."

"Yeah?" I asked. "What kind of idea?"

"I've talked to Ron and Julian and they both agree..."

"On what, Hermione?" I asked with a smile.

"Well, we need a way to fight back, don't we?" Hermione asked. "We need a way to learn all the stuff we're _supposed _to be learning, but aren't. Not just so we'll be prepared for our exams, but also prepared for the real world. We all know what's out there, even if the Ministry refuses to admit it."

"Yeah, I agree," I said. "So what's your idea?"

Hermione hesitated. "Well, all we'll need is Harry's agreement now, but it's very important that we get it. If he doesn't want to do it, this won't really work." She took in a breath. "I was thinking that _Harry_ could teach us."

"Harry?" I asked in surprise.

"Harry," she repeated.

"Are you serious?"

Hermione nodded vigorously and leaned forward in her chair. "Think about it. Harry knows what it's like to be out there fighting. He's done so much! He could really teach us about what it's like to experience the Dark Arts first hand. He could give us the hands-on practice we need!"

"And how would we go about doing this?" I asked slowly. "I mean, I don't doubt Harry would make a good teacher, but it's not like we can advertise this if we decide to do it. We'd have to be really careful."

"I think I've got it all planned out," Hermione said. "Next week is a Hogsmeade weekend, isn't it? Well, I was thinking that we could spread the word that we'll be holding a meeting in the Hog's Head for anyone who wants to fight back and learn everything we've been neglected of so far."

"Why the Hog's Head?" I asked wrinkling my nose. "I've never even set foot in there. I've heard it's kind of...gross."

"Sure, it's not exactly popular, but that's just it. We'll have less of a chance of someone overhearing us or finding out what we're doing. If we did it in the Three Broomsticks, it would be so crowded. It's where everyone goes. Someone-anyone, really-could overhear and report back to Umbridge. A lot of teachers go there too, and they're who I'm really worried about."

"How do you know that won't happen when we're spreading the word about meeting in the Hog's Head?" I asked. "How do you know it won't travel back to Umbridge then?"

"Because at this point, no one wants to risk her finding out anything," Hermione said. "Everyone's so sick of her already that they'll do anything if it meant making up for all the stuff we aren't learning."

"Okay," I said, nodding my head. "I'm in. I'm sure Fred and George will be, too..." I trailed off. "And Ron and Julian?"

"They're in," Hermione said. "Like I said, all we need is Harry's agreement." She looked up towards the portrait hole. "Ah, here he is now."

I turned in my seat to see Harry entering the room with Fred right behind him. They both made their way towards the couch and sat down on the two empty cushions beside me, immediately sticking their hands in the bowls on the coffee table and letting out sighs of relief.

"What did she make you write this time?" I asked quietly.

"The same thing I wrote last time with you," he said. "But now the marks look even weirder since last time they were written in your handwriting and now mine overlaps it."

"I think the appearance of the marks are the least of your problems," I said. "I just hope it'll heal all right now that you've made the cuts even worse and practically reopened them."

"It'll probably scar a bit," Fred shrugged. He let out a puff of air through his mouth. "Too bad I couldn't have been allowed to write something _cool_."

I didn't respond and we were all quiet for a moment as Julian, Ron and George made their way over to join us, having noticed Harry and Fred's return themselves. Ron and Julian were glancing at Hermione, as if waiting for her to bring up her idea to Harry. But she kept quiet for the time being, allowing Harry to get settled in first.

"How was it?" George asked Fred, staring at his hand that was sitting in the bowl. "Besides awful, I mean."

Fred shrugged. "Same as it was last time. Except she just made me write on my own hand tonight. For a moment I was afraid she was going to make me write on Harry's."

"Thank goodness she didn't," I muttered.

"I think she only made you and Lilah write on each other's hands because she knows how much it would hurt you both," Hermione said. "She knows you're together. She knew it would be double the pain if she made you do that."

"I still think you should complain about this," Ron said. "All of you. Tell someone about how she made you write with _each other's_ blood."

"No," Harry said flatly. "At least, _I_ don't want to."

"McGonagall would go nuts if she knew," Ron said.

"Yeah, probably," Harry muttered. "And how long do you think it would take Umbridge to pass another Decree saying anyone who complains about the High Inquisitor gets sacked immediately?"

Ron opened his mouth, but then closed it again as he failed to think of an appropriate response. I had to admit that Harry did have a point. It was sort of what I had been saying all along. Complaining wouldn't do much. Umbridge was gaining power fast.

"She's an awful woman," Hermione said in a small voice. "Just _awful_." She cleared her throat. "You know, I was thinking, Harry, we've got to do something about her."

"I suggested poison," Ron said grimly.

"That's a good idea," Fred said. "Or...I wonder what would happen if we gave her a multitude of Skiving Snackboxes all at once." He looked at George. "Do you think she'd explode?"

"Not sure, but we can certainly find out," George answered with a grin.

Hermione cleared her throat, louder this time. "No...I mean something about what a dreadful teacher she is and how we're not going to learn any defense from her at all. I was thinking that maybe the time's come when we should just...do it ourselves."

Fred's head snapped up in interest as Harry looked confused.

"Go on, I'm listening," Fred said.

"Do what ourselves?" Harry asked.

"Learn Defense Against the Dark Arts," Hermione answered. "We need a teacher. A proper teacher. One who can show us how to use the spells and correct us if we're going wrong."

"Are you talking about Lupin?" Harry asked as I snorted. He was completely missing where Hermione was going with this.

"No, I'm not talking about Lupin," said Hermione. "He's too busy with the Order and we wouldn't be able to see him unless it was a Hogsmeade weekend which really isn't enough time..."

"Okay, so who then?" Harry asked, frowning at her.

Hermione let out a very deep sigh. "Isn't it obvious? I'm talking about _you_, Harry."

There was a long silence as we all looked at Harry, waiting for him to answer. Finally, he did. "About me, what?"

"You can teach us Defense Against the Dark Arts."

Harry just stared at Hermione. Then he turned and stared at Ron and Julian, who smiled and nodded slightly. "Seriously?"

"Seriously," Hermione said.

"Hermione just ran the idea by me, Harry," I said. "And if we can pull it off, I think it'll work. If we can get past Umbridge...I think it's a very good idea. We do need to learn how to defend ourselves properly. I don't know what we're headed for exactly, but I do know that I don't want to go in underprepared."

"I'm not a teacher," Harry said.

"Harry, you're the best at Defense Against the Dark Arts," said Hermione.

"Me? No, I'm not. You've beaten me at every test."

"Actually, I haven't," Hermione said coolly. "You beat me in our third year. The only year we both sat the test and had a teacher who actually knew the subject. But I'm not talking about test results, Harry. Look at what you've done!"

"What do you mean?"

"Let's think," Ron said, making a thoughtful face as he tapped his chin. "First year you saved the stone from You-Know-Who."

"But that was luck," Harry interjected, "not skill."

"Second year," Hermione said, "you killed the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets. You destroyed Riddle's memory _and_ saved Ginny."

"Yeah, but if Fawkes hadn't turned up-"

"Third year," Julian said, "you fought off about a hundred dementors at once. You learned the _Patronus_ _charm_ at age _thirteen_."

"You know that was a fluke. The dementor thing. If the Time-Turner hadn't-"

"And last year," Fred spoke up, "you fought off You-Know-Who again in that graveyard. You made it through all those tasks just as well as the rest of the champions did. If not better. And you won fair and square, didn't you?"

"No, you were just as great. You were-" Harry broke off. "Just listen to me. It sounds great when you say it like that, but all that stuff was luck. I didn't know what I was doing half the time, I didn't plan any of it, I just did whatever I could think of, and I nearly always had help."

I looked at the others and fought back a smile. Sure, maybe Harry had been lucky and had gotten a lot of help over the years, but a large chunk of what he had done had just been him.

"Don't all of you sit there grinning like you know better than I do," Harry went on angrily. "I was there, wasn't I? I know what went on. And I didn't get through any of that because I was brilliant at Defense Against the Dark Arts. I got through it all because help came at the right time, or because I guessed right, but I just blundered through it all. I didn't have a clue what I was doing-stop laughing!" He jumped to his feet in anger, sending his bowl of murtlap to the floor with a crash. I let out an involuntary gasp as my eyes widened. None of us were smiling now.

"You don't know what it's like!" Harry said. "None of you have had to face him! You think it's just memorizing a bunch of spells and throwing them at him, like you're in class or something? The whole time you're sure you know there's nothing between you and dying except your own brain or guts or whatever. Like you can think straight when you know you're about a second from being murdered or tortured or watching your friends die. They've never taught that in class, what it's like to deal with things like that. And you all sit here like I'm a clever little boy to be standing here alive. You just don't get it. What happened to Gabrielle could have easily been me. If Voldemort hadn't needed me to come back-"

"We weren't saying that, mate," Ron whispered, shaking his head and looking aghast.

"Don't you see, Harry?" Hermione said timidly. "This is why we need you. We need to know what it's really like facing him. Facing...V-Voldemort."

We all looked at her. It was the first time she had ever said You-Know-Who's name. Ron flinched, but Harry seemed to actually calm down. He sat back down on the couch.

"Think about it," Hermione said quietly. "Please?"

Harry simply nodded but didn't say anything else.

Hermione stood up. "Well, I'm going to bed," she said, her tone as natural as she could manage. "Erm...'night."

Ron got to his feet as well. "I'm going, too. Coming, Harry?"

"Yeah, in a minute," Harry said. I'll just clear this up." He gestured to the smashed bowl on the floor as Ron nodded and left, Julian right on his heels. I smiled at my brother as he passed me and he made a face in return, smiling as he rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Reparo," Harry muttered, pointing his wand at the broken pieces of the bowl. They flew back together, good as new. But unfortunately the bowl was still empty of any murtlap. He stood up and looked at me and Fred. "Well...goodnight," he said awkwardly.

"Goodnight," Fred and I said together. We watched him slowly trudge up the stairs towards the boys' dormitory. A moment later, even George departed, saying he'd give me and Fred some time alone and that he'd see Fred up in the dorms.

"Well, that went...well," I sighed, wrapping my arms around Fred's free one-the one that wasn't extended to keep his hand in the murtlap-and rested my cheek on his shoulder.

"You really think Hermione's idea is a good one?" Fred asked, resting his cheek against the top of my head.

"Yeah," I nodded. "Don't you?"

Fred nodded. "I do."

"She has it all planned out," I said. "If Harry agrees, we'll all meet in the Hog's Head next weekend on the Hogsmeade trip."

"Well, Harry better say yes, then," Fred said. "Because if we don't get any real practice in this subject soon, I'm going to snap." He pulled his hand out of the murtlap and shook it slightly to get the excess liquid off.

"I'm sorry, Fred," I said wearily. "I'm sorry about how things went down in class today. I should have said something, but..." I trailed off and sighed.

Fred was quiet for a moment as he, too, stared at his hand. "Don't be sorry," he finally said. "I understand that you want to pick your battles. I understand that you'd rather fight the way Hermione suggested. Undercover. In secret. And trust me, I'm all for doing this, too. But...it's so hard to hold back in front of her. She makes me so angry and I can't hold my tongue. I just can't. I've never been one for doing that."

"I know, Fred, but it's costing you," I said. I gingerly reached out and took his injured hand, pulling it onto my lap and staring at the new words now engraved over the old ones. He had been right. The mix of the two different handwritings made it such a jumble of letters that I couldn't even read what it said, even though I already knew anyway. "I just can't stand seeing you like this. I can't deal with your hand being _scarred_, Fred. And I couldn't stand that the first time it was _me_ doing it to you."

"That's why we've got to fight back, Lie," Fred said.

"And we are. But hopefully this way, Umbridge will never know and we'll never earn detentions for it."

"But I've just said how hard it is for me to hold back to her face," Fred argued. "You really expect me to just do this undercover meeting thing and be all set?"

I sighed and closed my eyes. "No, I know, and a part of me admires you for being brave enough to stand up to her, but I'm just trying to look out for you. That's how _I_ am. I'd do anything to make sure people I love don't get into trouble, even if it means holding our tongues." I stared down at Fred's cut, bloody and most likely scarred hand, feeling absolutely sickened.

Suddenly, I felt Fred shift in his seat before sliding his hand from my grasp and wrapping me in a tight hug. He kissed the top of my head and pulled me even closer to him as I buried my face in his neck. I sighed. "I can't watch you get hurt simply because you are who you are," I said. "And I can't ask you to change, either. So, it seems like we're stuck."

"We're not stuck," Fred argued. "Not permanently. Remember, no Defense teacher has lasted more than a year. We'll be free of old Toad Face before you know it."

* * *

Harry ended up agreeing to Hermione's plan a few days later. At least, that's what I heard from Hermione, who also said she hadn't mentioned the fact that they were inviting whoever was interested in learning. She had told Harry only a few people were showing up. I dutifully agreed to keep my mouth shut about it. If he found out a lot of people could show up, he might not agree to teach. And we all _really_ wanted him to. It was kind of our only hope at this point.

So on the Hogsmeade trip the following week, Fred and I trailed a bit behind Lee and George on our way to Zonko's. We had some time before we had to be in the Hog's Head by one o'clock, and naturally, the twins wanted to use at least some of that time shopping at their favorite store. I had pretended to be annoyed, as if going to Zonko's was a form of torture and said I'd only go if the twins promised to buy me a bag of Fudge Flies before the meeting.

"No way," the twins had both laughed.

"Why not?" I asked defiiantly.

"Because we know you don't mind going to Zonko's," George said. "Nice try, though."

When we finally did reach the shop, Fred grinned and pointed at the front window. "Ah, look, George. Looks like they finally got that new shipment in we were waiting for."

I peered in the front window to see a long metal cylinder displayed inside. It was rather plain looking for a prank item. It was only about two feet long and maybe two or three inches thick.

"What's it do?" I asked curiously.

"It's designed to ward off intruders," Fred said. "Or at the very least, alert people to one. You bury it vertically in the ground, and then, see the tip? It extends upwards so that it pokes out of the grass just a bit, like one of those Muggle things that they use to water their grass...Sprinkles, I think. And then it detects unwanted visitors and starts to work its magic."

"It kind of does act like one of those lawn watering devices," George said, "in the sense that one of its mechanisms is to shoot out first water, then Stinksap at the intruder. Then it'll shoot out sparks from the top."

"But we want to use it to see if it'll help us with our firework displays," Fred said. "We want to see if we can replace the sparks with full blown fireworks."

"Fireworks?" I asked.

Fred nodded and smiled. "Yep. It's another thing George and I are working on. Regular fireworks, fireworks that spell out words or take shapes. Fireworks that multiply when you try to get rid of them. You name it."

"And you want to try to get this little thing to shoot them out?" I asked.

Fred nodded. "We think we can do it. And then we can use the device for our own firework shows. It's not like we can resell it if it was originally Zonko's product. But can you imagine? Using this to shoot out fireworks? We could still put it in the ground if there's any dirt available. Or we can hold it and it'll be like a bigger version of our wands and instead of shooting out spells, we'll be shooting out fireworks!"

I stared at him for a second before letting out a giggle. "You're astounding," I said.

"Thank you," Fred answered with a slight bow.

"Are you sure that's a safe idea, though?" I asked as we stepped inside the shop.

"We'll tamper around with it until it is safe," George said, leading the way over towards the first aisle.

"But what if it hurts you while you're tampering with it?" I argued.

"We'll be extra careful, Lie," Fred assured me, slipping his hand into mine. "George and I know the safety rules of handling fireworks. Trust me. We can't go blowing ourselves up so early in our career. We've barely even started. It's too soon for that sort of thing."

"It's too soon no matter what," I said with a small smile as we began wandering up and down the aisles. Fred and George picked out a few items each before we made our way back to the front of the store, where they each picked up a metal object like the one being displayed in the window.

"Ready?" Fred asked with a smile once he was done paying.

I nodded and took his hand again as we left the store. We had twenty minutes before the meeting was supposed to start, but we began slowly making our way towards the Hog's Head anyway. When we reached Honeydukes, Fred stopped and tugged on my hand, pulling me towards the door as he reached for the handle and grinned at me.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Buying you those Fudge Flies," he said.

I smiled. "Fred, I was kidding about you having to buy me those. I thought you knew that."

"I did," he answered, grinning wider as he pulled the door open and tugged me forward. George grabbed the door from behind me and held it as Fred and I went through. "But I want to buy you some anyway. I know going into Zonko's means more to me and George than it does to you, even if you do enjoy it. Besides, how can anyone pass up a chance to buy candy?"

I laughed. "That's true. And we also can't be expected to sit through this meeting on an empty stomach."

"Good point," George said from behind me. He and Lee had already stopped to examine the Chocolate Frog display, which was a huge pyramid.

"What's the most daring you think I can get without knocking this all over?" Lee asked, his hand hovering over a Chocolate Frog near the bottom.

"Lee, just take one from the top," I said. "You're making me nervous."

"What's life without a little risk?" Lee retaliated. He started to pull a frog out from the middle of the display and it teetered a bit as he did so.

"If that falls, I'm running for it and pretending I have no idea who you are," I warned him.

"I'm with Lilah," Fred said. "But luckily..." He studied the pyrmaid for a second before choosing a chocolate frog a few rows from the top and slowly sliding it out. The pyrmaid didn't even wobble.

"How did you do that?" Lee asked.

"Strategy," Fred answered smugly. "George and I do happen to have a bit of that, you know."

Once we had finally paid for our candy, we walked the rest of the way to the Hog's Head. I took in the outside of the building and let out a sigh. I knew there was a reason I never came here and the state of the place had just reminded me.

"Wow, look," George said, pointing to the front door, where a large group of Hogwarts students were entering the building. I could see the Patil twins, Cho Chang, Luna Lovegood, Ginny, and her boyfriend Michael Corner just to name a few, but there were a lot more people. Maybe about twenty-five people total.

"That's more than a few people," I commented with a snort.

Fred and George both grinned. "Let's go," Fred said, leading me forward and following the group inside the pub, which was just as dingy inside as it was on the outside. The barman was behind the bar, frozen in the act of wiping out a glass with a rag so filthy it looked as though it had never been washed. I fought the urge to wrinkle my nose in disgust.

"If we get drinks, _please_ let's get something that comes in a bottle," I whispered to Fred, who nodded as he stared wearily at the dirty rag.

"Hi," he said pleasantly, flashing a smile at the barman. He turned and did a quick headcount of the people gathered for the meeting. "Could we have...thirty butterbeers please?"

The barman glared at him for a moment, then he threw down his rag irritably and started passing dusty butterbeers from under the bar. Fred passed me the first one before starting to pass the rest out to the others. "Cough up everyone, I don't have enough gold for all of these." He paused and looked at me. "Except you. I've got yours."

"Fred, no, I have money. You already bought me my Fudge Flies," I said, reaching for my pocket. But he shook his head and grabbed my hand to stop me.

"I said I've got it," he said with a smile.

Everyone else was rummaging in their pockets now to find coins and began passing them up to the twins. Once the money had been forked over to the barman, who still looked shell-shocked, the twins, Lee and I found seats next to Angelina, Katie and Alicia. I saw my brother sitting halfway down the table with Neville, Dean and Seamus and flashed him a smile. Even Tess was there, sitting with some of the other Hufflepuffs. I was glad she had come. Although, I never had any doubt that she wouldn't. She disliked Umbridge just as much as the rest of us and she also believed Harry when he said You-Know-Who was back. So, it was really no surprise that she had agreed instantly when I had asked her to come.

I froze for a second when I saw Danny sitting with his friends not too far away from Tess. He had already been looking at me and when I met his eyes, he turned bright red and smiled shyly before waving. I sighed and gave him a small smile and wave in return. I was flattered by his behavior, sure, and it wasn't that I was _annoyed_ by him, per se, particularly since he wasn't even that annoying. But he was only behaving like this because he thought I had pulled him out of the lake, when I knew I hadn't. So I almost felt like some sort of phony. And I also knew that no matter how much I tried to explain myself, Danny would keep insisting that he had seen me that night.

"Nice turnout, huh?" Fred whispered appreciatively, jolting me out of my thoughts. He was looking around the table as he leaned back in his chair and placed a hand on my leg, rubbing his thumb back and forth.

"I'll say," I said, "except Harry looks like he's been smashed over a head with a frying pan."

Fred chuckled. "Yeah, well, Hermione told him to expect a few people. This is a bit more than a few." He paused as his eyes fell on Danny. "Your boyfriend's here," he said. His tone was an odd mix of both sarcasm and annoyance.

"I saw," I sighed. "And I'm thinking I should really talk to him about that night, but I have no idea how. He's adamant about the fact that I was the one to pull him from the lake. And I don't want to be rude..."

"Well maybe you should. Maybe you should just be blunt and say, 'Hey kid, bugger off_'. _Who knows, it might scare him away."

I shot him a look. "I'm not telling him that." I paused. "Why are you so upset over this anyway? Like I said, he's a kid. If he does have a crush on me, it's probably not really a meaningful one. It's probably only because he _thinks_ I saved him. So it's like he's simply starstruck."

"I know that," Fred said. "And I know he's eleven, but still, can't he see you're unavailable? Honestly, he should be taught now it's not right to go after other people's girfriends. Start them learning young, you know?"

I rolled my eyes, but before I could answer, Hermione stood up from her seat and looked out at all of us. Everyone fell silent and looked back at her, waiting for her to say something.

"Er, hi," she finally said. "Erm...well, you know why you're here. Harry here had the idea-I mean _I _had the idea that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defense Against the Dark Arts-and I mean really study it, you know, not the rubbish things that Umbridge is doing with us, because nobody could call that Defense Against the Dark Arts...Well, I thought it would be good if we, well, took matters into our own hands. And by that I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just theory but the real spells."

"You want to pass your Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL too though, I bet?" Michael Corner asked.

"Of course," Hermione said at once. "But I also want more than that. I want to be properly trained in Defense because...because..." She took a deep breath. "Voldemort's back."

A few people cringed or gasped at the use of You-Know-Who's name, but other than that it was quiet as everyone glanced at Harry.

"That's the plan anyway," Hermione continued. "If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to-"

"Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" a blonde Hufflepuff boy asked.

"Well, Dumbledore believes it," Hermione said.

"You mean Dumbledore believes _him_," the boy said, jerking his chin at Harry.

"Who are you anyway?" Ron asked rudely.

"Zacharias Smith," said the boy, "and I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes _him_ say You-Know-Who is back."

"Look," said Hermione, "that's really not what this meeting was supposed to be about."

"It's okay, Hermione," Harry interrupted. He turned to look Zacharias Smith right in the face. "What makes me say You-Know-Who's back?" he asked. "I saw him. But Dumbledore told the whole school what happened last year and if you didn't belive him, you don't believe me, and I'm not wasting an afternoon trying to convince anyone."

It felt as if the whole room was holding its breath. The room was so silent and still, we'd probably be able to hear a pin drop. They were all hanging onto Harry's every word and now they seemed to be processing his words.

Zacharias shrugged dismissively. "All Dumbledore told us last year was that the Delacour girl got killed by You-Know-Who and that you brought her body back to Hogwarts. He didn't give us details, he didn't tell us exactly how the girl got murdered, and I think we'd all like to know-"

"If you've come to hear exactly what it looks like when Voldemort murders someone, I can't help you," Harry said. "I don't want to talk about Gabrielle Delacour, okay? So if that's why you're all here, you might as well clear out."

Nobody moved. I fought the urge to clap, resorting instead to shooting an encouraging smile at Harry. The fact that nobody was leaving was a good sign. It showed that while people had their doubts about what really had happened in the maze, a part of them had a feeling that Harry was right. That's why we had all showed up in the first place. If we all hadn't believed Harry at least a little bit, we wouldn't be here.

"So," Hermione piped up, "like I was saying, if you want to learn some defense, then we need to work out how we're going to do it, how often we're going to meet, and where we're going to-"

"Is it true," a girl with a long braid interrupted, looking at Harry, "that you can produce a Patronus?"

"Yeah," said Harry as a murmur of interest went around the group.

"A corporeal Patronus?" the girl asked.

"Er-you don't know Amelia Bones, do you?" Harry asked.

The girl smiled. "She's my aunt. I'm Susan Bones. She told me all about your hearing over the summer. So...is it true? You make a stag Patronus?"'

Harry nodded. "Yes."

"Blimey, Harry," Dean said, "I didn't know that!"

"Mum told Ron not to spread it around," Fred said, grinning at Harry. "She said you got enough attention as it was."

"She's not wrong," mumbled Harry and a few people laughed. I smiled and glanced at Fred, who smiled back at me.

"And did you kill a basilisk with the sword in Dumbledore's office, Harry?" Terry Boot asked. "That's what one of the portraits on the wall told me when I was in there last year..."

"Er-yeah, I did," Harry said.

Justin Finch-Fletchley let out a whistle, Dennis and Colin Creevey shared awestruck glances and Lavender Brown whispered "wow" under her breath.

"And in our first year," said Neville, "he saved that-that stone! The one You-Know-Who was after."

"And not to mention," Cho said with a smile, "all the tasks he had to get through in the tournament last year-getting past dragons and merpeople and acromantulas and things."

There was a murmur of impressed agreement around the table.

"Seriously?" Fred asked with a smile. "And what do you all think we did?" He gestured to himself and George.

"Not half the stuff Harry's done," Lee said. "Face it, you two just aren't that impressive, even if you did hold your own in that tournament."

Fred and George sent mock glares his way as Lee laughed.

"Look," Harry continued, "I don't want it to sound like I'm trying to be modest or anything, but I had a lot of help with that stuff."

"Not with the dragon," Michael Corner said. "That was an impressive bit of flying."

"Yeah, well-"

"And nobody helped you get rid of those dementors this summer," Susan Bones said.

"No, okay, I know I did bits of it without help," Harry said, "but the point I'm trying to make is-"

"Are you trying to weasel out of showing us any of this stuff?" Zacaharias Smith asked. I snorted and rolled my eyes. I half wished this kid _had _walked out earlier. I was already so sick of him.

"Here's an idea," Ron said loudly, "why don't you shut your mouth?"

"Well, we've all turned up to learn from him and now he's telling us he can't really do any of it," Zacharias said.

"That's not what he said," Fred practically growled.

"Would you like us to clean out your ears for you?" George asked, pulling out the newest product from Zonko's out of his bag. The metal glinted in the light.

"Or any part of your body, really," Fred said. "We're not fussy where we stick this."

"Can you imagine if it shoots out those sparks then?" I muttered under my breath, leaning towards Fred, who let out a snort of laughter.

"Yes, well," Hermione said hastily as George returned the product to the bag, "the point is, are we agreed we all want to take lessons from Harry?"

There was a murmur of general agreement. Zacharias said nothing, but he still didn't get up to leave.

"Right," said Hermione, looking relieved that something had at last been settled. "Well, then, the next question is how often we do it. I really don't think there's any point in meeting less than once a week."

"Hang on," said Angelina. "We need to make sure this doesn't clash with Gryffindor Quidditch practice."

"No," said Cho, "nor with the Ravenclaw practice."

"Nor the Hufflepuffs," said Zacharias.

"I'm sure we can find a night that suits everyone," said Hermione. "But you know, this is rather important. We're talking about learning how to defend ourselves against Voldemort's Death Eaters."

"Well said!" said Ernie Macmillan. "Personally I think this is really important, possibly more important than anything else we'll do this year, even with our OWLs coming up."

"Okay, well, the other thing to decide, then," Hermione said, "is where we're going to meet."

"The library?" Katie suggested.

"I can't see Madame Pince being too pleased with us doing jinxes in the library," said Harry.

"Maybe an unused classroom?" Dean said.

"Yeah," Ron said, "maybe McGonagall will let us use hers."

"Right, well, we'll try to find somewhere," Hermione said. "We'll send a message to everybody when we've got a time anda place for the first meeting." She rummaged in her bag and produced a piece of parchment and a quill. Then, she hesitated as if she was steeling herself to say something. "I think everyone should write their name down, just so we know who was here. But I also think that we all ought to agree not to shout about what we're doing. So if you sign, you're agreeing not to tell Umbridge or anybody else what we're up to."

Immediately, Fred reached out and took the parchment, signing his name before passing it to me. I paused for a brief moment before signing my name and passing it to George. I had wondered whether ot not it were safe to keep a list of all of our names. If it ever fell into the wrong hands-not that Hermione was irresponsible, but accidents did happen-it could be dangerous. I wasn't looking to get into the kind of trouble we'd get into if we were found out. But then again, the purpose of this group was way more important than any punishment. So, in the end, I signed without a single bit of regret.

A lot of people, however, seemed to be thinking along the same lines as I had.

"Er, I'm sure Ernie will tell me when the meeting is," Zacharias said.

"I-well, we are _Prefects_," Ernie said, looking at Hermione apprehensively. "And if this list was found...I mean, you said yourself, if Umbridge finds out..."

"You just said this group was the most important thing you'd do this year," Harry reminded him with a raised eyebrow.

"I-yes. Yes, I do believe that. It's just..."

"Ernie, do you really think, I'd leave this list lying around?" asked Hermione irritably.

"No. No, of course not," Ernie said. He paused. "Fine, yes, of course I'll sign."

Nobody else objected after Ernie, but the girl who had come in with Cho gave her friend a look before adding her name.

When the last person had signed, Hermione took the parchment back and slipped it carefully into her bag.

"Well, time's ticking on," Fred said briskly, stretching his arms above his head, standing up and offering a hand to me. "George and I have some things we need to get working on. So, if we're all done here, we'll see you lot later."

I grabbed his hand and let him pull me to my feet as the rest of the group began to pack up and leave in groups of twos and threes. I waved to my brother before letting Fred lead me from the room.

"What'd you think?" Fred asked me once we were outside again. "I saw you hesitate before you signed the list."

I shrugged. "No, I was just thinking along the same lines as Ernie," I said. "I'm not a Prefect, but still, I don't like to think of what'll happen if we get caught. But Hermione had a point too. I don't think she'll leave it lying around and this is way more important. There are bigger things to worry about than a detention for breaking the rules."

"Well said," Fred whispered with a grin. He glanced at Lee and George, who were walking slightly head of us. Then, he looked back at me and grinned before dragging me into the alley between Honeydukes and the Three Broomsticks.

"Fred, what are you doing?" I giggled as he gently grabbed my hips and backed me up against the wall. "George and Lee are going to wonder where we went."

"I think they'll figure it out," Fred murmured, his eyes traveling over my face and coming to rest on my lips.

"I thought you and George had stuff to work on," I whispered.

"It can wait a little longer," Fred said, his eyes traveling back up to meet mine. And then he leaned in to kiss me, pushing my hips back against the wall as I slid my arms around his neck.

"I think this is my favorite part of the entire day," Fred whispered, pulling away slightly and grinning at me as he reached up to push a strand of my hair off my forehead.

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. "Enough with the lines, Fred. That may have worked on all the other girls, but not on me." I sent him a grin.

"What do you mean _all_ the other girls? It's only been you and Ange."

"That you've _dated_," I replied. "But I know you've done your fair share of flirting before you dated Angelina."

"And?" Fred asked. "Something wrong with that?"

"No," I whispered, toying with the hair on the back of his neck. "As long as your flirting days are over for the time being."

"What if I'm flirting with _you_?" he asked.

I laughed. "I can't object to that."

"I know. It's my charm and handsome features," Fred asked.

"No, I really just took pity on your ugly face." I smiled and then leaned up to give him a quick kiss before pulling away and leading him out of the alley. "Come on. Let's get back to the common room so you can figure out how to get fireworks into that Zonko's product like I know you're dying to."


	56. Chapter 56

The next morning, a new notice had gone up on the Gryffindor notice board. It was a new Educational Decree stating that all student organizations, societies, teams, groups and clubs were disbanded. Students could get permission to reform, but only by Umbridge herself. Anyone found to be a part of an unapproved team or group would be expelled.

I saw the notice early the day it went up. I saw it at the same time as Julian, Harry and Ron, actually. In fact, they were the reason I saw it. I had seen them all gaping at the notice board, so I knew something had to be up.

"This isn't a coincidence," Harry said darkly. "She knows."

"She can't," Ron said at once.

"There were people listening in that pub," Harry said. "And let's face it, we don't know how many of the people who turned up we can trust. Any of them could have run off and told Umbridge."

"Zacharias Smith!" Ron exclaimed. "Or...I thought Michael Corner had a really shifty look too."

"You're only saying that because he's dating your sister," I said with a roll of my eyes. "But he's really nice. She introduced me to him not long after they started dating. I don't think it was him. He's fine. Give Ginny a bit of credit, why don't you?"

"Fine, it was Smith then," Ron said.

"You don't know that, either," Julian said. "Even if he was the most...uncooperative out of everyone."

"I wonder if Hermione's seen this yet," Harry said, gesturing to the notice.

"Let's go and tell her," Ron said. He bounded towards the girl's staircase and stepped up onto the first step. He was halfway up the stairs when it happened. There was a loud wailing sound and the steps melted together to make a long, smooth stone slide. There was a brief moment when Ron tried to keep running, but then he toppled over and slid down the slide, coming to rest at the bottom with a thud.

"Wow, that was certainly impressive," I said, raising my eyebrows as Julian doubled over with laughter.

"That's not fair!" Ron said, getting to his feet. "Girls are allowed in our domitory, how come we're not allowed in theirs?"

"It's an old fashioned rule," said a voice behind us. Hermione had slid gracefully down the slide and had landed in front of us. "But it says in _Hogwarts, A History_ that the founders thought boys were less trustworthy than girls. Anyway, why were you trying to get in there?"

"To see you," Ron said. "Look at this!" He dragged Hermione over to the notice board.

I watched as Hermione's eyes slid rapidly down the notice. Her expression became stony.

"Someone must have told her!" Ron said angrily.

"They can't have done," Hermione said, her voice low.

"You think just because _you_ are honest and trustworthy all of those other people are?" Ron asked.

"No," Hermione said, turning to look at him. "They can't have done because I put a jinx on the sign up sheet. Believe me, if anyone's run off and told Umbridge, we'll know exactly who they are and they will really regret it."

"What'll happen to them?" Ron asked eagerly.

"Well, put it this way," Hermione said slowly, "it'll make Eloise Midgen's acne look like a couple of cute freckles. Come on, let's get down to breakfast and see what the others think. I wonder whether this has been put up in all the common rooms."

I followed them down to the great hall to see Fred, George, Neville, Dean and Ginny all huddled together at the end of the Gryffindor table. The second they saw us, they beckoned us over. I sat down next to Fred and gave him a quick kiss as the others bombarded Harry, Ron and Hermione with questions.

"Did you see it?"

"Do you think she knows?"

"What are we going to do?"

"We're going to do it anyway, of course," Harry said, his voice low.

"Knew you'd say that," George said, beaming and thumping Harry on the back.

"The prefects as well?" Fred asked, raising his eyebrows and looking at Ron and Hermione.

"Of course," Hermione said coolly, putting a spoonful of eggs on her plate.

"I'll go tell Michael," Ginny said, hurrying off to the Ravenclaw table. Her spot at the table was almost immediately taken by Angelina.

"You realize she's included Quidditch in this, don't you?" she asked. "We have to go and ask permission to reform the Gryffindor team!"

"What?" Julian asked in alarm as Harry, Ron and the twins looked at Angelina aghast.

"No way," Fred said, his eyes wide.

"You read the sign, it mentions teams, too!" Angelina sighed. "So listen, Harry. I am saying this for the last time. Please, _please_ don't lose your temper with Umbridge again or else she might not let us play anymore."

"Okay, okay," said Harry. "Don't worry, I'll behave."

"That goes for you two as well," Angelina said, turning to the twins. "No pranks. And keep your mouths shut."

"But Ange-" Fred began.

"I know it's hard, but just do it so we can get her to reform the team. You do want the team to be reformed, don't you?"

"Of course," George said. "But Umbridge-"

"Is horrible, yes, but please think of this defense group we're doing as a good way to get revenge. Okay? Can that satisfy you for now?"

"No, but we'll keep our mouths shut for the team," Fred said through gritted teeth. He shook his head. "I hate this woman."

Angelina snorted. "Don't we all."

Immediately after breakfast, Angelina went to ask Umbridge for permission to reform the team. Apparently, Umbridge told her she'd have to take some time to think about it. But later that morning, we got wind that she had given the Slytherin team permission to reform almost immediately. Montague boasted about it in History of Magic, making the twins look like they wanted to punch him. Even Angelina looked tempted. But instead, they contained themselves and it was with a heavy sigh that Angelina told the twins, Alicia and Katie that there would be no Quidditch practice until further notice.

But it turned out that further notice wasn't all that long. Angelina, never one to give up, went to McGonagall the next day, who brought the matter up with Dumbledore, who used his authority as headmaster to make Umbridge give in and grant permission to reform the team. Angelina happily announced at lunch that practice would be at seven o'clock sharp that evening.

"We're only three weeks away from our first match!" she exclaimed. "That's not a lot of time at all, so we've got to get practicing!"

Fred and George both groaned after she had walked away.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"You think we could get out of it by using a Skiving Snackbox?" George asked.

"Nah, I bet she'd know what we'd done," Fred sighed. "If only I hadn't offered her a Puking Pastile yesterday..."

"We could try the Fever Fudge," George said. "No one's seen that yet."

"Does it work?" Ron piped up from the other side of the table. "I mean, this weather's looking pretty bad...I was thinking of coming to watch practice. Since I'm the reserve, maybe it wouldn't hurt to be there..."

"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Ron," Fred said.

"Fred," I whispered gently. Fred simply shrugged in response.

"Are you really complaining about having to _sit _out in the rain, Ron?" George asked, narrowing his eyes at his brother. "Try flying in it."

"Well, I mean, that's why I asked if they worked," Ron said. "The Fever Fudge. You could give them to the whole team."

"Yeah, Angelina would _never _suspect anything," Fred snorted, rolling his eyes.

"Fred, stop," I said. I paused. "I have to admit, though, I'm curious as well. Do the Fever Fudges really work?"

"Well, yeah," Fred said, "your temperature will go right up."

"But you ge these massive pus filled boils too," George continued. "And we haven't worked out how to get rid of them yet."

"I don't see any boils," Ron said, staring at the twins.

"No, well, you wouldn't," Fred answered darkly, shoving a spoonful of soup into his mouth. "They're not in a place we generally display to the public. But they make sitting on a broom a right pain in the ass. Literally."

"Wait, wait, wait," I said with a laugh as I held up my hand. "You mean to tell me that you have pus-filled boils all over your-"

"Yes, we do," Fred cut me off, raising an eyebrow in amusement. "And I'll have you know it's not all that funny. Instead it's really painful."

I laughed again and once I started, I couldn't stop. "I'm sorry, I really am, but..." I trailed off as I disolved into more giggles. "You're right. It's not funny, but at the same time it is."

"No, it's not," Fred muttered. But he was cracking a tiny smile as well. "And you'd better shut up or George and I will force feed you one so the three of us will match."

I narrowed my eyes at him as I stopped laughing. "You'll do no such thing," I said. "Julian will beat you up." I pointed to my brother, who laughed into his own soup.

"Yeah, and since I know your current weak spot, I can actually give you a good kick in the ass and it'll be ten times worse," he said.

"When did the boils appear?" I asked.

"This morning," Fred said. "George and I tested our newest Fever Fudge batch last night and this morning we woke up with a lovely surprise."

"And how did you know they were pus-filled?" I asked with a smile and a raised eyebrow.

"You really want to know?" Fred snorted. "I'm sure you can figure it out. We've had to walk around ever since we got out of bed. And any movement is not great for keeping these boils intact."

I giggled again and shook my head as I went back to my soup. "Well, at least your fever went down."

"I'd rather have a fever," Fred muttered.

"Aw, come on, you'll be fine," I said. "Maybe later we can make a kitchen trip? After practice maybe?"

"If I can still walk after that," Fred answered.

"Maybe Madame Pomfrey has something you can use," I suggested. "An ointment or something."

"You want to apply it for me if she does?" Fred asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Ooh, yeah, for me too," George said, sticking his hand in the air.

I sent them both a look. "In your dreams."

"Actually, Lie," Fred said with a grin, "that _is_ a reoccuring dream for me. You applying ointment to the pus-filled boils all over my backside."

I almost spit out my mouthful of soup as Julian actually choked on his. Ron had to clap him on the back a few times.

"Fred, really?" he asked once he had stopped coughing. "I'm sitting _right here_!"

"It was a joke, Jules, relax," Fred said.

"Not a funny one," Julian answered. "You're definitely not allowed to talk to Lilah like that. Really, I need to scrub my brain now. And then I really am going to kick your ass."

"Well, while you're scrubbing your brain," Fred said, as he and George slowly got to their feet, wincing slightly, "George and I are going to make our way to class." He looked down at me. "Come on, Lie."

I stood up and began to follow him and George out of the great hall, snickering to myself as they winced every few steps.

"I think a few of mine have ruptured," Fred said in a hollow voice.

"Mine haven't," George said through clenched teeth. "They're throbbing like mad. Feel bigger if anything..."

"How long do you think it'll take for them to go away?" I asked. "I mean, if you're really not up to practicing tonight..."

"Nah, we'll manage," Fred said, gritting his teeth as well. "Ange is right. We do have to practice. The three weeks until our first match will go by in no time."

"I just don't want you to make them worse or seriously hurt yourself," I said.

Fred sent me a smile before leaning over to kiss my temple. "Thanks, Lie, but I think we'll be fine."

By the next day, the rain had only gotten worse, creating huge puddles out on the grounds and causing the Care of Magical Creatures Classes to be relocated indoors. I was only thankful I didn't have Herbology that day and had no excuse to leave the school. Even Angelina was forced to cancel Quidditch practice. There was no way they'd be able to practice in that rain and wind.

At dinner that night, Angelina joined me, Fred, George, Katie and Alicia at one end of the Gryffindor table. She had just come from telling Harry, Ron and Julian about the canceled practice.

"Harry's found a place to hold the first Defense meeting," she said in an undertone. "Tonight, eight o'clock, seventh floor opposite that tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy being clubbed by those trolls."

"What's over there?" Katie asked. "I thought it was a blank stretch of wall."

"Nah, it was a broom cupboard the last time I checked," Fred said. "I mean, I never remembered one being there until last year when-when-" he cleared his throat and looked at Ange. "When we were nearly caught by Filch in that abandoned classroom, so we had to run, but he was gaining on us and we needed a place to hide..." He smiled briefly as I flushed a deep red and looked away. Something told me they'd done more than hide in that broom cupboard.

There was an uncomfortable silence for a brief moment. And then I spoke. "How did Harry know about this place?" I asked.

"Dobby told him about it," Angelina answered, looking glad about the change of topic. "The elves call it the come and go room according to Hermione. I think it just kind of conforms to be the room that'll accomodate the needs of whoever walks by thinking of those needs." She shrugged. "Something like that. Not quite sure of the specifics, but does it matter? The important thing is that we have a place to hold meetings and we can finally get this whole thing started."

"I'll drink to that," Fred said, holding up his glass. We all grinned and did the same, hitting them together with a cheerful clink in the middle of the table.

* * *

"Amazing," Katie breathed.

"I can't even believe this," Angelina whispered. "It's _unbelievable_."

I smiled as I looked around the room. Katie, Alicia, Ange, Fred, George and I were some of the first to get to the Room of Requirement-the official name for the room Harry had found for our meetings. And it was pretty unbelievable. The doorway had just appeared out of nowhere and now here we were: in a giant room stocked with everything we needed to practice. Pillows, practice dummies, bookshelves, you name it.

"It's great, isn't it?" Julian asked, coming over to us with a grin on his face.

"It's perfect," I said quietly continuing to look around in awe.

"Why don't you all take a seat?" Hermione said, gesturing to the cushions on the floor. "The good thing about these is that they double as both seating and practice for Summoning Charms."

We found spots beside Ginny and Michael Corner and arranged ourselves on the floor. I sat in between Fred's legs and he pulled me back to him as he leaned against the wall and wrapped his arms around me.

By now, pretty much everyone who had attended the first meeting had arrived and taken seats on the floor. Harry stood in front of us, looking nervous and as if he didn't know where to begin.

"Well," he finally began once everyone had fallen silent and was looking up at him, "I've been thinking about the kinds of stuff we ought to do first and-er-" he faltered to a stop when Hermione's hand shot into the air. "What is it, Hermione?"

"I think we ought to elect a leader," Hermione said.

"Harry's leader," Cho Chang said, looking at Hermione as if she were mad. I smirked as I noticed Harry's cheeks turn a light shade of pink.

"Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly," said Hermione. "It makes it formal and it gives him authority. So, everyone who thinks Harry ought to be our leader?"

Everyone raised their hands, even Zacharias Smith, though he did it halfheartedly.

"Er-right, thanks," Harry said awkwardly. "And-_what_, Hermione?"

We all turned to look at her. She had put up her hand again and now she was slowly lowering it. "I also think we ought to have a name," she said brightly. "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"

"Team spirit and unity?" Fred hissed in my ear. "What does she think we are, a bunch of cheerleaders?"

I let out a snort of laughter as Angelina raised her hand from beside me.

"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" she asked hopefully.

"Or the Ministry of Magic Are Morons Group?" Fred suggested.

Hermione shot him a look. "I was thinking," she said, "more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."

"The Defense Association?" asked Cho. "The D.A. for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about."

"Yeah, the D.A. is good," said Ginny, "but let's make it stand for Dumbledore's Army instead because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?"

"Ooh, I like that," I said as more appreciative murmurs rose up among the others. Ginny beamed.

"All in favor of the D.A.?" Hermione asked. When almost everyone raised their hands, she grinned. "That's a majority! Motion passed!" She pinned the piece of paper with all of their names on it on the wall and wrote _Dumbledore's Army_ across the top in large letters.

"Right," said Harry when she had finished, "shall we get practicing then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is _Expelliarmus_, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it's pretty basic but I've found it really useful-"

"Oh _please_!" Zacharias Smith snorted, rolling his eyes and folding his arms. "I don't think _Expelliarmus_ is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?"

"I've used it against him," said Harry quietly. "It saved my life last June."

"Ha," Fred whispered in my ear as we took in the look on Zacharias' face. "Serves that prat right."

"But," Harry continued, "if you think it's beneath you, you can leave."

Zacharias didn't move.

"That's, what, the millionth opportunity he's had?" Fred whispered. "And he's still not leaving?"

"He's scared, Fred, I'm telling you. Despite his attitude, he's afraid. If he wasn't, he _would_ have left."

"Okay," said Harry, "I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practice."

"Do you mind if I partner with George for a bit?" Fred asked as he stood and then helped me to my feet. "We can switch off every other meeting if you want. Or even every other spell since I know you can't wait that long to be around me again."

I shot him a look. "Go partner with George," I told him. I looked around. Angelina and Lee had already partnered up and so had Alicia and Katie. I met Tess' eyes from across the room, though and smiled as I gestured for her to come over. "I'll partner with Tess."

"Hey," she said once she had reached us. "Want to be partners?"

I nodded. "Fred's going to partner with George."

"Okay," she said with a smile. she turned to Fred and waved. "Hi, Fred."

"Hey," he replied, returning the smile. "You ladies have fun. Try not to get too competitive. We don't want any catfights." He grinned and winked before turning to George and walking a few feet away in order to practice.

"So things going okay with you two?" Tess asked as she backed up a few paces. "The whole summer apart didn't mess you up?"

"No, not at all," I said. "Expelliarmus." Tess' wand flew out of her hand and landed on the floor a few feet away. She retrieved it before turning it on me and casting the charm. My own wand flew out of my hand, but she actually caught it. "Nice," I commented.

She grinned and tossed my wand back at me. "Thanks."

"So what about you?" I asked. "You and Connor doing okay?"

"Yeah, perfect," she said, glancing over towards where Connor was partnered with Cedric Diggory. She smiled slightly. "He's great."

"Why didn't you partner up with him, then?" I asked. "You could have if you wanted to."

"Friends first," Tess chirped with a smile. "I already don't get to see you as much as we should see each other. Different houses and all that." She shrugged.

I grinned back. "Thanks, Tess." There was a pause as my eyes wandered over to Danny, who was practicing not too far away from Connor. "That's the kid I was telling you about," I said, gesturing with my chin. "Do you know him? He's in your house."

Tess glanced over her shoulder before turning back to me and nodding. "Yeah I've seen him in the common room before. He must not know you and I are friends or else I'm sure he would've asked me about you. From what you've said, he's really taken a liking to you."

I scoffed. "I was telling Fred that I want to tallk to him, but I just don't know what to say without sounding like such a jerk."

"Tell him the truth," Tess suggested.

"Tried that the second it all happened and he brushed it away. Insisted I was the one to help him."

Tess shrugged. "Well, it's obviously nothing serious," she said. "It's a little kid infatuation. He'll get over it eventually."

"I hope so," I said. "It just feels weird to have him idolize me for something I didn't even do." I smiled as I successfully blasted Tess' wand out of her hand again.

While she was retrieving it, I happened to glance over at Fred and George, who had stopped practicing for the time being. Now, they were taking turns pointing their wands at Zacharias Smith's back and disarming him every time _he _tried to disarm his own partner. I noticed Harry give them a look as he walked around the room, checking everyone's progress.

"Sorry, Harry, couldn't resist," Fred said with a smile. He looked over at me and winked as I smiled back. Even after he turned back around, I continued to watch him. Watching every movement, every flick of his wrist when he performed the spell, every smile and every laugh each time Zacharias' wand flew out of his hand. I couldn't tear my eyes away. He looked happy. He looked comfortable. He looked completely in his element and as if there was no place he'd rather be right now than with his brother causing a harmless laugh at some mouthy idiot's expense. I could have watched him all day.

A few minutes later, Harry dismissed us. It was already almost time for us to be back in our common rooms and if we didn't leave soon, we'd risk getting caught out after hours.

"We'll meet back here next Wednesday, same time," Harry said as we all grabbed our things and headed for the door.

I fell into step beside the twins, Angelina, Katie, Alicia and Lee as we walked back to the common room.

"I don't know about you guys, but I feel great," Fred said happily. "We're resisting Umbridge right under her nose, even with her silly Educational Decree saying that we can't have any unapproved teams or groups."

I nodded. "It feels pretty good, doesn't it?"

"It feels amazing," George added. "I just wish we didn't have to wait until next Wednesday to have another meeting."

"I agree," Angelina said. "It can't come fast enough. And then Harry has to figure out how to schedule meetings around Quidditch practices for three houses."

"I have no idea how he's going to do that," I said. "Or even communicate with everyone about their schedules. There are so many of us and we can't bring attention to ourselves or else Umbridge will find out about us for sure."

"And we can't have that," Fred said, "so I'm sure Harry will think of something or else we'll be in trouble."

"And if Harry doesn't think of anything, I'm sure Hermione will," George added with a snort.

Fred snorted, too. "Believe it or not, Georgie, I wouldn't put it past her."

* * *

It turned out that Hermione did think of a way to easily communicate amongst ourselves. She brought her idea in a basket to the meeting being held a few weeks later, a few days before my eighteenth birthday.

"You're passing out money now, Granger?" Fred asked, taking the Galleon Hermione was passing him. "You've officially become my favorite person, but where were you last year when George and I were broke?"

"These aren't _real_ Galleons," Hermione said, passing one to me, then moving on to Ginny and Michael Corner. "You see the numerals around the edge of the coins?" she asked, holding one up. "On real Galleons that's just a serial number referring to the goblin who cast the coin. On these fake coins, though, the numbers will change to reflect the time and date of the next meeting. The coins will grow hot when the date changes, so if you're carrying them in a pocket you'll be able to feel them. We take one each, and when Harry sets the date of the next meeting, he'll change the date on _his _coin, and because I've put a Protean Charm on them, they'll all change to mimic his."

Everyone looked up at Hermione in stunned silence. Merlin, that girl was brilliant.

"Well, I thought it was a good idea," she said uncertainly. "I mean, even if Umbridge asked us to turn out our pockets, there's nothing fishy about carrying a Galleon, is there?"

"If you're part of my family, there is," Ron said with a snort.

Hermione sent him a look. "Well, if you don't want to use them..."

"You can do a Protean Charm?" Terry Boot asked.

"Yes," answered Hermione slowly.

"But that's...that's NEWT level stuff," he said weakly.

"It is," I piped up. "We're just starting to learn those now."

"Oh," Hermione said, trying to look modest. "Oh, well, yes..."

"How come you're not in Ravenclaw?" Terry asked. "With brains like yours?"

"Well, the Sorting Hat did seriously consider putting me in Ravenclaw during my Sorting," said Hermione, "but it decided on Gryffindor in the end. So does that mean we're using the Galleons?"

There was a murmur of agreement as everyone pocketed the Galleon Hermione had passed them.

We spent the rest of the meeting going over Summoning Charms as well as reviewing all the spells we'd learned so far. I was partnered with Angelina today and the twins kept "accidentally" sending their cushions soaring into our heads.

"Fred, knock it off!" Angelina cried as Fred's cushion smashed into the side of her head again.

"What, Ange, it doesn't hurt! It's soft!" Fred exclaimed, summoning the cushion back into his arms.

"It's rather hard to practice with you sending cushions into our heads every few minutes," Angelina said. "That's the main issue here."

"Really?" I said with a smile. "The main issue is that it's distracting? Not that he's hitting us in the head in the first place. I don't especially care how soft those cushions are, I don't particularly like getting bashed in the head."

"No?" Fred asked, coming up behind me and tossing the cushion against my arm a few times, letting it bounce back off and into his hand each time. "This isn't fun for you?"

I reached out and swatted the cushion away as I laughed. "No, it's not."

"Huh, interesting," Fred said thoughtfully. "The pillow must be faulty, then, because I was certain hitting people with them was fun for all."

I snorted and grabbed the cushion from him before clobbering him on the head. "You're right...this is fun."

* * *

As time went on, we managed to have D.A. meetings once a week safely hidden away in the Room of Requirement. Umbridge had no idea it existed and neither did the Inquisitorial Squad (the group she had rallied up to help enforce her stupid decrees. It consisted of Slytherins because no one from any other house would sign up).

But even still, we began to think she suspected we were doing something under her nose. It almost seemed like she, the Inquisitorial Squad and Filch (who had taken a liking to our new, toad faced teacher), were keeping a closer eye on us than usual. The all seemed to be everwhere and sometimes we had to take a few detours on the way to meetings in order to get rid of them to make sure they didn't see us open the Room of Requirement. We did everything we could to keep the D.A. a secret. We met on different days each week and at different times. When Harry dismissed us, he did it in groups while keeping an eye on the Marauder's Map to make sure no one was nearby. Because if we were caught, well...nobody really liked to think about what would happen.

When my birthday finally rolled around, I didn't plan on spending it by doing anything special. It was a Friday, which meant I still had to go to classes. But, as Fred was eager to point out, I didn't have to do any homework that night, considering none was due the next day. I tried to argue with him, but he was too good and finally got me to cave and agree to save the homework until tomorrow at the very least.

Angelina, Katie and Alicia sang Happy Birthday to me as usual the second I woke up, and the twins sang to me at breakfast, even going as far to stick a trick candle in a blueberry muffin. No matter how hard I tried, the flame would not go out, causing Fred and George to nearly double over in laughter.

"I'll light your hair on fire," I threatened, taking the candle out of the muffin and waving it dangerously close to Fred's head. That got him to quickly snatch it from my hand and wave his wand over it to put the flame out.

All in all, it was a pretty great day. But just when I thought it was coming to a close, Fred proved me wrong. We were on our way back from dinner, when Fred pulled me back so we were lagging a bit behind the group. "Nightime birthday trip to Honeydukes just me and you?" he asked.

I smiled and thought it over for a second. "Yeah," I nodded, "okay."

When we passed the entrance to the Honeydukes passageway, Fred quickly and silently pulled me into it and led me through the tunnel, my hand clasped in his. When we finally got there, we separated and wandered up and down the aisles, picking out things we wanted. Fred started on one side and I on the other and we worked our way through the shop, knowing eventually we'd meet up in the middle.

"Pick whatever you'd like," Fred called. "It's on me."

"Fred, that's not fair," I said.

"Of course it is," he answered. "It's your birthday, isn't it? So just shut up and accept that it's my treat."

When we did finally meet up in the middle, Fred looked down at the items in my hands with a look of slight weariness. "That's it?" he asked. "Just a bag of Fudge Flies and a Sugar Quill?"

I looked at his armful of sweets and smiled. "You've got enough for all of Gryffindor tower. I can't imagine I'd need much else."

"You like Cauldron Cakes, right?" Fred asked, scanning the shelf beside us.

"Yes," I said slowly.

"Happy birthday," he said, grabbing a package and thrusting them at me. "And what about Licorice wands? Have one of those too." He continued down the aisle, passing me some Bertie Bott's beans, Pumpkin Pasties and about seven Chocolate Frogs.

"Okay, well I'd say that's about the bare minimum of what you should get. Want anything else?"

"No, Fred, honestly," I said, pinning a chocolate frog to my side as it started to slip from my grasp.

Fred nodded and led the way towards the front where he loaded our things into two bags and slipped the money into the register. Then, he took my hand again and led us back into the secret passageway. We made it about three quarters of the way back to the castle before Fred stopped, took my bag from me and set it on the ground along with his.

"What are you doing?" I whispered.

"Completing your birthday present," he said, stepping closer to me and gently placing his hands on my hips, backing me up into the wall.

"Why here? Why not wait until we're at the end of the passageway?" I asked.

"Just in case Umbridge or Filch is patrolling the corridors. Don't want to risk them stumbling across us." he smirked down at me. One look behind that one eyed witch statue and we're done for."

"Are you playing it safe to humor me?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.

"No, I'm not even trying to play it safe at all," Fred said. "It's not getting a detention I'm worried about. I just don't want to be _interrupted_, you see." He pressed himself even closer to me and smiled.

"Ah," I whispered, my breath catching a bit in my throat.

Fred smirked wider before leaning in and kissing me, one hand remaining on my hip and the other reaching up to cradle the side of my face. I felt his fingertips on either side of my ear and I fought back a shiver.

"Happy birthday, you _granny_," he whispered, pulling away slightly.

"In about five months you'll be just as old as I am, so shut it," I whispered back, smiling deviously up at him. And then I slid my hand to the back of his neck and pulled him in for another kiss. Seconds later, he pulled away again and trailed kisses from the corner of my mouth to my jaw and down to my neck. I let out an involuntarily giggle as my hand slid upwards through the hair on the back of his neck. "Are you _trying_ to leave a mark?" I asked with another giggle as I continued to feel Fred's lips on my neck.

"Of course I am, you nutter," he murmured. "What else would I be trying to do?"

"Just asking," I quipped, "because I actually couldn't tell if you were trying to eat me alive or not."

"You'd taste terrible," Fred remarked. "Like worry and levelheadedness." He finally pulled away and looked down at me with a smirk on his face. He was still pressing me against the wall and I hated how quick and shallow my breathing was. I knew he could definitely tell by the way he was still smirking at me.

"Yeah, well..." I said, but I didn't finish my sentence. I didn't know what to say and Fred knew this too. He smirked even wider.

"Seeing you all flustered is a riot," he commented, releasing his hold on me and picking up our bags.

"I'm not flustered," I said, smoothing my shirt.

"Uh-huh," Fred grinned. He reached out and grabbed my hand, ignoring the annoyed frown on my face and tugging me forward. My feet complied and I started to walk, sneaking glances at Fred every few seconds.

"So...good birthday?" he asked casually, throwing a sideways glance of his own at me.

"Shut up," I laughed, smacking him in the chest with my free hand. "You _know_ it was and you know _why_."

"No, I don't," Fred said innocently. "Whatever do you mean?"

In response, I simply scowled at him, getting him to laugh. "Carry the birthday girl back to Gryffindor tower," I demanded with a smile. "It's the least you could do for being such a cocky bastard."

"Cocky bastard, huh?" Fred asked. "That's all you've got?" He smiled again, and nonetheless allowed me to climb up on his back.

"No, I've got an endless stream of rude names circling around in my head. I'm just saving them for another time."

"Okay," Fred laughed, his tone making it clear that he didn't believe me.

"I mean it, you arrogant pain in the ass!"

"I'm still not impressed with these insults," Fred sighed. "Ginny can insult me better than that."

"What about if I called you a talentless, boring, un-funny jerk who can't pull a prank to save his life?" I giggled.

"Take it back!" Fred gasped.

"Nope. You asked for it," I reminded him.

"I'll have you know that I am a very talented, exciting, hilarious person, who pulls legendary pranks and has sunbeams shining out of every orifice," Fred sniffed.

"Which brings me back to cocky bastard and arrogant pain in the ass," I said as we reached Gryffindor tower. Fred gave the password and I slipped down from his back as we stepped inside.

"Yeah, well, I'll take those if it means I get to keep the talent and the humor," Fred said. He paused. "And the sunbeams." He placed his hands under his chin angelically as he batted his eyelashes at me.

I giggled and shook my head as I reached out and took my bag of Honeydukes merchandise from him. "Thanks, Fred, really. For the candy and everything."

He nodded. "Happy Birthday, Lie." He leaned forward and gave me another kiss, but it was a much sweeter one compared to the ones back in the tunnel.

"See you tomorrow," I whispered, backing up a few steps towards my dorm.

"Tomorrow," Fred agreed, "when the birthday princess turns back into a frog."

"You're getting your stories mixed up," I told him with a shake of my head. "If my birthday wish comes true, it'll be _you_ waking up as a frog tomorrow, Freddie." I smiled and waved. "Goodnight."

* * *

As November began, everyone only seemed to get busier. Most of my friends, as well as my brother, were busy with the Quidditch team. Ange was holding practices nearly every day in preparation for Gryffindor's first match against Slytherin, which was coming up soon.

The Slytherins had also started getting nasty again, just like they usually did before a match against Gryffindor. One day, about a week and a half before the match, I was in the library with Alicia when Miles Bletchley, the Slytherin Keeper, hit her from behind with a jinx that made her eyebrows start growing so fast and thickly that they were covering her eyes in a matter of seconds. I helped her to the hospital wing and explained what happened, but when Madame Pomfrey informed Professor Snape what Bletchley had done, he simply ignored the fact that multiple people besides me had seen what happened and said that Alicia simply must have performed a Hair Thickening Charm on herself.

"That git," Fred fumed in the common room later that night. "Why on earth would Leesh do that to herself? Why would _anyone_ do it to themselves? And how can anyone believe that suggestion?"

"You should all be extremely careful from now until the match," I advised. I was streched out on the couch with my legs in Fred's lap and my Charms textbook lying across my stomach. "The Slytherins are known to play dirty at times like this and Snape obviously doesn't care. I don't want them to try anything else on you. Anything dangerous that'll take you out of commission or simply just hurt you."

"Actually, I say that they should bring it on," Fred said with a shrug. "We're not afraid of them and nothing they can do to us will upset us. We're not wimps. And we're ready for the match. We're going to crush them, despite all their efforts to throw us off."

"Fred, what I'm really concerned about is them hurting you, like I said." I shot him a weary look. "Any of you. I know the other stuff doesn't bother you, but I do think that you'll be pretty upset if you're hurt and unable to play because a Slytherin tripped you."

"You really think we're dumb enough to not see that attempt coming?" Fred scoffed. "Seriously, George and I have been expert pranksters for years. We can spot lame pranks like trying to trip someone from a mile away."

"No I know, but I just think you should be on alert."

"We always are, Lie," Fred sighed. "But I know if it were up to you, we'd all hide under our covers, shaking like leaves until the match." He flashed me a teasing smile.

"That's not true!" I exclaimed, trying to lightly nudge him in the stomach with my foot. He caught me by my ankle and smirked as he slowly held up his other hand and wiggled his fingers. "No, Fred, don't you dare," I warned. But my plea did nothing. With a grin, he began to tickle my sock clad foot. I let out a shriek of laughter and nearly fell off the couch as I tried to squirm out of his grip.

A few people in the corner of the room shushed me, but my laughter only went down a few notches as I continued to try to yank my ankle from Fred's grasp.

"Ah, found your tickle spot," Fred said cheerfully.

"Stop, please," I gasped as my upper body rolled off the couch. My textbook hit the floor with a thud, but I managed to catch myself by pressing my hands against the floor. I twisted around to look back up at Fred, who was still tickling my foot. "Please," I giggled.

"Not until you say the magic words," he sing-songed.

"Which are?" I asked through clenched teeth.

Fred grinned cheekily down at me. "Say 'Fred Weasley is drop dead gorgeous, the best flyer on the Quidditch team, and a prankster extraordinaire'."

"Fred Weasley is drop dead ugly, the worst flyer on the Quidditch team and a terrible prankster," I recited. I paused as I pretended to think. "Or was it a _horrible_ prankster? It was kind of hard to hear."

"Hard to hear my ass," Fred muttered, dropping my ankle and letting the rest of my body collapse to the floor.

"What a way to treat your girlfriend," Katie commented with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't seem to know what you're referring to," Fred said, looking at her innocently.

I glared up at him from the floor before pushing myself up, punching the side of Fred's leg as I did so.

"Ouch, Lie, you may have broken my leg," Fred said dully, his face expressionless as he twirled his wand lazily between his fingers.

"You're an ass," I grumbled, reclaiming my seat on the couch, but keeping my feet on the ground this time and away from Fred.

"And you're a pain," Fred retaliated.

"Does that mean that together we're a pain in the ass?" I asked with a slight smile.

"Most likely," Fred chuckled. He hesitated. "But that was a really stupid joke, Lie. You have a lot to learn."

"From who?" I asked. I pretended to look around the room. "I don't see anyone here who's actually good at being funny."

"No, of course not," Fred answered with a roll of his eyes.

I smiled and opened my Charms book again as I glanced at him. He had his feet up on the table now, with invention plans spread out on the arm of the couch and on the cushion beside him. He had his quill between his teeth and his brow was furrowed in concentration.

_I love you_.

The thought had practically come flying out of nowhere and I almost felt myself startle as it passed through my head. I chewed on my lip as I continued to watch Fred. I couldn't be in love with him yet. It felt too soon-at least by my standards. I mean, I had spent so long not wanting to move too quickly with him and now here I was, a little over four months into our relationship with the words _I love you_ on the tip of my tongue and a feeling like my insides were slowly melting. But it was just like with Oliver. The words had flashed through my mind at random intervals with him too and it was always when I was watching him do small, simple tasks, or something he loved. Or both. But I had been too afraid to tell him until he told me.

And I couldn't say anything to Fred yet, either. I wanted to be sure. Sure that I was right about what I was feeling. Sure that I was,in fact, falling in love with him, even though-terrifingly-I was fairly certain I was. And besides, telling him first was even scarier than the thought of telling Oliver first. I was having a harder time imagining Fred feeling the same and the thought of confessing something so huge to him that he could very well reject scared me. A lot. So, I figured, it couldn't hurt to take some time to sort out my feelings and maybe try to gauge his the best I could before I said anything. Because the last thing I wanted was to mess anything up.

* * *

Finally, it was the day of the first match. Luckily, the rest of the team had made it without being harmed by the Slytherins or hit by their jinxes-even though they _were _trying up until now to get the best of the Gryffindor team. But like Fred had said, they weren't really rattled easily. They were going into the match more determined than ever.

At breakfast that morning, I sat across from my brother and the twins, staring at them expectantly. "Nervous?" I asked, looking at Julian.

"No, never," Fred answered, taking a bite of toast.

"I know _you're_ not," I said with a roll of my eyes. "I was asking my brother."

"I'm actually not," Julian said with a shrug. "I think we're prepared."

"But it's your first ever Quidditch match," I said dubiously. "You have to have at least a few jitters."

"Nope," Julian responded confidently as he scooped some eggs onto his plate. He looked at me and laughed when he saw the look on my face. "Seriously!"

"Look, if you're trying to play it cool because these two buffoons are here," I said, jerking my thumb towards the twins, "then cut the act."

"No, really," Julian said. "I'm not nervous now."

"Now?" I asked.

Julian hesitated. "I was a little nervous last night, but then I thought about it and you know what? We're ready. We've got this. I'm not going to be scared of the Slytherins. I'm not going to be nervous because they play dirty."

"That's not what I asked you," I said. "I asked if you were nervous because it's your _first match_."

"And like I said, we're ready," Julian answered. "_I'm_ ready."

I looked at him in astonishment before grinning. "I'm really proud of you, Jules," I whispered. "Knock 'em dead out there today, okay?"

"That's _our_ job, Lie," George said, gesturing to himself and Fred. "We're the ones with the bats, so if anyones going to be _knocking_ anyone dead, it'll be us."

"It's an expression," I sighed. "And please, don't actually knock anyone dead." I hesitated. "Unconscious I can live with, but not dead." I smiled. "Prison isn't attractive in the least."

"I don't know, Lie, those jumpsuits and the way my face will look partially obstructed by bars..." Fred trailed off and shook his head thoughtfully. "Not to mention my mugshot."

I rolled my eyes before turning back to my brother as I started to stand up. "I'll see you later. Good luck out there."

"Aren't you going to wish _me_ good luck?" Fred asked with a raised eyebrow. "I am your boyfriend after all."

"I'm sorry," I said, "I just didn't think someone with as big of an ego as yours would need to be wished luck." I flashed him a grin.

Fred looked torn for a second. "Good point," he said, "but maybe you could say it just for show. You know, the whole girlfriend weeping with pride as her boyfriend leaves with his teammates to head off to risk his life..." He sighed dramatically.

"You're playing Quiddich, Fred, not going off to war. And the day I _weep_ over you will be the day you stop bothering me."

"That'll never happen," Fred said.

"Exactly," I grinned. I leaned across the table and gave him a quick kiss before standing up and heading down the table to meet up with Ginny and Hermione, glancing over my shoulder at him as I did so, only to find him watching me leave, his chin on his hand and a grin on his face. I smiled again as those three words floated through my brain once more. _I love you_. I knew by now it was definitely how I felt. I couldn't help it. And I wanted to tell him, but I couldn't work up the courage. My brain forced the words to a screeching halt just as fast as they seemed to fling them to the tip of my tongue.

I wasn't sure what I was so afraid of, either. Being laughed at? No, this was something Fred would actually take seriously. I knew that. It was Fred. I trusted him. He was my best friend and my boyfriend, so why shouldn't I be able to tell him how I felt?

* * *

The match was one of the dirtiest matches I'd ever seen. The Slytherin team was brutal and so were the Slytherin fans. They yelled out rude comments every chance they got while the members of the Quidditch team resorted to voilence whenever they could-especially the Beaters. Luckily, everyone on the Gryffindor team managed to avoid coming into any harm-until the last few minutes of the game. Marcus Flint got exceptionally angry over Gryffindor's latest goal, so he slammed a Bludger with all his might towards the Gryffindor goalposts. I watched in horror as Julian attempted to dive out of the way, but moved too late. The Bludger collided with his nose from the side. I practically heard the crack from my seat and a second later saw the blood pouring down his face. I let out a scream and jumped to my feet.

"Lilah, sit, you can't go tearing down there," Ginny said, tugging on my sleeve. "The match isn't over yet."

"Do you think I give a damn?" I shrieked, trying to pull out of her grip.

"Sit," Ginny demanded, standing and pushing down on my shoulders. I fought her for a second before finally giving in and letting her continue. "The match is not over and look-Julian's still attemting to play." She pointed to where my brother was still in the air, a determined look on his face that was half covered in blood.

"They broke his nose!" I exclaimed. "He needs to go to the hospital wing."

"And he will," Ginny insisted. "Later." She looked at me and smiled. "And he'll be fine once he gets there. Madame Pomfrey will mend it in a second."

I scowled as I wrapped my arms around myself and leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees. Now I wanted Harry to catch the Snitch more than ever.

And he did. A few minutes later, he caught the small golden ball in his fist, securing a victory for Gryffindor. It was a close one too. He and Malfoy had been neck and neck in a very impressive dive until Harry had pulled slightly ahead and grabbed the Snitch. But seconds after that, Crabbe, who had been appointed a Beater this year for whatever reason, sent a Bludger straight into Harry's back, sending him flying forward off his broom. Luckily, he only fell about a foot, having dived so low to catch the snitch.

"Okay, _now_ you can get up," Ginny said as the Gryffindor fans erupted in cheers. I stood up and practically lew down to the field. I was elated the team had won, honestly, but all I could think about now was getting to my brother.

My feet hit the grass of the pitch-finally-and I took off at a sprint to the other side where the Gryffindor team stood, hugging each other and celebrating their win. I reached Julian and threw my arms around him in a forceful hug. "You played brilliantly," I whispered before quickly pulling away and examining his face. "But Jules, your _nose_. Oh, Merlin...It's still pouring blood."

"Battle scars," Julian whispered, a smile on his face as he swiped at the blood with his sleeve.

"Doesn't it hurt?" I asked.

"Of course. But we won, Lie! We won!"

I laughed as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into a giant hug. His excitement was too contagious for me to keep worrying about his face. I found myself having no choice but to be happy with him. After all, Ginny had been right, hadn't she? Madame Pomfrey could fix it in a second. "You did win," I said with a giggle. "Congratulations."

Suddenly, I was hastily pulled away from Julian, flung over someone's shoulder and spun in a circle. I laughed harder, knowing exactly who had done it.

"Great job today, Freddie," I giggled as he finally set me down. He looked back at me elatedly before leaning in and giving me a breathless kiss.

"Thanks, didn't I play brilliantly?" he asked. "I outshined everyone else by _far_."

"Not as much as my brother did," I said with a smirk. "He's even got the battle scars to prove it."

"I'll have you know that I've gotten plenty of injuries paing Quiddich," Fred answered.

"Plenty?" I asked. "Funny, I can only remember twice," I said thoughtfully. "And they were both sprained wrists. No broken bones." I smiled. "A good thing in my book, but in yours, doesn't that make you, I don't know..." I shrugged, "kind of wimpy?"

"What?" Fred laughed. "_Wimpy_? No, you did not just call me wimpy." He reached out and grabbed my arm before pulling me into a headlock and ruffling my hair as I laughed. It was cut short, however, as I suddenly caught on to a voice carrying over to us from a few feet away.

"You know, maybe Slytherin would've had a chance of winning if only Weasley had been put on the team!" It was Draco Malfoy. Great. Nothing good could come of this. I froze as Fred released me and turned to face Malfoy as he continued. "He's so terrible, he would've let in every one of our goals!" He looked at Harry. "But you like the Weasleys, don't you Potter? Spend the holidays there and everything! Can't see how you stand the stink, but I suppose when you've been dragged up by Muggles even the Weasleys' hovel smells okay."

The twins immediately lunged for Malfoy, but the rest of us were quick. Harry grabbed hold of George and pulled him back while Angelina, Katie and I grabbed Fred. I pushed on his chest as Angelina and Katie grabbed his arms and Malfoy continued to laugh.

"I guess it's because their mother's too fat and lazy to do any cleaning and becauses their father's such a useless loser, they don't have any money for hired help!"

"Fred, stop!" I cried, pushing him back with all my might as he tried to lunge forward. I probably wouldn't have been able to do it if Ange and Katie hadn't been pulling on him too.

Malfoy turned his grey eyes on me and smirked. "And of course, birds of a feather flock together. If I remember correctly from that article last winter, the Fitzgeralds have a useless loser father too."

I was eternally grateful for Alicia just then who grabbed my brother and stopped him from jumping on Malfoy. Honestly, if the stupid git didn't shut up, he was going to get everyone involved and he was going to end up getting pummeled by four hard headed boys.

"And Potter, your friends with both families!" Malfoy exclaimed. "I don't know what it is about them that attracts you so much. Maybe you're remnded of your own family and how useless they were, too. And maybe the Weasleys pigsty reminds you of how much _your _mother's house used to stink."

In an instant, Harry had released George and they were running at Malfoy at top speed. Fred lunged again and so did Julian, but the rest of us managed to keep them back.

"Don't you dare move," I hissed at Fred. "You too, Jules."

They both began yelling at once, loudly talking over each other trying to make their point.

"What do you want us to do?"

"Did you hear what he said?"

"He insulted our families!"

"Just let us help make an impression of his face in the dirt!"

"We heard!" Angelina practically roared. "But it's Malfoy! And he's just being a sore loser because Slytherin lost! Get a grip and act like the bigger people for once in your life instead of stooping down to his level!"

We all froze and turned to look at her.

"Merlin, I've forgotten how insane you look when you're angry at me," Fred snorted.

"Yeah, well," Angelina said, pursing her lips.

"Thanks, Ange," I said. "Maybe you should give me lessons on how to yell like that."

"Impedimenta!"

We all whirled around to see Madame Hooch stomping towards Malfoy, Harry and George with her wand outstreched and an outraged look on her face. She had just been talking to Crabbe about his attack on Harry with the Bludger, but now all of her attention had turned to the fight.

"What do you think you're doing?" she screeched. Harry and George jumped to their feet as Malfoy remained on the ground, whimpering like the huge baby he was. His nose was blooding and so was Harry's while George had a swollen lip. They were quiet as Madame Hooch continued. "I've never seen behavior like it! Back up to the castle, both of you, and straight to your Head of House's office! Go! Now!"

Harry and George turned on their heels and marched off the pitch, both wih sour looks on their faces. Eventually Malfoy got up and was ushered back towards the castle. And that's when finally, the rest of us released Fred and Julian.

Fred took off at a brisk walk towards the castle. I jogged after him, yelling a quick reminder to Julian over my shoulder, telling him to get his nose fixed. As if he needed reminding. But whatever. I only wanted to talk to Fred at the moment because I knew he was still seething.

"Fred, I know you're upset, but Ange was right. It's Malfoy. He was being a sore loser and he wanted a rise out of you. And you gave it to him!"

"I don't care!" he cried, turning to face me. "Maybe you're okay with your family being insulted like that, but I'm not!"

"I'm not, Fred, you know I'm not! But how can you of all people be affected by what Malfoy has to say?"

"How can you not be?" he asked furiously. "I don't care who says it. I know what he was trying to do, but he's such a dirty rotten sore loser that he has to stoop that low to make himself feel better! It's pathetic! Someone needs to pummel him and I'm glad at least George got a few punches in!"

"Fred, stop," I said. "Of course I hate that Malfoy said all that, but I wasn't going to let you punch him."

"Why, because you want to protect me?" Fred sneered. I recoiled from the look on his face. "You want to spare me from getting a boo-boo from fighting? Or another detention?"

I gaped at him in horror. "I really just don't want you to fight," I whispered. "It's not worth it. But you're right, I don't want those other things to happen either." I sighed. "I _am_ just trying to protect you."

"Well maybe you should stop," Fred snapped. "I don't need you to protect me. If anything, you should be working on protecting yourself for once in your life."

I stepped back as if he had slapped me. And when he turned and continued walking away, I didn't stop him.


	57. Chapter 57

After the match, I went immediately up to the common room and sat on the couch, pulling my knees to my chest and staring into the fire. About five minutes later, the Quidditch team returned from the changing rooms, minus George and Harry of course, who were still with McGonagall.

Angelina let out a tired groan and sank into an armchair, rubbing her hands over her face. "I don't believe this," she said. "I hate waiting to hear what their punishment will be. I hope it isn't more detentions."

"At least if it is, they'll be with McGonagall and not Umbridge," Julian reasoned. I was glad to see that he had gone to Madame Pomfrey and gotten his nose fixed. It looked better than ever and like it had never been broken to begin with.

I sat quietly as I rested my chin on my knees. When Fred sank down into an armchair across from me instead of the couch cushion right beside me, I sighed. He must've still been angry or else he would've sat next to me.

I stared quietly over at him, but he wouldn't look at me. My heart sank. I had only been doing what I had thought was right, but he clearly had taken it the wrong way. Not that I was surprised. I knew he didn't need or want protecting, especially from me. But I cared about him so much-heck, I _loved _him, for Merlin's sake. And now I was shying away from telling him even more than before.

We sat in a terrible silence for about five minutes. Nobody said anything, but there really wasn't anything to say in the first place. I did want to talk to Fred, but not here. Not in front of everyone. And I knew he wouldn't agree to go talk privately now. He wanted to be with the team and he wanted to be around when Harry and George came back.

And finally, they did, after an agonizing seven minutes and forty three seconds. I knew because I was staring at my watch, feeling too anxious and scared for the others to do much else in the quiet. And also because I couldn't look at Fred.

Harry and George were both looking absolutely miserable as they made their way over to us. Angelina stood up at once as they plopped down into chairs.

"What happened?" she asked. "What'd she say?"

"Was she mad?" Alicia asked. "Did she give you a detention?"

Harry and George shook their heads.

"Multiple detentions?" Angelina squeaked.

Harry and George shook their heads again. "No," Harry whispered hoarsely.

"Then what?" Julian asked. He paled as his eyes widened. "Did she really give you something worse? We really didn't think she'd be too harsh on you. McGonagall's usually really fair."

"She was going to just give us a detention each," George said.

"Okay," Fred said slowly. "So what happened that she changed her mind?"

"She didn't," Harry said. "Umbridge showed up."

Angelina let out a swear and flopped back into her chair. "Great," she muttered. "At this point, I don't even want to hear it."

"Well, we have to tell you," Harry said, "because it affects the team." He paused and swallowed. "We've been banned from playing Quidditch. Umbridge is going to collect our brooms and lock them up." He looked at Fred. "She banned you as well."

Fred's mouth dropped open. "What?" he cried. "That's not possible! Can't McGonagall override her by going to Dumbledore like she did when we had to ask to reform the team?"

"No," George whispered. "Umbridge passed another educational decree saying that the High Inquisitor has authority over all punishments and removal of privileges."

Fred groaned and buried his head in his hands. "I'm going to kill that woman," he said. "I'm going to bloody _kill_ her."

"Banned," Angelina suddenly said, her voice hollow. "_Banned_. No Seeker and no Beaters. What on earth are we going to do?"

"It's just so unfair," Alicia whispered, shaking her head. "I mean, what about Crabbe and that Bludger he hit after the whistle had been blown? Has she banned _him_?"

"No, he just got lines." Ginny and Hermione had appeared beside us, taking seats on the floor in front of the couch. "I heard Montague laughing about it."

"And banning Fred when he didn't even do anything!" Alicia added.

"It's not my fault I didn't," Fred muttered, a dark look on his face. "I would have pounded the little scumbag to a pulp if you three hadn't been holding me back." He nodded towards me, Angelina and Katie.

I pulled my knees tighter to my chest. I felt awful to say the least. Alicia was right. Fred hadn't even done anything! And even though George and Harry _had_ beaten Malfoy up, they didn't deserve to be banned from Quidditch. That was entirely out of line. The twins loved Quidditch. Harry did too, of course, but this year was Fred and George's last year to play. And now they were kicked off. They wouldn't be able to participate in the finals. Umbridge had ruined it for them.

"I'm going to bed," Angelina suddenly said, her tone clipped. "Maybe this will all turn out to have been a bad dream. Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and find out we haven't played yet."

We watched her trudge up the stairs to the dormitories in silence, all of us feeling the weight of what had happened just as much as she was.

"Umbridge knew you would've attacked Malfoy," George said glumly, looking at Fred. "That's why she banned you. She knew that you would've attacked him if you hadn't been restrained."

"Yeah, well she's right," Fred muttered. "I would have." He looked at me and suddenly addressed me for the first time since he'd snapped at me after the match. "You've been awfully quiet about all of this. Aren't you going to tell me how being impulsive got me into more trouble and how you were right about laying low and about how Umbridge definitely has more tricks up her sleeve than we can even understand?"

I looked up at him sadly, feeling exhausted and worn down and just tired. Tired of Umbridge and her decrees. Tired of Fred being annoyed with me. Tired of this whole entire day. I was feeling almost the same way as Angelina at this point. I wanted to go to bed and wake up to find out today hadn't even happened yet. "No, Fred," I finally sighed, shaking my head. "I know it's not going to do much good." I shrugged. "I do wish you weren't banned, though. Really, I do. Umbridge is way out of line."

"What else is new?" Fred muttered before letting out a weary, agitated sigh and pushing himself to his feet. "I'm going to bed too. G'night."

"'Night," we all answered quietly. I watched him go, trying not to cringe about how he hadn't even looked my way after he had announced his departure.

The rest of the team slowly filtered off to bed, a complete and total damper now put over the elation from the win earlier. It was as if the team had lost. That's what it felt like. Even though the Slytherins hadn't gotten their win as far as the actual match was concerned, in a way, they had won. They had pushed our buttons until we had finally snapped and now it looked as if the Quidditch team was in a serious dilemma.

* * *

The next night, I was sitting in the kitchens alone, trying to do homework. I was still feeling down about Fred, George and Harry being banned, but I was also feeling down about the current situation with me and Fred.

We had barely talked all day. He was still angry about being banned. So was George for that matter. They had disappeared right before lunch to Merlin knows where and then had shown up late to class afterwards. Fred had sat with me during classes, but hardly said a word. And then I had skipped dinner to come down here. Honestly, I was just not feeling in the mood to be around anyone right now. I was hurting plenty enough for my friends, but I also had no idea if Fred was still angry at me or not. I had no idea what he was thinking because he'd hardly been around all day. And that led me to believe he didn't want to be around me today.

Suddenly, I heard a noise by the kitchen doorway. I looked up to see the twins entering the room. I sighed. Their hands were stuffed into their pockets as they looked around aimlessly, waiting for Rosie or Dobby. But then Fred's eyes fell on me, sitting at our usual corner table.

It was as if his whole body relaxed at the sight of me. His expression reminded me of the one someone would make when they see their house after being away for a long time. Or when they see their bed after a long, hard day. Or when they see a steaming mug of hot chocolate after being out in the cold for a while. I knew that look because I had seen it on Fred's face before in all of those circumstances. I'd seen his face when he saw his family at King's Cross after another school year. I'd seen it when he finally returned to the Burrow in the summer. And I'd even seen him look at hot chocolate like that after one of our traditional snowball fights. But I'd never seen him look at me like that until now.

"Hi," I whispered as he and George made their way over to me and sat down. "Long time no see." I paused. "At least that's how it feels."

Fred gave me a guilty smile as he pulled out a chair and sat down. "Sorry," he apologized. "It's been a crazy twenty-four hours."

I nodded, but didn't say anything else as I just stared at him, waiting for him to say something else. Finally, he and George looked at each other.

"We both got a detention with Umbridge," George finally said, smiling at me a bit sheepishly. He knew how I would react to the news.

I sighed. "For what?"

We tried to sneak into her office at lunch to litter some Dungbombs and Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder around the room, all charmed to go off the second she walked in," George said.

"But she caught us in the act," Fred added. "So now we both have detention with her tomorrow night. It would've been tonight, but she's booked with a few other 'wrongdoers'." He made quote marks in the air as he rolled his eyes.

"I'm assuming you pranked her for banning you from the team?" I asked.

The twins nodded. "She's completely out of her mind," Fred answered.

"I know. I agree." I stared down at the table, unsure of what to say next.

"So, you're not mad that I got another detention?" Fred asked. "You're not mad that my hand's going to look worse now?"

"I don't _like_ it, Fred," I answered, looking up at him again. "But...I also don't like what she did to you in the first place. I hate it, actually. So..." I shook my head. "I don't really know what to feel. I don't want you to be hurt more, but I know she really hurt you by banning you from the team. I know she deserves whatever pranks you throw at her. And a part of me is kind of tired of her and her decrees and a part of me is tired of trying to tell you to tone it down when I know from the start it's no use." I smiled faintly. "Honestly, talking you down from things can be like talking to a wall sometimes."

Fred and George laughed and we were quiet for a moment before Fred spoke. "You missed dinner," he commented.

"I know," I whispered. "I knew you were upset about being banned from Quidditch and I was also upset _for_ you. But I also wasn't sure if you were avoiding me today. You seemed off and I didn't know if it was entirely about your ban or if still had anything to do with me and what happened after the match yesterday."

Fred shook his head. "No," he said. "I stopped being mad at you by the time I went to bed last night. I've been distracted today because of Umbridge, not you."

"I'm still sorry for what happened yesterday," I said. "I didn't mean to act so protective."

"You can't apologize for who you are, Lie," Fred sighed.

"No, I know...I'm not. I guess I'm just sorry for...offending you?"

Fred actually let out a laugh. "You didn't _offend_ me, Lie. I was just mad about Malfoy insulting us all. Insulting the people I love. And the fact that you could be so _passive_ about it just drove me up the wall. But I get it. It's not that you don't care or weren't angry. You just...always know when it's worth it to act and also when it's not." He smiled. "You're better at that than me. I get too hot-headed and can only act in the moment, but you always see the big picture. It's one of the reasons I'm so grateful to have you around."

I smiled. "Yeah?"

He nodded. "So," he said after a pause. "Have you eaten yet? Did George and I arrive too late to sample some of whatever you ordered?"

"I haven't eaten," I said. "Haven't even asked for anything yet. Dobby said he'd come back later to check on me to see if I'd changed my mind." I shrugged. "I just wasn't hungry. I really only came down here to avoid people."

"Well, you have to eat, Lie," Fred said. "Why weren't you hungry? You feeling okay?"

"I'm feeling better now that we talked," I said. "I was just...I didn't know if we were okay."

Fred grinned. "We're fine, Lilah." He reached across the table and picked up my hand before bringing it to his lips and kissing my knuckles gently, sending me a charming smile as he did so. I felt myself relax immensely. And I felt those three words perk up inside my head, like a dog hearing his owner coming home at the end of the day. Hopeful that since Fred wasn't angry anymore that maybe he did feel the same way after all.

_I love you,_ I thought, the words aching to break free. Aching to travel from my brain to my mouth and into Fred's ears. But at the last second, I bit the words back, still afraid of the timing being wrong. Once the words came out, there was no taking them back. Once I coughed up those three small but powerful words, they'd hang in the air like a virus. And there was a very good chance that if I _did_ cough those words up, Fred would look at me like you'd look at someone who forgot to cover their mouth. Disgusted that I would ever do such a thing or feel such an emotion, especially towards him. _Too soon_, he might say. _I never planned on us getting serious_, was another option. So how could I chance burdening him with my own emotional virius? Because that's what it was. It was eating away at my head, tearing at my insides, begging to come out, to be coughed up, so it could infect someone else. But if the way I felt was a virus, well, other than the fact that holding back those words was as hard as holding back a cough, this was the best virus I'd ever had.

* * *

As November slowly passed by, I felt like I was becoming increasingly busier. I felt like I was drowning in homework, for one thing. Whenever I thought I had finished, more was assigned. It was neverending and I felt as if I were days away from a nervous breakdown.

Fred and George kept themselves busy with their inventions and running tests on the other students. The Skiving Snackboxes seemed to be coming along nicely and so were a good amount of other products. Despite not having Quidditch practices anymore, they managed to keep themselves just as occupied by using the extra time to invent, which wasn't a surprise.

We also at least still had D.A. meetings once a week, which was something to look forward to. Everyone was getting increasingly better at the spells Harry was teaching us. Even Neville had shown a lot of improvement, which lifted his spirits immensely.

As the holidays drew closer, Fred and George got a letter from Mrs. Weasley. The whole family was supposed to go back to the Burrow for Christmas, and Julian and I had been invited.

"Well, I have my mother's Christmas party," I said. "I don't think she wants me to miss it again. Especially after what happened last year when she let me skip it."

"That's Christmas Eve," Fred pointed out. "Mum's inviting you and Julian on Christmas _Day_. How would you have spent that day if you didn't come to the Burrow?"

"Quietly," I answered at once. "Very quietly. Not a lot of talking. No huge Christmas dinner. We would have breezed through presents quickly and quietly and that would have been it."

"That's the absolute worst Christmas ever," Fred scoffed. And then his face melted into a smile. "Come to the Burrow," he whispered, nuzzling into my neck and wrapping an arm around my waist, pulling me closer.

I giggled as he kissed my cheek, right by my ear. "Okay," I agreed. "I'll come."

Finally, it was the last D.A. meeting before the holidays. The next day we'd be headed home on the train and the day after that was Christmas Eve. Fred had George had been oddly secluded all day, talking mostly amongst themselves. I knew better than to interrupt them, but I _was_ curious to know what they were planning.

On the way to the meeting that night, Angelina informed Fred and George that she'd found replacements for them and Harry. Harry had been replaced by Ginny, who had, for some reason, surprised almost everyone by being a lot better than they expected. Hermione and I, however, knew she'd been sneaking her brother's brooms out for years so that she could practice. Fred and George's spots on the team had been taken by two boys named Andrew Kirke and Jack Sloper, who, according to Angelina, weren't brilliant, but they would do compared to the other idiots that had shown up.

Fred and George simply grunted in response. "It's just not fair," Fred muttered. "Quidditch and the D.A. were two of the few things worth staying for. And now that we're off the Quidditch team and our research for our products are almost done it's just the D.A. and-"

"Me, right?" I asked teasingly.

"Nope," Fred answered quickly. "McGonagall. I'm really quite in love with her."

I rolled my eyes as George and Angelina snorted with laughter.

We reached the Room of Requirement fairly early. Only Harry and Luna were inside. The place was decorated for Christmas with garlands and even a tree in the corner. It actually looked really pretty.

Once everyone had arrived, Harry announced that he thought since it was the last meeting before the holidays, there was no point to learning anything new, so he figured we could all practice the spells we had already learned as a sort of review.

"We're not learning anything new?" Zacharias Smith asked. "If I'd known that, I wouldn't have come!"

"We're all really sorry Harry didn't tell you, then," Fred said loudly.

Giggles rippled throughout the room and Zacharias turned bright red.

"Why don't we start with Stunning first?" Harry said.

I felt my stomach drop. This was the only spell I had had trouble with so far. I was never able to do it properly. "Great," I muttered, as everyone stood up and partnered off.

"Partner with me this time," Fred said, helping me to my feet. "I think I know what's going on."

"Do you?" I asked with an amused look.

Fred nodded as we found an empty spot near the middle of the room. "Go ahead," he told me. "Try it."

I swallowed and held my wand up, chewing on my lip as I looked at Fred and tried to focus. This was proving to be just as hard as every other time I had tried it on almost all of my other friends and even my brother. I just couldn't look them in the eye and proceed to Stun them, to blast them backwards, to possibly hurt them.

"Lilah, you're not going to hurt me," Fred said as if he were reading my mind. "Come on. You can do it."

I tried to focus even harder. "Stupefy," I finally said. I intended to say it as strongly as possible, but instead it came out sounding feeble and only resulted in Fred taking a step backwards with the weak force of the spell. I felt my shoulders slump.

"You need to forget it's me standing here," Fred said. "Because when you're faced with the need to Stun someone in real life, it's not going to be someone you care about standing in front of you and you're not going to have time to waste. It's going to be someone coming at you ready to kill you. It's not going to be someone you care about. It's going to be someone you'll have no problem Stunning."

"So it'll be easy when I'm faced with it in real life, then, won't it?" I asked. "Once I'm faced with someone I don't care about, someone who's taunting me or looking to kill me, I'll be fine."

"Ah, you're not getting off that easy," Fred said with a smile. He stared at me again before getting a thoughtful look on his face. "Just pretend you're angry at me. Pretend I've made you the maddest you've ever been." I shot him a look and he nodded his head. "Do it, Lie."

I held up my wand again and sighed as I focused again. I tried to pretend Fred had made me mad. I tried to remember how I felt the last time I had been truly angry with him. But I still couldn't move. I still couldn't get the spell out.

Fred hesitated for another second before taking a deep breath. An apologetic look crossed his face briefly before it instantly passed. "If you don't do this, you'll be a failure," he said. "You'll be able to disarm people, levitate things, summon things to you, but you won't be able to Stun anyone. One of the most useful defensive spells out there and _you_ won't be able to do it. The rest of us will, but you won't. How will that look then? You'll look like an idiot. You'll look stupid. But maybe you really are stupid. Maybe you're just a lost cause who has no hope of defending yourself or anyone else you love. How will that feel during this war, huh? To not be able to help anyone you love because you're too stupid and incapable to learn how to properly defend yourself or anyone else!"

I scowled as I gripped my wand tighter and I felt my blood begin to boil.

"Is that what you want?" Fred asked, giving me a long, hard look. "You want to just keep failing at things? _One failure after another_?"

That was it. Something inside me snapped. "Stupefy!" I cried, pointing my wand at Fred. The spell hit him right in the chest and he flew backwards, halfway across the room, hitting the floor and sliding backwards a bit, almost colliding with the wall. I stood where I was, frozen with my mouth hanging open in shock.

"Wow," Angelina said with a whistle from where she stood a few feet away. "I think you might have knocked the wind out of him."

"Nah," George said with a chuckle as Fred got to his feet and picked up his wand, which had fallen out of his hand. "He's fine. Looks thrilled, actually."

I continued to stand there in stunned silence as Fred made his way back over to me. "Sorry," he said with a small smile and a shrug. "It was the only way I could think of to get you angry enough to be able to perform the spell. I thought if I made you mad and forget who I was for a second, you could-"

"So you pretended to be my mother?" I asked. I didn't know if I was horrified at Fred for doing that or horrified at myself for being able to Stun him when he was reminding me of my mother. Maybe a bit of both.

"No, I wasn't _pretending _to be your mother," he said. "I just-I know how what she says makes you feel. I know _you_. I know bringing up being able to protect everyone would, you know...get you to feel something. Feel what you needed to perform the spell. And it worked, didn't it?"

I swallowed and nodded before looking up at him. "Well...thanks. For helping." I paused. "Did I hurt you?"

Fred just laughed and shook his head. "Do I look hurt?"

"No, you actually look pretty damn proud of yourself if you ask me," I said with a laugh of my own.

"That's because I am," Fred grinned. "I'm an excellent teacher. Any day now I could be replacing Harry."

"Really," I said, looking at him mock-seriously. "Any day now?"

"Any day," Fred repeated. His smile suddenly faltered and he rubbed the back of his neck. "You know I didn't mean any of that stuff, don't you? None of that is what I think."

"I know," I nodded. "But I _would_ have felt pretty crappy if I had been the only one unable to do a _Stunning_ spell."

Fred smiled again and pulled me into a quick hug, planting a sloppy kiss on my head.

We practiced Stunning for a little bit longer before moving on to practicing the other spells we'd learned so far. And then the meeting was over. All too soon if you asked me.

"So, George and I actually had an idea," Fred said slowly as we gathered up our things.

"Okay," I answered, slinging my bag over my shoulder and turning to look at him.

Fred looked back at me, a devious smirk on his face. "We didn't exactly want to leave tomorrow without giving Umbridge a little Christmas present."

I smiled and let out a breathy laugh. "Of course," I sighed. "What did you have in mind?"

Fred's smirk widened into a grin. "Well, we haven't quite worked out the whole boil issue with those Fever Fudges yet," he said. "And with Christmas coming up, it's the perfect excuse to disguise them as a present. Maybe from the Minister or one of the students here who actually like her. Flint or Montague or someone."

"I'd say pretend it's from one of the students," I said. "I mean...do you think there's a possibility she'll make the connection between the sweets and the boils?"

"It's possible," Fred shrugged. "She might just think it's a coincidence, but she might not."

"Okay, so if she does make the connection...if she thinks the sweets were from a student, she might give them a detention," I said. "I think that would be more entertaining. If she thinks they were from the Minister, she probably wouldn't do anything. She probably wouldn't make the connection at all. She'd never believe the Minister would hurt her."

Fred beamed at me and pretended to wipe tears of joy from his eyes. "What a time to be alive," he said with a sigh. "Lilah, the queen of protecting people and laying low to stay out of trouble, is giving _good_ suggestions on how to execute a prank."

"That's as far as I'll go," I said. "I'm not going to help you. You're on your own with this one."

"Aw," Fred said, sticking his tongue out at me. "You're boring."

"I'll meet you back at the common room, then?" I asked.

Fred nodded and I turned to leave, but he grabbed my arm. "Hang on," he said, his eyes turned upwards. "You can't leave until you've paid the toll."

"What-" I began, but when I followed his gaze, I stopped short. There was an impressive sprig of mistletoe hanging above our heads. I smiled. "Ah," I said, turning my gaze back towards Fred at the same time he looked back at me. "What happens if I don't pay up?" I teased.

"Something bad," Fred said with a faint smile and a nod of his head. "Very, very bad. A Fever Fudge snuck into your food. Pus-filled boils for _days_."

"Well," I said thoughtfully, "that might not be so bad if I can get someone to apply that ointment we talked about. Maybe Montague...or Flint." I brightened and gasped as I snapped my fingers, pretending to have a great idea. "Zacharias Smith."

Fred looked at me with a revolted look on his face before it turned serious. "I think you'd better pay the toll," he said, "because you don't want those ogres within ten feet of you."

"I don't or you don't?" I teased.

"Both, I hope," Fred answered, raising his eyebrows.

"You hoped right," I smiled, leaning up to kiss him. He deepened it after a second, sliding a hand to the back of my head and the other around my waist, pulling me as close to him as possible.

"Oi, Fred, we've got a prank to pull or have you forgotten?" George called from the doorway. "And I think there are other people waiting to use the mistletoe."

I pulled away from Fred and looked around to see Harry and Cho standing on the other side of the room, talking quietly. I hadn't even known they were there and they hadn't been paying us any mind either. But when George spoke, they looked up in surprise and Cho blushed.

"Oh...no, we're just talking," Harry said quickly-and awkwardly, I might add.

"Okay, but we'll clear this spot for you to talk," Fred said with a grin and a wink as he gestured to the spot we were standing in. "I think the lighting might be better."

I laughed as he grabbed my hand and dragged me from the room. "The lighting might be better?" I asked in disbelief.

Fred shrugged. "It doesn't matter what I said. They're going to be snogging under that mistletoe any minute and we all know it. We know, they know, and they know we know."

"Fred, Cedric just broke up with Cho not too long ago. I think she might still be kind of upset over him. I heard she was crying in the bathroom about it a few weeks ago."

"Well, that was a few weeks ago," Fred shrugged. "This is now."

We came to ethe end of the hallway and stopped. We'd have to go our separate ways here so the twins could pull their prank and I could go back to Gryffindor tower. "So, I'll see you back in the common room soon, then," I said.

Fred nodded. "If we're not back in twenty minutes, assume the overwhelming atmosphere of her office killed us."

I smiled. "Stay safe," I said. "I know how deadly the color pink can be."

"Combined with a multitude of cat plates, it's lethal," Fred answered.

I laughed. "Twenty minutes," I said as I backed away. "I'll be counting down."

Fred sent me a wink before turning and heading in the opposite direction with his brother. And as I watched him walk away, those three words floated through my head again.

_I love you_.

* * *

When I woke up the next morning, I finished packing my things and dragged my trunk down to the common room, expecting to meet up with the twins, Ron, Ginny, Harry, Hermione and Julian in the common room. The plan had been to eat breakfast together and then sit together on the train home. But when I got down there, only Hermione and Julian were waiting for me. They were sitting in front of the fire, looking grim.

"What's wrong?" I asked, stopping at the edge of the couch. "Where is everyone?"

"The Weasleys and Harry left already," Julian said, looking. "Late last night."

I was quiet for a second as I processed that. "Why? I don't understand-"

"Mr. Weasley was attacked last night," Hermione said quietly.

I was quiet for another beat. A shocked quiet. I blinked at her. "What do you mean, _attacked_?"

"He was on guard duty," Hermione whispered. "At the Ministry. And he was attacked by a snake."

I sank down onto the couch as I tried to compose my thoughts. "Is he-is he okay? _Will_ he be okay?" I asked.

Hermione shook her head and shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't heard anything on his condition. All I know is that Harry had a dream where he saw Mr. Weasley being attacked. He woke up sweating and Ron went and got McGonagall. They went to Dumbledore, who asked that the twins and Ginny be rounded up and then they were all sent to Grimmauld Place-Sirius' house. It's where we were over the summer."

I nodded. "Why there?"

"It's headquarters," Hermione said. "And this is a matter the Order has to figure out. Why there was a snake there in the first place. They also think it might have been Voldemort's snake."

"I have to see them," I said. "How can we get there?"

"We can't just _go_ there," Hermione said. She hesitated. "Well, _you _can't. You weren't-you-"

"I get it. I wasn't _invited_," I said bitterly.

"The address can only be given out by the Secret Keeper, which is Dumbledore. Or someone else could give it out only if he gives permission."

"Okay, then I'll go talk to Dumbledore," I said.

"Lilah, hold on," Hermione said, holding up her hand. "Look, I know you want to see them, but you can't just go over there right away. I mean, even I'm going home to notify my parents first before I stop over. I was supposed to go on a ski trip with them, but under the circumstances..."

"So, what's you're point, Hermione?" I asked. "That you're still going to be able to go over there while I sit at home, unable to even _find _the place because I wasn't allowed in? Because I can't be trusted?"

"No, I just think you should go home first," she said. "Go home, let your mother know what's happening and maybe I or someone else at headquarters can convince Dumbledore to give you the address."

"That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard," I said hotly. "Why would I do that when Dumbledore's right here in his office? Do you really think me asking my mother's permission will do anything? No, she's not going to let me go. She's expecting help preparing for her Christmas party! She won't give a damn that Mr. Weasley's been attacked!" I was on the verge of tears at this point and my hands were shaking.

"Lilah, please," Hermione begged, looking ready to cry herself.

"Look, I don't see in any harm in asking," I said, standing up and grabbing my trunk, prepared to drag it all the way to DUmbledore's office in the event he did let me go see Fred. "I just need information, Hermione. I need something or else I'll go crazy. I can't just sit around and wait." I looked at Julian. "Are you coming?"

He looked at me for a second before looking at Hermione, who just stared back at him. Finally, he looked up at me again and nodded. "Yeah, I'm coming." He stood, grabbed his trunk handle and followed me out of the common room, all the way to Dumbledore's office. Only when we got there did I realize we didn't know the password to get in.

"Bloody hell," I muttered. I stood there, thinking for a second before turning on my heel and walking in the other direction.

"Where are you going now?" Julian asked, jogging to keep up with me.

"McGonagall," I said.

"Look, Lie, if we keep up with this wild goose chase, we'll miss the train home," Julian reasoned.

"I don't care, Jules, I really don't," I said breathlessly. "Don't you want to go be with the Weasleys? As in _now_? As opposed to having to go home, work around Mum and then wait to be contacted from someone at headquarters?"

"Of course," Julian said. "But-"

"But nothing," I said. "I'm at the very least getting some information on Mr. Weasley. Now come on."

When we reached McGonagall's office, I pounded on the door urgently until it was swung open.

"Miss Fitzgerald, may I ask what is the matter?" McGonagall asked in surprise. "Shouldn't you be headed to catch your train?"

"Hermione just told us about Mr. Weasley," I blurted. "I want to talk to Dumbledore. I want to go be with my friends. I want to see how they're doing. I want to know if Mr. Weasley's okay. I really, really want-_need_-information." My words tumbled out of my mouth in a breathless, panicked rush and I could see that I took McGonagall by surprise, but I didn't have the time or patience to feel embarrassed right now.

"Why don't you two come in?" she asked, stepping aside to let us into her office. We did as she said and stood in front of her desk while she scrawled a note onto a piece of parchment and charmed it to fly out into the hallway and disappear. "I've let Professor Dumbledore know you are here," she said. "And while you are waiting, I can tell you that Arthur Weasley will be fine. We found out at around five-thirty this morning that he's expected to make it. He'll remain in St. Mungo's for the next few days, but he will be allowed visitors on Christmas day."

I let out an audible sigh of relief. "Oh, thank goodness," I said.

"So...Hermione said he was attacked by a snake?" Julian asked.

McGonagall nodded. "At around midnight while he was on guard duty."

"Guard duty for what?" I asked.

"That I cannot tell you," McGonagall said. "It's strictly business of the Order of the Phoenix."

"Can we go see the Weasleys?" I asked. "I'd still like to see them, and Hermione said Dumbledore can give us permission to go to headquarters since he's Secret Keeper. Or he can give someone else permission to let us go."

"Miss Granger is correct," a voice said from behind us. We turned to see Dumbledore standing in the doorway, smiling slightly. He entered the room and gently shut the door before turning back to us and surveying both me and Julian from head to toe. "I take it Professor McGonagall has filled you in on Arthur Weasley's condition?"

We nodded. "Yes, sir," Julian said, "she has."

"Please," I whispered, "I have to see them, Professor. I have to see my friends. I know they must be pretty shaken up and it's right around Christmas and I know Mrs. Weasley will still try to prepare a dinner, even under the circumstances and I thought offering my help would be the least I could do after all she's done for me over the years..." I trailed off as I realized I had started to ramble.

Dumbledore continued to eye us thoughtfully, the tips of his fingers pressed together. Finally, he smiled. "I think it can be arranged," he said.

"Really?" I asked happily. "Thank you so much!"

"But," Dumbledore added, holding up his hand. "I do think it's best if you head home first as planned."

"But-but-why?" I asked, dumbfounded. "I can't sit through an entire train ride back to London. I'll go crazy!"

"Luckily, we have a fireplace and some Floo powder available," Dumbledore said, tilting his head towards the fireplace. "Your fireplace at home is connected to the Floo network, correct?"

"Yes," I said, nodding.

"But when can we go visit the Weasleys?" Julian asked. "Why can't we go straight there?"

"I plan to stop into Grimmauld place sometime this morning," Dumbledore said. "I will make sure it will be okay that you visit over the course of the next few days and then I will let you know when it's all clear and everything is settled with Molly. Does that sound good to you?"

I nodded. "I mean, Julian and I will have to go home tomorrow night for my mother's Christmas party, but we _were_ invited to spend Christmas day with the Weasley's...my parents as well, so..." I trailed off, unsure if that offer now still stood.

"That won't be a problem," Dumbledore said. "Since I am Secret Keeper, once I give you the address, headquarters will always be revealed to you each time you visit."

"Okay," I answered, waiting expectantly for him to tell us the address.

Dumbledore looked at us for a moment. "Twelve Grimmauld Place," he said.

"That's the address?" I asked. "Twelve Grimmauld Place?"

"Twelve Grimmauld Place," Dumbledore repeated. "When you Apparate there, you will automatically be within the bounds of the Fidelius Charm and therefore invisible to anyone on the street. You see, to Muggles and anyone else who does not know the location of headquarters, the place is invisible. A rather incredible feature if I do say so myself." He smiled. "And remember, wait for my owl letting you know it's been cleared with Molly...and perhaps Sirius as well considering it is his house. Do I have your word?"

Julian and I both nodded. "Yes, sir," we chorused.

"Good, good," Dumbledore said. He grabbed the pot of Floo Powder and held it out to us. I took a handful and threw it down onto the flames, which instantly turned emerald green.

"Thank you, Professor," I said, looking back at Dumbledore. "Honestly. And Merry Christmas."

"You are quite welcome, Miss Fitzgerald," he answered. "And the same to you."

"You want to go first?" I asked Julian. He shrugged and stepped into the flames, calling out our address and immediately disappearing. I followed him and did the same, feeling the familiar unpleasant spinning sensation as I was whisked away to my own house.

When I arrived, I stepped out of the fireplace to see Julian waiting for me. I immediately began dusting soot off of him, but when I saw the look on his face, I slowed to a stop. "Sorry," I said with a smile. "I expect you can do that yourself."

Julian nodded slowly as he smiled. "I can, Lilah," he said.

Just then, Mum stuck her head into the room, a look of surprise on her face. "Lilah! Julian! What are you doing here? Why aren't you on the train?" She hesitated. "You haven't gotten into trouble, have you? Because if you've been expelled, so help me-"

"No," I said hurriedly. "We haven't been _expelled_, Mum, honestly! And we're not in trouble. Dumbledore allowed us to come home through the Floo network."

"And why would he do that?" Mum asked, raising her eyebrows as she fully stepped into the room.

"Mr. Weasley was attacked by a snake last night and we've been given permission to go visit the Weasleys at headquarters."

"No, absolutely not," Mum said. "The Christmas party is tomorrow and I need you two to help decorate the house. You know that I don't have time with work and what not."

"We'll stay up all night if we have to," I insisted. "It'll get done, but please...Mr. Weasley's been _attacked_! I was lucky enough to find out the news after he was already expected to make it, but when everyone else found out, they didn't know if he was going to live or die! Imagine how shaken up they must be about even him being attacked in the first place, never mind having to worry for his life!"

"I've already told you, Lilah, there is a lot to be done. The caterers are coming tomorrow afternoon to set up and I want the house cleaned and decorated well before then!"

"It'll get done," I told her.

"I've already told you I don't think it's best that you hang around these people," Mum said briskly. "The fact that they need to go into hiding isn't a good thing. The fact that they're being _targeted_. Don't you get it? This attack was them being targeted!"

"I thought you didn't believe You-Know-Who was back!" I exclaimed.

"It could just as well be an attack initiated by a supporter or something along those lines," Mum said. "Besides, these Weasleys...they're troublemakers! Don't you remember everything I told you the night they came to dinner? Joke shops, fang earrings, long hair, working with dragons? They'll drag you into any danger or trouble they always seem all too keen to walk into."

"They won't," Julian suddenly said fiercely. "They're amazing friends and they think of us as part of their own family. They're very protective of each other...and also of us." He gestured between me and himself.

"We just want to see them for a few hours," I said calmly, trying to reason with her. "We'll see them, come home, decorate, attend your Christmas party and then on Christmas day...they've invited us to Christmas dinner. They were going to invite you and Dad too, but now with them being at headquarters and not the Burrow..." I shrugged. "I have to check with them, but if the offer still stands, then you'll be invited."

"I'm not sure that's a-"

"I'm going Mum. I'm of age. I'm eighteen years old."

"And you are still under _my _roof," she argued. "And as long as you are, you'll do what I say."

I almost wanted to tell her I'd leave and go live with Dad, but the only problem with that was that I wanted to bring Julian with me and I knew Mum wouldn't be having any of that. He was only fifteen.

Suddenly, there was a tap on the window. I looked over to see an owl outside, a note attached to his leg. I immediately walked over to let the owl in and when it landed on the coffee table, I removed the note and opened it. It was from Dumbledore, letting us know we were free to head over to headquarters whenever we were ready.

"Dumbledore says we can go over now," I told my mother as I glanced at Julian. "We won't stay long, okay? I promise"

"Why do you keep insisting that you'll be going?" Mum asked. "As far as I'm concerned, we haven't reached a decision yet."

"I told you, Mum, I'm eighteen. I can make my own decisions, especially ones about if I should be able to go over someone's house or not."

"It's not just a _house_. It's whatever place they've been cooped up in all summer! How do we know it's safe?"

"Because safety was the whole reason they had to go there!" I said. I decided not to bring up the fact that Sirius Black owned and lived in the house. She'd lose her mind. She definitely wouldn't believe that he was innocent. But then, I realized, that if she decided to show up on Christmas day, she'd be face to face with him. I supposed I could handle that if that time came, though.

"I understand you want to see these people, Lilah," Mum said, pursing her lips. "But we need things to be done here. It's really not a great time to be traipsing all over London to a strange house for a visit. What if they don't want anyone to be bothering them at a time like this?"

"That's why Dumbledore went ahead and made sure it was okay. And it is," I argued, holding up the note.

"And we're supposed to just trust Dumbledore now?" Mum asked.

"Yes," I said wearily. "I know you've been losing trust in both him and Harry since they started claiming You-Know-Who came back, but I still trust him."

"In any case, Lilah, I think you should stay here," Mum said. "As I keep telling you, so much needs to be done. You'll need all the time you can get. And as for Christmas Day, I think it would be best if you spent it with your own family."

I felt as if I were going to explode. I couldn't take her trying to prevent me from seeing Fred and the rest of the Weasleys anymore. I wasn't a child. I thought I had proved to her that I could be responsible and have a life while still doing whatever she asked me to do. I thought I had been trustworthy and that she knew that when I said I'd be back soon and able to decorate, I meant it. But clearly, she didn't believe me. Clearly, she was still incredibly skeeved out by the Weasleys and still refused to give them a chance.

"We're going, Mum," I told her firmly. "Come on, Jules." And with that, I grabbed his hand and Apparated straight out of the house, not even bothering to walk out to the back shed.

* * *

"Lilah! Julian!"

The second Mrs. Weasley pulled open the door, she practically yanked us inside and grabbed us into warm, tight hugs.

"I'm so sorry to hear what happened," I whispered as she hugged me. "I wanted to come right away, but Dumbledore wanted to make sure it'd be okay..."

"It's more than okay!" Mrs. Weasley said. "We could do with as much company as possible, actually. It helps. We've just been trying to go about everything as normally as possible." She smiled and let out a breathy sigh.

"So how is he?" I asked.

"He'll be fine," she said with a smile. "I'm trying to get us permission to visit tomorrow, but we're definitely going to visit Christmas morning. You're free to come with us if you'd like. Don't think you're only invited to dinner."

"We'd like that," Julian said. "If it's okay."

"Of course. He'd love to see you both," Mrs. Weasley said before turning and walking down the hall, gesturing for us to follow. "Come on, I'm making lunch and some of us are down in the kitchen. Come say hello."

Julian and I followed her down the hallway, looking around at our surroundings in wide-eyed disbelief. This place was creepy for sure. The hallway was narrow and dark. A few decorations had been put up, which helped to make things a little cheerier, but not by much.

"Watch out for the umbrella stand," Mrs. Weasley said, gesturing to the umbrella stand as we walked by. It was big and looked like a troll foot-I guessed it was the one Fred had said Tonks kept tripping over, so I made sure to stay away from it as we walked by. I didn't want to wake up the portrait of Sirius' Mum, which I could now see was hanging on the opposite wall behind a curtain.

Finally, we reached the end of the hallway and Mrs. Weasley opened a door which led to a set of stairs.

"Kitchen's in the basement," she said, gesturing for us to walk through first. Julian and I led the way down into the kitchen, which was a long room that contained a long table surrounded by chairs, counter space and a tiny looking pantry. I immediately recognized Tonks, who was sitting at the table with her usual bright pink hair. And sitting next to her was Sirius Black. I had seen photos of him before-mainly in the newspaper accompanying articles about the murder he had supposedly committed, but that was beside the point. He looked a lot better now. Happier. Cleaner. And not dangerous in the least.

"I know you two have already met Tonks, but this is Sirius, who has been so kind to let us use his house as headquarters and to let us stay here," Mrs. Weasley said.

"Oh, you know I don't mind, Molly," Sirius brushed her off. He waved his hand dismissively as he stood up and made his way over to us. He held out his hand to Julian, who shook it at once. "You're Julian, right? I think I met you briefly a few years ago. You were with Harry and the others that night?"

Julian nodded. "Yeah, I was. Nice to see you again."

"Nice to see you too," Sirius said. And then he turned and held out his hand to me. "So that means you must be Lilah. I've heard a lot about you. From all the Weasleys, really, but mostly the twins. And particularly Fred. You're his girlfriend?"

I nodded as I shook his hand. "I am," I answered with a smile.

"Well he picked a beauty, that's for sure," Sirius said.

Tonks snorted from the table. "Down, boy," she laughed.

"What am I, a dog?" Sirius asked, wrinkling his nose at her. He paused. "Actually...nevermind. Don't answer that." He turned to look at me as Tonks burst into laughter. "My Animagus form is a black dog," he explained. "And for the record," he said loudly, directing his words at Tonks, even though he wasn't looking at her, "I was _not _trying to be creepy. I was just commenting on Fred's excellent taste in girls."

"So looks are all that matters in your opinion?" Tonks asked.

"No, of course not, but from what I've heard, Lilah's a great person on the inside," Sirius said.

"She is, I can assure you," Mrs. Weasley said from the counter, where she was chopping carrots.

"Do you need any help with that?" I asked her.

She smiled and shot Sirius an _I told you so_ look. "Point proven," she said before turning to me. "No, dear, that's okay. Why don't you go on up to see Fred and George. They're in their room. Just go back up to the foyer, then go up two more flights of stairs. Their room is the second door on the right." She hesitated. "And if Julian wants to see Ron and Harry, they're one floor below, directly under the twins. And Hermione and Ginny are across the hall." She paused. "Keep in mind they might still be sleeping, though. They were up almost all night last night so they're quite tired and I told them all to take naps before lunch..."

"Of course," I said. "I can imagine they'd be tired. We'll be quiet and if they're still asleep, we'll come back down here."

Mrs. Weasley nodded and Julian and I turned for the stairs.

"I'll check Ron and Harry, you can check the twins," Julian whispered as we walked past the troll umbrella stand and headed up the flight of stairs in the foyer. "You probably want to talk to them alone anyway."

"No, I don't mind," I said earnestly. "You can come with me."

"I'll give you some alone time," Julian said with a smile. "I'll catch up with the twins later." He squeezed my arm before heading for Ron and Harry's room. I gave him a smile of my own before heading for the next flight of stairs so that I could find the twins' room. I found the second door on the right and hesitated outside of it for a second. I knocked quietly and when I didn't hear a response, I opened the door a crack. Peering inside, I felt a grin spread over my face. The twins were both sleeping, passed out right on top of their covers.

Even though I had told Mrs. Weasley I'd let the twins sleep, I couldn't stop myself from slipping into the room. Fred was in the bed closest to the door and I found myself tiptoeing to his side and perching on the edge of the bed. I smiled at his wrinkled and rumpled clothes and his hair that was messy and sticking out everywhere. His mouth was open slightly and he was snoring quietly. But he looked peaceful. He didn't look like someone who would sneak hair dye into the Slytherin boys' shampoo or put laxatives in Mrs. Norris' food at least twice a year.

Smiling slightly to myself, I reached out and pushed a piece of hair off his face before leaning forward, lightly kissing his forehead and backing away. Just as I was slowly opening the door to sneak out again, I heard a creaking of mattress springs and Fred's hoarse, groggy voice, still tired and full of sleep.

"Lilah?"

I turned to see him propped up on his elbows, squinting at me. "Go back to sleep," I whispered. "I didn't mean to wake you."

"What are you doing here?" he asked, ignoring my request and sitting up, swinging his legs over the side of his bed and rubbing his eyes.

"I got permission to come visit," I said quietly. "As soon as Julian and I heard, we had to come see you."

"Jules is here too?" Fred asked, standing up and stretching his arms over his head.

I nodded. "He went to talk to Ron and Harry-assuming they're awake, that is." I looked at him for a second. "I'm so sorry, Fred," I finally whispered. "About your dad." Tears formed in my eyes and I wiped them away hastily.

"Hey, he's going to be okay," Fred whispered, coming to stand in front of me and taking my hands in his.

"I know," I said, "but you didn't know that last night. You must have been terrified."

Fred was quiet for a moment. "Yeah, we were all pretty worried," he finally said. "George and I almost ripped Sirius' head off for not letting us go tearing off to St. Mungo's the second after we got here. He was giving us some bullshit story about how weird it would look that we knew about it when Mum barely knew herself. And we couldn't give it away that Harry had envisioned it or whatever..." He paused. "Oddly, though, the reasoning doesn't sound as stupid now."

I giggled before leaning up to give him a long, gentle kiss. "Thank goodness Harry saw that, though. And believed that it was _real_ and not just a dream."

"Yeah, without Harry we'd all be stuck," Fred said. "He saw it just in time."

I bit my lip and looked away as I sighed. I hated to think what would've happened if things had only happened a minute or two too late. Finally, I looked back at Fred. "My mother didn't want me to come today," I whispered. "She wanted me to stay home and decorate. Even after I promised I'd get it done regardless, she kept trying to shoot me down. She still doesn't really like or trust you all very much. So...eventually I got fed up, took Julian and left."

"You did?" Fred asked, his tone actually a bit gleeful. "Just like that?"

"Just like that," I answered quietly. "She's going to let me hear it later, I promise you. But...I had to come."

"I'm glad you did," Fred said with a lopsided grin as he reached up and gently cradled my cheek in his hand, lightly brushing his fingergtips over the top of my ear and through my hair.

"I'll let you get ready," I said, grinning back and gesturing to his wrinkled clothes and messy hair as I started to back out of the room.

"Why, something wrong with how I look?" Fred asked, feigning ignorance as he looked down at his appearance.

"I don't know, you tell me," I said with a laugh, slowly sliding my hand out of his. "I'll see you downstairs later?"

Fred nodded. "Yeah, of course."

I flashed him another smile and started to turn around, but hesitated in the doorway for a split second. Then, I turned and threw my arms around Fred, burying my nose in his chest. I felt him slowly wrap his arms around me in return and I relaxed slightly into his touch. After a second, I pulled away and gave him a half-smile. He didn't ask what the hug was about, but I think he knew anyway. So, with that, I slipped out of the room and headed down the stairs.

* * *

Julian and I stayed at the Burrow until just before dinnertime. Mrs. Weasley invited us to stay for dinner, but I reluctantly told her that we had to get home. I still had the task of going home and decorating hanging over my head.

I honestly wished we hadn't had to leave, though. But at least we had Christmas day to look forward to. I loved being with the Weasleys as it was, but the other members of the Order were great as well. I really liked Tonks and Sirius and it was great to see Professer Lupin again. And while Mad-Eye could be intimidating and while he wasn't exactly warm and fuzzy, he was still interesting to be around. He had a lot of stories, that was for sure. But it always took a lot to coerce one out of him.

When Julian and I finally got home, we let ourselves in the front door and let out identical heavy sighs. It was time to start cleaning and decorating the house for the party.

"Okay, well, I guess we should start with the-" I began, but I was cut off by my mother's voice from behind me.

"Lilah."

When I turned around, she was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, staring at me with pursed lips.

"What?" I asked quietly.

"I really do not appreciate what you did this morning," she said. "As I said, while you live under my roof, you will listen to my rules and my requests. And I did not want you to go spend time with that family while you had decorating to do."

"You never said a word about Fred for nearly the whole summer," I said. "You hardly talked about their family. You told me you didn't _think_ I should see Fred before I went back to school. And now that I'm back home, you're still only giving me your opinion." I shrugged. "My opinion isn't the same as yours."

"My concerns still stand that they are going to drag you into danger," Mum said crossing her arms. "If they need to be at a safe house to be protected, then they are in danger and they are not going to put this family in danger while they're at it. And I will not let you be that connector. I will not let you put _your brother_ right in the line of danger. I won't let you be a bad example for him by forcing him to disobey me and _leave_ when we were in the middle of a discussion after I told you not to!"

"Okay," I said slowly, unsure of what else to say. "I thought you might have been open to giving Fred and George a chance. When they came by that-that night...you were kind of...nice. You made them tea. You let them stay-even if it was for only a little while."

"Yes, well, it had been a rough day and that was before I found out that they are in danger for being _blood traitors_!"

I stared at her blankly as I matched her stance by crossing my arms. I still said nothing.

"So," Mum continued, "if you're not going to obey my rules and my orders and if you're going to continue to put the rest of us in danger, then I think it would be best if you didn't live with us any longer."

I gaped at her. "What are you saying?"

Mum pointed to a spot behind me. "I took the liberty of packing up the rest of your things for you."

I turned to see my trunk standing just by the door, Casper's cage perched on top of it. I felt my heart begin to pound. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"Mum, no!" Julian cried. "You can't kick her out!"

"Where am I supposed to go?" I asked breathlessly, turning back to my mother.

"That's up to you," she answered, her tone neutral. "You're always saying how much better it would be to live with your father. You're always saying how much _better_ he is."

"That's not what I-I've never said that!"

"But you've implied it," Mum said bitterly. "So why don't you go see if he'll take you in? You always want to disobey the rules I expect you to obey under this roof, so now you can disobey them elsewhere. Disobey them under your father's roof. Merlin knows he'll allow it."

There was silence in the foyer as we looked at each other.

"You can't make her leave," Julian suddenly said, his voice shocked and even slightly panicked. "Mum, please don't. You're just not thinking...you're still mad from earlier. Once you think it over-"

"No, I can't keep doing this," she said. "I can't keep talking and wasting my breath if I'm not going to be heard. Maybe if Lilah turns things around, we can rethink things. But now, if she's going to keep associating herself with dangerous people, then it's time for something to be done."

"But you know _I'm_ going to be talking to them once we get back to school, don't you?" Julian asked. "So maybe you should kick me out as well."

Mum was quiet then. She knew she couldn't exactly control what we did at school. "You're still underage," she finally said. "I have custody of you and you have to stay here."

"What if I run?" Julian asked.

"I'll contact the Ministry," Mum retaliated. She looked back at me. "This is what I mean about you being a terrible influence on your brother. Maybe some time away would do him good."

"We'll see each other at school in a few weeks," I said, my throat constricting as I tried not to cry.

"Yes, but during holidays, he'll be with me," Mum said. "And while you're associating with the Weasleys, I don't think we should have any contact."

"Saving your own neck," I whispered. "Got it." There was a pause. "What if I refuse to leave?" I asked. It was one last attempt to try to be able to stay. Not for my mother or even for myself, but for my brother.

"Again, I'll alert the Ministry. I can get you officially disowned. I can get a restraining order. Is that what you want? I can start a case about how you are not fit to be around this family while you fraternize with unsafe parties."

"You'd go through all that trouble?" I asked.

"For the safety of my family, yes."

"I am your family, Mum," I whispered, my voice cracking.

"I'm aware. And if this is the only way for me to get through to you how much danger you're putting yourself in...If this is the only way for you to listen to me, then so be it. So, again, I must ask that you leave."

I looked at my brother as my lower lip trembled. He was looking at me, his face just as shocked, scared and confused as I felt.

"Lie," he whispered. I saw him swallow and shake his head in stunned disbelief.

"It'll be okay, Jules," I whispered, nodding and forcing myself to smile. I stepped forward and gave him a hug. He buried his head in my shoulder and wrapped his arms around me. "We'll figure this out, okay?" I whispered. "And I'll see you back at school. This isn't permanent, alright? It's a tornado. And tornadoes are never permanent. Remember that."

"You don't have to do this," he said.

"I don't think I have a choice," I whispered. "If I don't, she'll see to it that we're definitely not allowed to see each other. If I go and live with Dad, you'll see me every other weekend and I'll see you at school and even if it's not your weekend at Dad's, we can try to meet up somewhere, okay? If I fight this, Mum'll only push me away more. Disown me, like she said, or get a restraining order or something."

"You think she'd do that?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. But I don't want to test her." I paused. "I don't want you to think I'm deserting you, though. Because I'm not. I just don't want to push her so that she pulls out all the stops."

"You're tired, aren't you?" Julian asked. "It's okay, you can say it. You're tired of fighting her all the time. I know you like to put on a brave face for me, but I get it. And I don't think you're weak or cowardly for admitting you're tired."

My throat ached with the force of the sobs I was restraining. He was right. We both knew it, but I couldn't admit it out loud because it _did_ make me feel cowardly and weak. I couldn't do this anymore and I was leaving my brother here because of it. Maybe if I was a stronger person, I would've stayed, or dragged him with me. _Something_. But I was still afraid of something worse happening. As always.

"You'll be okay, Jules," I finally whispered. "If you need anything, write to Dad. We'll still see each other, just not every day. And we'll figure this out."

He nodded against my shoulder. I pulled away and gave him a watery smile before giving him a quick, sloppy kiss on the cheek. "Love you," I said as I backed away. I grabbed my trunk and owl cage and carried them to the door before opening it and throwing one last look over my shoulder. I met my mother's eyes and she looked back at me stonily. And then I forced myself to look at my brother, even though I knew it would break my heart. He looked miserable and downtrodden and I wanted nothing more than to be able to bring him with me. But my mother had me cornered as far as I could tell. And some of the people I felt could help me or at the very least make me feel better were the people my mother wanted me to stay away from. But there was also my dad. She had pretty much shoved me in his direction. So I forced myself to turn away, drag my things to the backyard shed and Apparate to my dad's flat.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry for the obnoxious length of this chapter. It might be my longest one yet and I know a lot goes on, but I made the decision to just keep it all in one chapter instead of splitting into two. Anyway I hope everyone likes it!**


	58. Chapter 58

The second I arrived at my dad's flat and he opened the door, I broke out into tears. More like gut-wrenching, ugly sobs, actually. He pulled me inside, sat me down and made us both mugs of tea before demanding I tell him what happened.

I spilled everything from start to finish, including how awful I felt about leaving Julian. Once I was done, we sat in silence for a bit as I spun my mug in my hands and stared down at the table with puffy, red-rimmed eyes. "I just feel like I can never make the right decision," I said. "No matter what I do, someone gets hurt. No matter what I do, it's going to cost me a relationship with someone I love."

Dad was quiet for a second as he took a sip of his tea, staring at me over the edge of his mug. "I think you made the right decision in this case," he said. "You'll be fine. You'll still be able to see Jules. Not every day, but you'll see him. And before you know it, he'll be of age and able to do what he wants, too and things will be back to normal."

"I don't know if things will ever be back to normal," I said. "Not if Mum has anything to do about it. She'll just make things worse. She's trying to ruin my life."

"No, she's not," Dad sighed. "Sure, she hasn't made things easy, but she's not doing it on purpose."

"You sure about that?" I asked bitterly.

"Yes," Dad insisted. When I gave him a look, he continued. "Do I _like _what she's done? Of course not. I hate that she's kicked you out. _Hate_ it. If I still had a say about these kinds of things, well, let's just say an argument would definitely come out of this. But we're not even married anymore."

"You're still my dad," I said.

Dad shrugged. "I don't think it matters to her. But look at it this way. Now you get to live with me permanently."

I shook my head. "Yeah, that's great, but I'm here without Jules. It's like Mum's trying to make me choose between everyone I love. You and her, us and the Weasleys, Julian and Fred...and I can't make those decisions, Dad."

Dad stared at me for a minute. "You love Fred?"

"Well, yeah," I said as if he were dense. "But that's not what-"

Dad chuckled. "Let me rephrase that. Are you _in love _with him?"

"What gave you that idea?"

"Maybe I'm just curious. But you did just say it was like your mother was trying to make you choose between everyone you love. And you listed Fred."

"He's my friend," I said.

"Yeah, a friend you've been dating," Dad laughed. "So...are you? Are you in love with him?" He smirked as he took a sip of his tea, clearly enjoying making me sweat.

I didn't answer, but I looked down at the table as I turned bright pink, giving him all the confirmation he needed.

"Have you told him?"

"No," I answered with a scoff as I shook my head. "I mean, maybe he doesn't feel the same way. In fact, he probably doesn't. He's the type of person that if he did, he would've told me right away."

"Not necessarily," Dad answered with a shrug. "He might be just as scared as you are."

"Fred doesn't get scared," I retaliated.

"Lilah, _everyone_ gets scared," Dad said with a laugh.

"Well, Fred wouldn't. Not about something like this," I whispered.

"Maybe he hasn't found the right time, then," Dad said. "Regardless, maybe you should be the one to tell him first. It might be nice, you know. He'd probably be pleasantly surprised."

"Or he'd laugh in my face," I snorted, staring down into my mug of tea. "But Dad, this is ridiculous. That's the least of my worries right now. I have way bigger things on my mind and so does Fred."

It was quiet again for a second. When I looked up at my dad, he was staring at me with a raised eyebrow. I sighed. "Fine," I sighed. "I'll think about telling him, okay? But it might not be right away."

Dad smiled. "Okay," he said. "But if I were you, I wouldn't wait too long." He stood up and cleared our tea mugs away before turning to look at me. "So," he began. "What are you in the mood to have for dinner?"

* * *

Late the next night, I was lying down in my room at my dad's flat, reading, when there was a tap at the window. I looked up to see Errol outside, looking worn out and ready to collapse. A note was tied to his leg.

Immediately, I stood up and opened the window, letting the poor owl inside. I helped him into Casper's cage so he could rest and share some of Casper's food and water. Casper let out a quiet hoot before sliding over to make room.

"Oh, hush, be nice," I said quietly, giving my owl a smile as I opened the note. It was scrawled in Fred's handwriting. _How was the Christmas party? I'll bet you looked beautiful and I really hope you spent the whole night thinking about me. P.S. Can't wait to see you tomorrow._

I sighed and sat down at my desk, staring down at the note for a bit longer before pullng out a new sheet of parchment and writing him back. _I'm not sure how it went, considering I wasn't there. Mum kicked me out. I'm living with my dad right now. I spent the whole night in my pajamas and didn't think of you once, so it looks like you lost that bet. Anyway, Dad and I are both still planning on coming for dinner tomorrow. If you'll still have us, that is. P.S. I'm sending Casper back with Errol. I'm afraid he might die if he has to fly much longer, so it would be nice for him to have a buddy. And perhaps it would be best if you sent your answer back with Casper._

I tied the letter to Casper's foot and sent him and Errol off through the window before sitting back down on my bed and going back to my book. Finally, Casper came back through the window alone and dropped another letter onto my lap. I sat up and unfolded it, preparing myself for all of Fred's questions.

_What do you mean your mother kicked you out?! Why? What happened? And Jules is still with her? Explain, please. And of course we'll still have you over tomorrow. You'd have to be insane to think we wouldn't. P.S. Contrary to what you claim, I only lost half of that bet. You may not have thought of me all night (or so you say), but I have to disagree with how beautiful you look in your pajamas._

I snorted and rolled my eyes before writing a reply.

_I'll tell you the story tomorrow when I see you. What time should we come over? It'll be just me and dad because, yes, Julian is still with my mother and she won't let him come see you. She's really cracking down because she thinks the fact that you've been in hiding means you're in danger, which will put our family in danger. I'll tell you more in detail tomorrow. See you then._

When Fred's response came back, it was fairly short. _Come early. Around nine. We're going to visit Dad again after we open gifts and we want you and your dad to come. We got to go yesterday for a bit and I want to tell you about it. And then after we come back, Mum said we can all exchange gifts with each other in person, so don't send yours by owl. And I'll let you tell me your news tomorrow as opposed to now only if you promise you'll tell me and tell me everything._

I fought the urge to let out a snort at the last sentence of Fred's letter as I scribbled one last note back to him. _Nine __is fine, I'll see you then. Can't wait_._ And I promise I'll tell you everything. Honestly, I will._

After I had sent the letter off to Fred, I collapsed back down on my bed and sighed. I tried to sleep, but instead, I tossed and turned for what seemed like ages. Casper flew back into the window and drank from his water before flying back out into the night again. The flat was silent. Too silent. Sure, staying at Mum's house had been quiet too, but I had always had my brother across the hall. Even when I had been here, at Dad's flat, the two of us had always had to share the very room I was in now. I supposed it got inconvenient at times, but we had always been together. I had always fallen asleep in Dad's flat to Julian's light snores and the sound of him tossing and turning every so often. I had fallen asleep knowing he was happy. And now...Now I had no idea. I was separated from him on Christmas for the first time since he was born. I wouldn't get to see him open his gifts and we had actually never gotten the chance to decorate-something we had always done together, even if it was because Mum made it our responsibility. I was glad to be able to spend the holiday with my dad this year for a change, but I really wanted Julian with me as well. Instead, I got to spend the day tomorrow with my dad and the Weasleys while Julian spent the day with Mum-or _didn't _spend the day with her for that matter. Just the thought of it made me sick. It wasn't fair.

I got out of bed and walked to the window, noticing that it was starting to snow. I pulled the window shut, even though Casper was out. I knew he'd knock on it tomorrow to let me know he was back. Once I had locked it, I rested my head on the cool glass and stared down at the street below as white flakes drifted down from the sky. I suddenly realized with a glance at the clock that it was well after midnight by now. It was Christmas day. And yet, I couldn't have felt less in the Christmas spirit.

* * *

The next day, Mrs. Weasley let me and Dad into Grimmauld Place and immediately hugged us both.

"Oh, Lilah dear, how _are_ you? Fred told me what happened. It's just awful! This must be so hard. I just can't believe that your mother would kick her own child out of her house! It's unbelievable, really."

"Well, on the bright side I do like living with my dad," I said with a brief smile. "But I just wish my brother was there, too. I know he wanted to be here today, that's for sure."

Mrs. Weasley smiled and pulled me into another hug. "Go on downstairs,"she said. "Everyone's waiting in the kitchen for Mundungus to arrive. We can leave as soon as he gets here. He's borrowing a car for us since the underground is closed today. Although, when he says _borrowing_, I do have to wonder...Anyway, he should be here any minute, so go on, run along. Everyone's been dying to see you. Fred and George especially."

I smiled and headed down the long hallway towards the kitchen stairs, my dad right behind me. "Charming place, isn't it?" he muttered.

"Wait until you see the house-elf heads," I whispered.

"Can't wait," he whispered back with a roll of his eyes.

When we entered the kitchen, I saw that many of the seats around the long table were already full. The twins, Ron, Ginny, Harry, Hermione, Sirius, Mad-Eye, Lupin and Tonks were all there. Fred, George, Ginny, Ron, Harry and Hermione were dressed in coats, hats, scarves and mittens already, prepared to leave the house as soon as Mundungus arrived. I figured the others weren't going to the hospital this time around since they had gotten the chance to go once before already.

Everyone was laughing loudly about something when Dad and I arrived. Fred, George and Sirius were actually the loudest, practically in tears about something Sirius had said. I smiled slightly as I watched. Just then, Sirius happened to look up to see me and my dad in the doorway. "Hey, look who it is!" he cried. "Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas," I answered, smiling back at him as he jumped up to greet us. He gave me a bear hug, which surprised me, and then shook my dad's hand as they introduced themselves.

"I'm looking rather forward to having so many guests over for Christmas this year," Sirius said. "I haven't spent a holiday with so many people I liked in a long time. For a while, I was spending Christmases with dementors and fellow inmates. Not ideal, trust me."

I half-smiled. "Well, glad we could be here, then," I said. But before I could say anything else, I was interrupted by Fred grabbing me around the waist, pulling me into a hug and spinning me around.

"Merry Christmas," he whispered into my ear. "I'm really glad you're here."

I nodded. "Me too."

Suddenly, Mrs. Weasley appeared at the bottom of the stairs. "Mundungus is here. Time to go. Come on, everybody upstairs." She began ushering us out as we filed towards the front door. "Sirius, we'll be back in a bit. Behave yourself."

"Don't worry about me, Molly," Sirius beamed. "I'm going to finish up some last minute decorating so the house will be completely ready by the time you get back and then we can officially get the party started!"

Fred and George let out identical cheers in support of Sirius' proposal and I snorted with laughter as we reached the top of the kitchen stairs and headed for the door. Fred took my hand in his, the fabric from his glove and mine separating our skin from touching, but doing nothing to dampen the comfort or warmth I still felt just from simply holding his hand.

"We need to talk," Fred said. "About what you told me last night."

I nodded. "Later, okay?"

Fred nodded slowly as he let a puff of air out of his mouth. "Promise?"

"Promise," I replied.

We all slid into the car, which had had an Undetectable Enlargement Charm put on it so that we fit comfortably. There wasn't a lot of traffic, so the ride went by fairly quickly. Finally, we reached the entrance to St. Mungo's, which was disguised as a department store with signs out front saying _closed for refurbishment_. We all gathered around the display window as Tonks leaned a bit closer to the glass and began whispering to the mannequin inside. "We're here to see Arthur Weasley," she said. The mannequin the window gave a tiny nod and beckoned them in with her finger. And then Tonks had grabbed Mrs. Weasley and Ginny by the arms and they all stepped right through the glass.

"Ready?" Fred asked me, giving my hand a squeeze. When I nodded, he, George and I stepped forward and walked throught the glass as well. We met up with Mrs. Weasley, Ginny and Tonks at the front desk and waited for the others to catch up as well. And then we went through the double doors to the right of the desk and headed up the stairs and partway down another corridor until we came to the second door on the right.

"Here we are," Mrs. Weasley said, pushing open the door and letting us walk inside. Mr. Weasley was in the very last bed, over by the window.

"Lilah!" he exclaimed when he saw me. "It's really good to see you."

"It's good to see you, too," I said. "How are you?"

"Fine, fine," he said with a smile. He turned his attention to my dad and beamed up at him before leaning over to shake his hand. "Good to see you too, Chris."

"I'm glad to hear you're doing okay," Dad said with a grin.

Mr. Weasley smiled, but it instantly faltered as Mrs. Weasley spoke to him, her tone snappish. "Arthur," she said. She had been peering at the bandages under her husband's nightshirt when he leaned over to shake my dad's hand, and obviously something seemed off to her.

"Yes?" Mr. Weasley asked.

"You've had your bandages changed. Why have you had them changed a day early? They told me they wouldn't need doing until tomorrow."

"What?" Mr. Weasley asked, pulling the bed covers up higher over his chest. "It's nothing. It's-it's-I-well, don't get upset, Molly, but Augustus Pye had an idea...he's the Trainee Healer, you know, lovely young man and very interested in, um, complementary medicine. I mean, some of these old Muggle remedies...well, they're called _stitches_, Molly, and they work very well on-on Muggle wounds-"

Mrs. Weasley scowled and let out an odd noise of anger that almost sounded like a growl.

"You know, I could really go for some tea right about now," Fred said loudly.

"So could I," George said.

Fred grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet and out of the room. We hurried a bit down the corridor before slowing to a normal walk.

"Glad to be out of there," Fred said with a sigh. "I wasn't looking forward to hearing Mum yell. We've already had enough of her being emotional for one morning."

"Why, what happened?" I asked.

Fred and George looked at each other before Fred answered. "Percy sent back his Christmas sweater," he said.

"Your mother still made him one?" I asked with a sad smile.

Fred nodded. "I didn't think she needed to waste her time or energy, but she wanted to make one and look where it got her. He _sent it back_, Lilah!"

"I know," I whispered. "It must be painful. I'm sorry."

"It's more _annoying_ than _painful_," Fred said as we started up the stairs, heading for the fifth floor where the cafeteria was. "Mum's the one who's hurt. I'm just...angry, really."

"Come on, Fred, you have to be-"

"No," he insisted.

"If you weren't hurt, you wouldn't be angry," I said.

Fred didn't seem to have an answer to that. He was quiet for a moment before he spoke again. "So, when we came to see Dad yesterday, we used Extendable Ears to listen in when Tonks, Mad-Eye and Lupin were in there with Mum and Dad. They were wondering if You-Know-Who was possessing Harry."

"So then," George continued as we started up the next flight of stairs, "Harry went into pouting mode for the rest of the day, thinking he was a huge danger to us and that he really was possessed by You-Know-Who and had attacked Dad himself. But luckily, Hermione and Ginny knocked some sense into him. Ginny told him what it felt like when she was possessed by the diary and Harry felt nothing like that. And Ron told him that he had never left his bed, so he couldn't have gone to the Ministry."

"Well then how come Harry was able to see your dad being attacked?" I asked. "How come he saw it and it was true? What's that all about? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it happened, but..." I trailed off and sighed.

"No idea," Fred said, as we reached the fifth floor. He pulled open the door and we walked into the corridor leading down to the cafeteria. "Now, what about you? You have to tell us what happened. No more putting it off."

I sighed. It looked like the time had finally come. "Well, as you know, the day your dad was attacked, I grabbed Jules and just left so we could go see you and then when we got home-"

Before I could finish, I was cut off by the cafeteria door swinging open rapidly. It nearly hit me in the face and I moved backwards quickly.

"Oh, sorry, I should have been more careful-Lilah?" a voice said.

I looked up and my mouth fell open as my heart nearly stopped. "Oliver?" I whispered.

"Oh, bloody hell," Fred muttered from beside me. I elbowed him in the stomach, eliciting a quiet grunt before he fell silent.

"Hi, Fred, hi George," Oliver said, giving them small smiles.

"Hey, Wood," George said, giving a small wave in response. Fred simply grunted again.

"What are you doing here?" Oliver asked, turning back to me in surprise. "Are you still reading to Grace?"

"Yeah, but not today," I answered. "I'm here visiting Mr. Weasley. He was bitten by a snake."

"What?" Oliver spluttered.

"Long story," I sighed.

There was an awkward pause. "Well, in any case, I'm really sorry to hear about this," Oliver said, turning to the twins. "Is he alright?"

"Yeah, he will be," George said with a shrug. "Apparently, he and a Trainee Healer experimented with a Muggle remedy called stitches and Mum was freaking out, so we got out of there as fast as we could."

"What are _you_ doing here?" I asked Oliver.

"Reading to my new patient," Oliver said. "My old one was discharged a few months ago, so I got a new one."

"You're still reading to patients too?" I asked with a smile.

Oliver smiled back and nodded. "Yeah, I really like it," he admitted. "It keeps me sane. And grounded, you know?"

I nodded. "That's great," I said. "Really, I'm glad you're doing this." There was a pause. "How are you?"

"We'll leave you two to talk," George said, pulling open the door to the cafeteria. When Fred didn't move, choosing to glare at Oliver instead, George sighed and dragged him through the doors. "Come on, you jealous prat," he whispered.

"I'm good," Oliver said, looking back at me once the door had shut. "Same old, same old." He shrugged.

"Really?" I asked. "You make the life of a famous Quidditch star sound so dull."

"Please, I'm not _famous_," Oliver scoffed.

"You are. You've only acquired more fame since we-" I broke off and cleared my throat awkwardly as I looked away.

"Yeah I guess," Oliver said nervously, rubbing the back of his neck and looking away as well. Finally, he looked back up at me again. "What about you, how've you been? You and Fred are together now? I saw you holding hands. And I saw him sending me a death glare." He smirked.

I let out a quiet giggle. "Yeah, but I promise it wasn't-that article still wasn't true. We fell for each other after that. I swear."

"I believe you," Oliver said, meeting my eyes and nodding. "You're happy, though?"

"Mm," I said quietly. "I am."

"That's good," Oliver whispered, giving me a fleeting smile.

It was quiet between us again for a moment. "You sure you're okay?" I asked. "I know what I did was really-"

"Necessary?" Oliver asked with a chuckle. "Lilah, I couldn't ask you to stay with me if it wasn't working for you. And you were right. Even if we didn't necessarily _want_ it to end at the time, it was the best thing for us. It was a good idea to just sort myself out. Even though that's still an ongoing process. I'll admit it-I was heartbroken at first. I found myself lying awake all night every night for days, unable to fall asleep. I was quiet, reserved...I missed you." He paused and looked at the expression on my face. "I'm not telling you this to make you feel bad," he said quickly. "I'm telling you because I want you to know that I'm moving on too. After I stopped moping, I started throwing myself into Quidditch. It was all Quidditch all the time. And that helped for a bit, but then I realized I really didn't want to be that person again. The person I was before I met you. So I've been working on actually starting to have a life again. And slowly I've started to feel normal again. I've been hanging out with the guys on the team a lot, having fun, you know, but still practicing a lot..."

"Seeing anyone?" I asked with a wry smile.

Oliver shook his head. "No," he whispered. "Been on a few dates, but they haven't really gone anywhere. I'm not sure I'm ready to get back into that again. Not until I'm sure I can handle being in a relationship."

I nodded. "Understandable."

"I'm telling you this because I know you must have beaten yourself up over what happened and it's not your fault. Like I said, I wouldn't expect you to stay with me if it wasn't making you happy."

I nodded again. "Oh, hey, so Jules took over your spot on the Gryffindor team. He's Keeper this year."

"Seriously?" Oliver asked excitedly. "That's great! I'm really happy for him." He frowned. "Where is he, anyway?"

I slowly sucked in a breath. "With my mother." When Oliver looked at me quizzically, I continued. "She kicked me out. I'm living with my dad now."

"What?" Oliver asked in shock. "You're kidding!"

"No, she didn't want me to go see the Weasleys the day their dad was attacked. She wanted me to decorate for the Christmas party. But I took Julian and left and when I came home, she told me to leave. So I did. Because I didn't want her to do anything even more rash. I didn't want her to go to the Ministry, build a case against me, get a restraining order...anything like that."

"Merlin, you must be a mess over this," Oliver said. "That's awful. It must be so hard for you to be away from Julian."

"Yeah, it's been tough. I miss him," I said. "But I'll still see him every other weekend and when I go back to school. I just have to keep reminding myself of that."

"Still," Oliver said, "you must wish you were still living together."

"Of course," I whispered.

"I'm really sorry," Oliver whispered back. "You'll tell him I said hello, won't you? And congrats on making the team? Although, he does have some big shoes to fill."

"I'll tell him," I said, sending him a smile. "And I think he's doing pretty well so far. Already got roughed up a bit. Bludger broke his nose in the first game."

Oliver winced. "Ouch. But that's better than my first game. Bludger right here." He tapped his temple.

"I know, you told me," I answered.

"Right, of course," Oliver laughed.

We stared at each other for another beat before Oliver smiled and chewed on his lip. "I'd better get going," he said. "I was only grabbing something quick to eat before I go home to be with Mum and Dad. They had the day off today."

"Tell them I say hi," I said.

Oliver nodded. "I will." He hesitated. "Maybe I'll...see you around?"

"Yeah," I whispered, smiling up at him. "I hope so."

Oliver looked at me, taking me all in for a long moment before giving me another smile, waving and walking back down the hallway.

"Olls?" I called after him, my old nickname for him slipping out before I could stop it.

He turned and stood there with his hands in his pockets, smiling at me. "You don't know how long it's been since I've heard anyone call me that."

"Really? No one else does?" I asked in surprise.

He shook his head. "So, what were you going to say?"

"Just that...I'm glad you're doing okay. I'm really-it was-it was really nice to see you. Honestly."

"Yeah...same," Oliver said with a smile. He gave me another wave. "See you."

"See you," I answered. And then I watched him turn around and walk down the hall before disappearing through the double doors to the staircase, vanishing from sight as if he'd never been there at all.

* * *

"I took the liberty of getting you a cup of tea," Fred said tensely when I met up with him and George in the cafeteria. He pointed to the steaming mug of tea in front of the only empty chair at the table. "Honey and one spoon of sugar, just the way you like it."

"Thanks," I said slowly, sitting down and staring at him. I glanced over at George, who gave me a small smile before I looked back at Fred. "Please don't tell me you're upset about me running into Oliver. I couldn't exactly control that. And I couldn't _ignore_ him."

"No, Lilah, I'm not _upset_. I don't care if you wanted to talk to him. I just wanted to be there to keep an eye on him."

I snorted. "He's not going to pull anything, Fred. He would never do that, even if he hadn't moved on."

"Has he?" Fred asked.

"Working on it," I said.

Fred looked at me and smiled. "Sorry. I like Wood, I really do. And I mean, you're the one who has to see me and Angelina talk _all the time_ and you've never complained."

"Because I know I don't have anything to worry about," I said. I paused as a smirk tugged at the corner of my mouth. "Do I?"

"No, of course not," Fred said. He smiled. "As long as _I_ don't have to worry."

"No, definitely not," I answered.

Fred nodded and grinned before reaching out and pushing my tea closer to me. "Don't let it get cold," he whispered.

I smiled before sliding my fingers around the warm mug and lifting it to my mouth. "So...anyway," I finally said. "As I was telling you, when Julian and I got back home the other day, Mum wasn't happy that I didn't listen to her _and_ brought Julian with me. So she told me it would be best if I left. She said that if I was going to disobey her to keep seeing you...if I was going to put our family in danger by associating with people who are going to be targeted, then she wasn't going to associate with me anymore. There really isn't much to it."

"But why would she say that if she doesn't even believe You-Know-Who is back?" Fred asked.

"Don't know," I sighed. "We all know that she doesn't like you as it is and maybe this is just an excuse for her to finally get rid of me or get me to stop seeing you. Either way, she's happy."

"Don't say that, Lie," George whispered.

"It's true," I said with a bitter laugh. "I just don't want her to move Julian away."

"I don't think she will," Fred said. "And even if she did, he'd still come right back once he was seventeen. By trying to tear everyone else apart, your mother is only going to end up alone one day."

I didn't respond, instead choosing to pick at a chip in the mug I was holding. "Well, in any case, I wish Julian could have spent Christmas with us," I finally said. "I know he really wanted to. I just hope he's not jealous that I get to be with all of you while he's at home with Mum doing nothing."

Fred and George were quiet for a moment. But finally they looked at each other, communicating silently before Fred spoke. "You said when you're with your mother on Christmas day, you just open presents in the morning and then...do nothing pretty much for the rest of the day, right?"

"Pretty much," I said. "It's awful. Before, Julian and I would try to do something fun on our own while Mum worked from home. But now..." I sighed and shook my head.

"So by the time we get back to Grimmauld Place, Julian will be done opening gifts and just sitting in his bedroom staring at the walls while your mother holes up in her office and works?" Fred asked.

"Something along those lines," I shrugged. "Why?"

"Just asking," Fred answered, shooting a glance at George, who looked back at him and smiled.

* * *

We met up with the others about half an hour later, said goodbye to Mr. Weasley and went back to Grimmauld Place. The twins started up the stairs to their room and I followed them, but Fred stopped me. "Sorry, Lie, but I'm going to have to ask you to not follow us."

"Why not?" I asked curiously.

"I still have to wrap your Christmas present," Fred answered swiftly.

"Seriously?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "You certainly procrastinated, didn't you?"

"Yeah, well, with everything going on..." Fred shrugged. "Just give us a bit, okay? Go catch up with Ginny and Hermione."

I let out a laugh and rolled my eyes. "Fine, fine, I understand when I'm not wanted."

Fred leaned over and gave me a quick kiss. "You're always wanted, Lie. Just...not right now."

I laughed before slowly backing down the stairs. "I'll see you later, then?"

"Yeah, of course," Fred said. He grinned and took off at a jog up the stairs, George on his heels.

I watched them go with an amused expression on my face. When they had disappeared, I turned and walked back down to the kitchen where everyone else had gathered.

"Where are the twins?" Mrs. Weasley asked. "We were just about to go up to the living room to exchange gifts."

"Fred hasn't wrapped mine yet," I said. "He said to give them a little bit and they'll be around."

"Well, why don't we go wait for them upstairs?" Mrs. Weasley said. She lifted up a tray filled with hot chocolates and led the way up the stairs while the rest of us followed her. Mad-Eye and Mundungus had left, leaving Tonks and Lupin the only Order members left besides Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. But even still, there were still twelve of us left and the house didn't feel empty by any means.

When we situated ourselves in the living room, Mrs. Weasley passed out the hot chocolate and turned on Celestina Warbeck, whose broadcast was being played on the radio all day today. Ginny and Ron groaned while Mrs. Weasley scowled at them.

"Hush," she said. "We only listen Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Two days out of the whole year. They won't kill you."

"Speak for yourself," Ron muttered.

"I do hope Fred and George hurry," Mrs. Weasley sighed. "Or else their hot chocolate will get cold and they'll be keeping the rest of us waiting."

"We don't mind waiting," Dad said with a shrug. "We have all day."

"Thank you for having us over," I added, pulling my legs up under me. "Honestly, I hope it isn't too much trouble."

"Not at all!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed. "We love having you!"

"Yeah, and as I've said," Sirius added, "the more the merrier. I love having company, especially on Christmas."

We waited about half an hour for the twins before Mrs. Weasley finally sighed with frustration and stood up. "Where _are_ they?" she huffed. "If they don't come down here soon, we're going to start without them."

"I'll go get them," I said, standing and gesturing for her to sit back down. I walked over to the living room door and pulled it open. I had taken about one step out into the hallway, when I was practically ambushed by Fred who was, oddly, coming _up_ the stairs, instead of down them like I had expected. He seemed to be in a great rush and his cheeks were red with cold. Looking past him, I saw his jacket discarded on the stairs as if he had flung it off in a great hurry.

"What in the-" I began.

"Lilah!" Fred exclaimed, nearly running into me and grabbing my arms to steady himself. He was positively beaming.

"Where have you been?" I asked. "And where's George? We've been waiting for a while now and I thought you were upstairs wrapping my gift."

"We were," Fred said. "But I had to go _get _it first. George is waiting downstairs to bring it in."

"What? Fred, I was under the impression you had my gift and just had to wrap it. If you didn't buy me anything in the first place, I wouldn't have been mad, but-"

"Lilah, shut up," Fred said. "I bought you something and wrapped it yesterday. It's already in the living room, under the tree with the gifts for your Dad and Jules."

"Jules isn't here," I pointed out.

"Well, we didn't know he wouldn't be coming, obviously," Fred said as if I were dumb. "And we'd have bought him gifts anyway. You'll just have to give them to him when you see him next weekend." He smiled even wider and bounced on the balls of his feet. "But I had to run out and get another last minute thing. It was a last minute idea, though, so..." He trailed off and beamed even wider, if that were possible. "Come on." He ushered me into the living room and stopped me a few feet in front of the doors. "Stand here," he instructed.

"Fred, where have you been?" Mrs. Weasley asked. "We've been waiting on you and George for ages! Your hot chocolate is probably cold by now."

"Ah, well, what I was doing was more important," Fred said. He looked around. "If it's okay, I'd like to give Lilah one of her gifts from George and I first."

Everyone else murmured their agreement as they looked around at each other.

"Why the big show?" Ginny asked, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her knees. "What'd you get her?"

"You'll find out in a second," Fred said with a smile. He jogged back to the door and pulled it open. "Okay, George, send it up!" He turned around and saw me watching him over my shoulder. "Turn around!" he said, twirling his finger. "No peeking!"

Sighing and breaking into a smile of my own, I turned around and stared at the opposite wall of the room. "I swear, Fred Weasley, this better be an amazing gift after all this fuss you've been making about it. I-"

I was cut off by someone tickling my sides and yelling "Boo!" in my ear. I shrieked and whirled around, barely registering the yells of surprise from everyone else in the room. When I finally managed to turn around, it all clicked and I froze. My brother was standing behind me, wearing a giant smile and a small, shiny red bow stuck to his light brown hair.

"Julian!" I gasped happily, throwing my arms around him. He pulled me into a hug and spun me around.

"Merry Christmas!" he exclaimed.

"I don't believe it! What are you doing here? _How _are you here?"

Julian looked over his shoulder at the twins, who were standing by the door, leaning against the wall and smiling. "Fred and George. They threw rocks at my window until I opened it and then they told me to sneak out and come with them to spend Christmas here." He smiled down at me. "So I used your room to sneak out. Climbed from the balcony to the tree and almost quite literally followed in your footsteps."

I felt myself deflate a bit. "Jules, that's not exactly something I've done that I want you to imitate. Are you sure this was a good idea? Remember how it ended last time?"

"Well, our parents can't get divorced _again_," Julian said. "And the worst I can see happening is that Mum kicks _me_ out, too, which will actually be a good thing."

"Or she'll pack you up and move you somewhere else," I answered.

"No, she won't," Julian said confidently. "Look, she's busy in her office for pretty much the rest of the day. She'll work so hard, she'll even forget to eat. She won't even know I'm gone. I'll be back right after dinner and we'll be fine." He nudged me and smiled. "Come on, Lie, don't worry so much. It's Christmas!"

I finally broke into a smile and hugged him again. "You don't hate me for leaving?" I asked.

"I could never," he answered. "I miss you of course, but I'm doing okay on my own, so don't worry."

I nodded and stepped back as the others all got up to greet my brother. Mrs. Weasley hurried off to make him a mug of hot chocolate. No one seemed to care that the twins had snuck out of headquarters to go sneak my brother out of his own house. 'Tis the season, I suppose.

I made my way over to the twins, who were still standing by the door. "Thank you," I said quietly. "That was probably the best Christmas gift you could have gotten me. I appreciate it."

"Don't mention it, Lie," George whispered, ruffling my hair. "It's not Christmas without family."

It was quiet for a moment. "I wish I could knock some sense into Percy for you," I finally said. "And, you know, get him back home for you. And bring your dad home from the hospital."

"Yeah, well, we're just glad Dad's alive," George said.

"And as for Percy, who needs him?" Fred shrugged. "In fact, I'm thinking of stealing his sweater back from Mum and tossing it into the fire later."

I shot him a look of exasperation before lifting his arm, draping it over my shoulders and snuggling into his side as we watched our families sitting around the fire, talking and laughing. It almost looked picturesque. It looked nice. It made me happy to watch it. I didn't know if we'd ever get to see something like this again. All of us together, making the best of the negative parts of the holiday and turning it into something pleasant.

Suddenly, Mrs. Weasley bustled back into the room. She thrust two new hot chocolates at the twins. "Don't let these get cold," she told them with a smile before hurrying over to give Julian his drink.

"Don't have to tell us twice," Fred said, taking a sip and getting whipped cream across his upper lip.

"You trying to grow another beard?" I teased. "The one after your first attempt to enter the Triwizard Tournament was that great, huh?"

Fred grinned and swiped at his lip with his sleeve. "Actually, it was really itchy. I don't think I'll be growing a beard ever to be honest."

"Good," I told him, "because I'm not sure beards are my type."

"No?" Fred asked. "What _is _your type, then?"

I pretended to think. "Definitely not redheads," I told him. "Or guys that have a sense of humor."

"Could've fooled me," Fred snorted as he rolled his eyes. He smirked down at me. "By the way, have we had this conversation before? It sounds awfully familiar."

"Probably," I said. "If we have, it was me trying to get you to take the hint that I'm not all that into you after all."

"You're such a pain in the ass sometimes, do you know that?" Fred whispered, leaning in for a quick kiss.

"So I've been told," I answered quietly, a smile spreading over my lips.

"Oi!" Ron suddenly yelled. "Can we finally open gifts now or what?"

The twins and I joined the others around the fireplace and Mrs. Weasley began handing out gifts. Julian and I each got a traditional Weasley sweater, as usual, which I still absolutely loved to get every year. Mine was green and Julian's was navy blue. We pulled them on the second we unwrapped them and I seemed to instantly feel warmer and cozier as if there were magic woven within the stitches as well-and who knew, maybe there was.

Finally, once every other gift had been opened, Fred reached behind his back and pulled out a gift wrapped package that he handed over to me. "One last gift," he said. "It's one I actually planned."

"Well, I'm sure it'll be just as fantastic as your unplanned one," I said, glancing at my brother and smiling as I began pulling at the ends of the ribbon.

The ribbon eventually fell away and I began pulling off the paper. When the gift inside was revealed, I smiled. There were two things in the box. The item on top was a mug. It was plain white from what I saw, but I pulled it out and admired it nonetheless.

"When you fill it with hot water," Fred explained, "a different message from yours truly will appear each time. Here, let me see..." He reached for the mug and, when I handed it to him, he aimed his wand at the inside, sending a stream of steaming hot water into the mug. After a few seconds, writing began to appear. It appeared slowly and delicately, almost like the ink on the Marauder's map. Fred handed the mug back to me. "Go on, read it," he said.

I took the mug back and stared at the words. "It's in your handwriting," I said.

"Well, yeah, it should be," Fred answered. "I did write them all. I told you the notes would be from me, didn't I?"

I smiled and peered at the words now staring back at me from the white ceramic. "'You are the luckiest girl in the world'," I read. "'I would love to be dating me'." I laughed. "Fred, seriously?"

"Ah, that's one of my favorites," Fred said.

"Are all the messages snarky like that?" I asked with a smile.

"Most of them," Fred said. "But don't worry, there are a few nice ones in there as well. You'll just have to use the mug to find out what they are." He waved his wand at the mug again and cleared away the hot water.

"Thanks, Fred," I whispered as I watched the words fade. "This is really clever."

"Don't forget the rest of your gift," Fred said, nodding towards the box in my lap.

I reached in a pulled out a knit hat in the Gryffindor colors. Maroon with a gold stripe around the bottom. "Aw, Fred, did you knit this?" I teased, pulling the hat down over my hair and grinning.

Fred snorted as everyone else laughed. "No way. Bought it in Hogsmeade. I know you've been needing a new hat ever since Casper got ahold of your old one and used it as a toy. Practically ripped it to shreds if I'm correct."

"You are," I nodded. I gestured to my head. "How do I look?"

"Ugly," Fred commented, keeping his expression serious. Then, he broke out into a grin. "As long as you know that by _ugly_, I mean stunning."

I smiled and leaned forward to give him a gentle kiss. "Thank you," I whisperered, "for _everything._"

"You're welcome," Fred whispered. He paused, his nose just about touching mine, to give me a lopsided grin. And then he leaned forward and kissed me again. "Merry Christmas, Liles."

"Merry Christmas," I answered, pulling away completely. "I don't think I could have asked for a better one."

* * *

After dinner, I found myself sitting up in Buckbeak's room with Julian. Just the two of us, each with our own glass of eggnog that Buckbeak kept trying to stick his beak into.

"This isn't for you," I giggled, moving my glass out of the hippogriff's reach as I patted his neck. "I'm sorry. You have a delicious, erm, ferret, though," I said, peering down at the small dead creature that was Buckbeak's dinner. I felt myself pale as my stomach churned.

"Dinner of champions," Julian said with a smile as he leaned up against the wall and slid down to the ground.

I joined him a second later, if anything to get away from Buckbeak's dinner, but the only downside was that I still managed to have a front row seat to Buckbeak actually eating his dinner.

"You should see your face right now," Julian laughed.

"He's eating a ferret," I said. "Another thing that was once living."

"That's nature for you," Julian shrugged. "Happens all the time."

"Doesn't mean I have to like it," I said."

"You eat things that were once living," Julian pointed out. "In fact, I've seen you look at chicken like you could marry it."

"Yeah, but that's-that's-" I looked at my brother, who was giving me a look with his eyebrows raised. I broke out into a giggle. "Okay it's not that different, but at least I don't eat chicken _whole_ in nearly one swallow and with the feathers and everything still on." I pointed to Buckbeak. "He just annihilated that ferret."

Julian laughed into his eggnog. "True," he said.

I giggled before letting out a sigh and resting my head on his shoulder. "How've you been?" I asked.

"Fine," Julian answered, resting his cheek on the top of my head. "But it has only been a few days. Give it a few more and I could be about to starve to death. And I won't be able to wear clothes because of those stupid buttons and zippers." He sighed dramatically. "They're so hard. So if you hear anything about a scruffy boy running around in his underwear, catching ferrets to eat for dinner, you'll know it's me."

I didn't have to look at him to know he was grinning. "Don't be a jerk," I said with a smile of my own.

"In all seriousness," Julian whispered, "I'm okay. And I'll be okay in the future. I know Mum is difficult, but I'll manage. I can take care of myself, but the hardest part will be simply not having you there. Not having your presence in the house. Not having you to go talk to or laugh with or have fun with. Not having you there if I _do_ need you for something. And Mum doesn't want any contact so it's not like we can really write. If she sees Casper delivering mail, she'll know."

"Not if we write at night," I said. "And even during the day, she's at work most of the time."

"But Casper is with you, meaning you have to send the first letter. And you won't know when Mum is around or when she isn't."

I was quiet for a moment. "Like I said, there's always nighttime. It's not ideal, but..." I trailed off and let a puff of air out of my mouth. "And I will still see you every other weekend."

There was a pause, long enough for me to suddenly feel uneasy.

"Uh-oh," I said, lifting my head off my brother's shoulder. "What?"

Julian but his lip as he looked down into his eggnog. "Mum's been talking about taking all of dad's custody away," he said slowly. "Or at the very least giving him supervised visits. She really wants no contact, but she knows he'll fight that."

"As he should!" I exclaimed. "That's insane!"

"She's saying she can't have me spending time with two extremely dangerous people."

"It won't work!" I said. "Dad and I have done nothing to show we're dangerous."

"Except believe You-Know-Who is back," Julian sighed.

"That's not a crime! As much as the Ministry is trying to deny what's happening, they're not locking people up for siding with Dumbledore and Harry. Mum can't get her way with this. It won't work. It's not a good enough reason for the ministry to say dad can't have any kind of custody of you."

Julian nodded. "I keep telling myself that too, but Mum kind of scares me. I wonder how convincing she can be. I wonder what lengths she'll go to in order to get her way."

I closed my eyes and tipped my head back against the wall. I felt sick. Julian was right. What if Mum did get her way? The only place I'd get to see Julian would be at school and that was as long as Mum didn't find a way to take that away too. And at this rate, I was beginning to fear she would.

"Well, you're about a year and a half away from being of age," I whispered. "Worst case scenario, you wait it out, then you leave and do what you want. Or we can try to fight this. Get you-what is it-emancipated?"

"You think that'll work?" Julian asked. "It sounds like a lot of effort, first of all. Secondly, we'd have to fight really hard to win against Mum. She always wins, Lilah. We'd have to get a really good Ministry official that'll be willing to help us and defend us. And that'll be costly as well. It's not like we have our own personal money tree in the backyard."

"I thought being pessimistic was my job," I muttered.

"I thought you insisted on calling it _realistic_," Julian smirked.

I smirked back at him. "Jerk."

He looked back at me with his big green eyes. "We'll get through this, Lie," he said. "As of right now, nothing legal has been done so I still will be able to go to dad's every other weekend. And I'll see you at school. And then when I'm seventeen, I'll be out of Mum's house faster than lightning and we can see each other every day if we want to."

I nodded. "Can't wait," I smiled.

Just then, there was a soft knock on the door. We looked up to see Fred poking his head in. He looked at us sheepishly. "George and I, uh, we think we should be taking Julian back now..." He rubbed the back of his neck as he gave me an apologetic smile.

I sighed. "I guess you're right," I said. I suddenly felt heartbroken all over again. It was just as if I was back in the foyer of Mum's house, saying goodbye once more. It was every bit as painful.

"I'll be right out in the hall," Fred said, "so you two can have a moment alone."

"Thanks," I whispered, giving him a grateful smile. When the door clicked shut, Julian and I were quiet for a moment before Julian sighed and pushed himself to his feet before reaching out and pulling me up as well. We stared at each other for a moment as I felt a lump forming in my throat and my chest tightening. I tried to keep my expression neutral, but of course Julian saw right through me.

"Do you remember the day when I was seven, you were ten and we were playing tag in the driveway when I fell and scraped both my knees?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I remember."

"What did you tell me?" Julian asked with a small smile. "After you rushed to my side and knelt beside me, you took one look at my knees and then at my face, screwed up in an effort to look brave and nonchalant and you said what?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, Jules," I sighed.

"You said, 'You can cry if you want to. I don't mind'."

I closed my eyes as the lump in my throat grew even bigger and tears formed behind my eyes. It was also funny that he said that because if I remembered correctly, I had said something similar to Ginny after Percy had left and I hadn't even made the connection that I had said it before.

"So now I think it's an appropriate time to return the favor," Julian continued. "You're always trying to be so brave for me, Lie. You're always trying to set a good example and be strong for me. And you're so good at it. In a way, I admire that, but you have feelings too, just like everyone else." I felt him put his hands on my shoulders. "I know this is hard for you, so...you can cry if you want to, Liles. I don't mind."

And then that was it. I completely broke down sobbing. Julian wrapped his arms around me and just hugged me. It was the first time something like this had happened and it was odd, but now that I'd started, I couldn't stop. I let myself cry into my little brother's shirt. My little brother, who was maturing before my very eyes. Of course, he'd always been mature for his age, but now it was as if I could see him growing up even more so. It was hitting me that he really was no longer a child, but a teenager. I had said it myself: in a year and a half, he'd be of age. He'd be seventeen. He'd be able to be out on his own. And not only had he matured on the inside, but, physically, well, he was a head taller than me now. He even had some _muscles_, for crying out loud. He wasn't a small, scrawny, defenseless kid anymore. He almost looked older than me. He had thrown some pretty good punches at Crabbe and Goyle and also at Sam. All in my defense. I wasn't sure when all this growing up had happened-probably gradually, even though it felt like it was all at once-but the fact was that it had happened and I was going to have to learn to not only admit it, but deal with it.

Finally, my crying slowed to a sniffle, but I still remained in my brother's arms. "When did you even _get_ these?" I asked, wrinkling my nose as I poked at his bicep.

"November fifteenth, nineteen ninety four at seven thirty-one in the evening," Julian said sarcastically and I could tell he was rolling his eyes. "I don't know, Lie, but I'm not an eight year old anymore, you can't expect me to have the body of one."

"No, you're such a big, manly _fifteen_ year old," I replied.

"Shut up," Julian said. He pulled away and peered down at his arm. "It's probably from all the Quidditch practice. You really think they're impressive?" He flexed his arm up and tilted his head. "I mean, I never thought I was built like, say, Montague or anything...I mean, have you seen that guy? But, wow, maybe I'm more muscular than I thought."

I snorted as I wiped the remainder of my tears from my eyes. "Please, you look nothing like Montague and you should be glad. He's like a mountain troll. But as weird as it is for me to admit, you're not a scrawny kid anymore either. You're really growing up in every sense of the phrase."

Julian smiled. "Does this mean you're not going to baby me anymore?"

"Oh, please, you know if I stopped you'd miss it terribly."

"Nope," Julian said with a grin.

I laughed as I shook my head. "You should go," I finally whispered sadly, nodding towards the door. "We can't have Mum noticing you're gone."

Julian gave me a sad look in return before leaning forward for one last hug. "Love you," he whispered. He planted a sloppy kiss on the top of my head before backing towards the door. "See you soon?" He asked and suddenly he was my little brother again with his wide, green eyes that always gave away what he was feeling, even fear and sadness.

"See you soon," I replied with a reassuring smile.

Julian opened the door and stepped out into the hallway to join the twins. Fred poked his head into the room. "I'll be back soon, okay?"

I nodded. "Okay," I whispered back. "Be safe. And take care of Jules."

"Of course," Fred nodded. He gave me a sad smile. "You okay?"

I nodded again. "Yeah, I'll be fine. I'll see you when you get back."

"Okay," Fred answered, smiling a bit wider before slipping out of the room, leaving the door open a crack. Sighing, I sank back down to the floor and leaned against the wall as I closed my eyes. After a moment, I opened them and looked at Buckbeak, who was now laying down in the opposite corner of the room, staring back at me. If he had eyebrows, I'm sure he would be raising them at me.

"Don't give me that look," I said with a smile. "I have every right to act a bit mopey."

Buckbeak let out a snorting noise, almost as if he were scoffing at me.

"Shut it," I answered. "Eat another ferret, why don't you?"

Buckbeak snorted again. I swear, he was laughing at me.

"He likes you."

I looked up to see Sirius standing in the doorway, smiling at me.

"He's laughing at me," I told him.

"Yeah, he's kind of a snarky thing," Sirius said, gazing over at the hippogriff, who was looking at him now. "Yeah, I'm talking about you," Sirius said with a roll of his eyes. He turned back to me and pointed at the section of floor beside me. "Is this seat taken?"

"Yeah, actually, I invited Buckbeak's ferret to dinner," I said with a smile.

"Well, I hate to tell you, but I think that ferret _became_ dinner," Sirius chuckled.

I laughed. "Unfortunately, I saw."

Sirius chuckled and sat down beside me as we both gazed at Buckbeak. "I wonder if he remembers you from school," Sirius finally said.

I shrugged. "I doubt it. Hagrid used Buckbeak to introduce hippogriffs to all of his classes. There were a lot of students."

"So?" Sirius asked. "You don't think you're memorable?"

I smiled. "I don't know. I think it's something I may have to work on believing." I paused. "It's not that I'm _trying_ to hold myself a pity party. I just...I'm normal. Normal people don't always get remembered."

Sirius stared at me, a thoughtful look on his face. "You know," he finally said, "Harry would probably _love_ to be normal."

I blushed. "Sorry," I murmured, turning away. "I didn't mean to-I wasn't complaining. I-"

"No, I know. I didn't say that to make you feel bad. I said it because there's honestly nothing wrong with being normal. It's a nice thing to be if you ask me." He smiled and I laughed.

"Maybe you're right," I said with a smile. "I just never thought about the fact that people would _like_ to be normal."

Sirius shrugged. "When you're living with something you may not particularly like, you always want the opposite," Sirius said. "Back in school, Lily-Harry's Mum-would always complain about her hair. It was pin straight. She wanted naturally curly hair. And a friend of ours, Marlene McKinnon, had the curliest hair you've ever seen. If she wanted it to be straight, it always took a bit of work. It was never naturally straight. Lily always wanted her hair to be as curly as Marlene's and Marlene always wanted her hair to be as straight as Lily's. We always want what we don't-or can't-have and we don't appreciate the things we do have."

I was quiet as I thought that over. "Have you ever feel that way?" I asked.

"Well," Sirius said slowly, "it's actually funny because growing up-here in this house-I always used to say that being in Azkaban would be more pleasant than being here. And then I actually got myself put in Azkaban and I was eating my words. I started thinking that I'd prefer this place all over again compared to that gloomy place. As bad as it was living here, at least I had a regular, normal house and a regular bed and decent food. And as unpleasant as my family was, at least they had _faces_. They did still depress me, though, that's one similarity they share with the dementors. Anyway, while I was in Azkaban, I used to tell myself over and over that I wanted out and that I'd even take this place if it meant I could get out. And now here I am, stuck here again, unable to leave."

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "That's awful."

Sirius shook his head. "It's not as bad this time," he said. "My family's not around, unless you count my mother's portrait. And the portrait version of her is quieter than she was in life. Now at least she only screams if you make enough noise. Growing up, it seemed like she was constantly yelling." He paused and looked at me. "And now I have you all visiting me. The Order, you, Julian, the Weasley's, Harry, Hermione..." He trailed off. "And I have Buckbeak here. I like having company. Good company. It makes being back a little better."

"I wish it didn't have to be this way," I sighed. "I wish your name could've been completely cleared. Then you'd be able to actually walk outside."

"Ah, who needs fresh air?" Sirius shrugged. "The musty air in this house is perfect. Very healthy."

I laughed and looked at him. "Even still, I hope one day this will all be over and you can live a normal life. Honestly."

Sirius smiled. "Thanks. I appreciate that. And I hope so too. But in the meantime, I'll just try to enjoy the life I've got. The way it is now, despite all the bad things, is better than Azkaban. I have to remember to keep that in mind. Not take the things I do have for granted because there's always a worse situation."

I didn't answer as I considered that. He did have a point. Suddenly, there was a knock from the doorway. Sirius and I turned to see Fred standing there, his knuckles poised above the wood of the doorframe. "Hey," he said with a half-smile. "Can I interrupt?"

"Of course," Sirius nodded. He headed for the door and gave Fred a pat on the back before continuing down the stairs.

Fred smiled. "So," he began slowly, sticking his hands into his pockets and ambling a few steps into the room, "your dad agreed to my mother's pestering and you're both spending the night. Also, the kitchen's empty and I noticed that there's a nice stash of firewhiskey down there. Would you like to join me for a late night kitchen run? We've got to keep up our Hogwarts traditions even when we're not there, right?"

I smiled and nodded. "Sure." Giving Buckbeak one final pat, I joined Fred at the doorway and slipped my hand into his. He led me down to the kitchen and I leaned against the counter while he pulled out a firewhiskey for each of us and uncapped them.

"For you," he said, handing me one.

"Thank you," I answered, taking it from him and bringing it to my lips, keeping my eyes on Fred. "Julian get back okay?" I asked.

Fred nodded. "Safe and sound in his bedroom."

I nodded and drummed my fingertips against the firewhiskey bottle as I looked away.

"You okay?" Fred asked.

I nodded and looked back at him. "Yeah, of course. I wanted to thank you again for what you did. It was really thoughtful. Risky, sure, but thoughtful. It means a lot."

Fred grinned. "The look on your face when you saw him was worth any risk. Trust me."

I smiled and took a long sip of my drink before sliding down the cabinets and sitting on the floor. Fred sat beside me and let out a sigh as we continued to sip our drinks in silence.

We continued to sit there on the kitchen floor, working our way through the six pack of firewhiskey without really even meaning to. We just got on a roll and by the time we were on the last two-our third drinks each-we had started to get a little giggly. Well, I had mostly. Fred seemed okay-he laughed a lot on a normal basis so I didn't think this was any different than normal.

"Remember second year when you caught a live fish out of the lake and hid it under Snape's desk during class?" I asked at one point as I burst into laughter. "And then eventually the whole room just started to smell and nobody knew why?"

"I do," Fred chuckled. "That was great. And remember that time when the Slytherins were calling you stupid so we put hair dye in their shampoo?"

I nodded. "Mm. And what about that time we figured out how to brew that Helium potion fourth year and then sat up in the common room drinking it and seeing who could get their voice to be the highest pitch."

Fred let out a loud laugh. "You definitely won that. You sounded like a mouse!"

"Well, you sounded like you were going through puberty a second time," I shot back, letting out a laugh of my own as Fred made a face and nudged me.

"Merlin, that would mak a good product," he said with a sigh, staring dreamily at the ceiling.

"What if we gave that product to Umbridge?" I asked. "How high pitched do you think her giggles would become then?"

"So high only dogs could hear them," Fred answered.

"Imagine her attracting a group of dogs," I giggled. "And they followed her wherever she went. She'd be horrified. She is a cat person after all."

"I can see it now," Fred said. He started to imitate Umbridge in a high pitched voice. "Shoo! Get down! Shoo!" He wrinkled his nose and pretended to ward off imaginary dogs with his hands.

I laughed. "Sounds accurate to me."

Fred took another sip of his drink. "So on another note, what did you think of Celestina Warbeck's performance tonight? Did you enjoy it?" He looked at me and smiled wryly.

"Oh, yeah," I answered sarcastically, accidentally taking too big of a sip of my drink and wincing as it burned slightly going down my throat

Fred chuckled and began singing an extremely out of tune rendition of 'You Charmed the Heart Right Out of Me'.

"'You charmed the heart right out of me. Don't need no broom, I'm flying free'," he said, his voice not only awful to begin with, but now even more off because he had alcohol in his system.

"Fred," I laughed.

"'I think by now it's plain to see'," Fred practically wailed, his voice escalating with every word as he leaned into me, "'I'm nothing without you'." He dragged the last word out, his voice high-pitched, his eyes shut and his lips puckered dramatically.

I couldn't help myself. I dissolved into giggles and soon both Fred and I had found ourselves in a fit of laughter. I let out a sigh as I rested my head on his shoulder. "Fred?" I whispered.

"Yeah?" Fred whispered back, smiling down at me.

"I love you," I answered, my voice still a whisper. I fought the urge to gasp. I had said it. I had always been so good at biting back the words at the last second, but this time they had finally managed to escape. It was probably the stupid firewhiskey. My heart thumped wildly in my chest as I met Fred's eyes. I felt almost sick with anticipation. Fred stared down at me in slight surprise for a moment before frowning slightly.

"Damnit," he muttered.

"Excuse me?" I asked, raising an eyebrow and sitting up so that I could look at him better. Out of all the things I was prepared for him to say, that had not been one of them. I started to brace myself against what was coming next, though. A rejection.

Fred chuckled. "It's just...I wanted to be the one to say it first."

"Oh," I giggled, instant waves of relief washing over me. "Sorry." I felt as if a huge weight had lifted from my shoulders. I felt like a balloon that had been released from someone's hand. Free. I felt free. I smiled as my insides got that feeling as if they were slowly being melted by a tiny, flickering flame. Fred loved me back. I could have screamed it out the window. All the worrying and all the biting my tongue in fear of him not feeling the same way and he did. He loved me. Of all the people in the world that he could have had, he had fallen in love with _me_.

"I had a bet going with George, you see," Fred whispered, smirking as he gently pushed a strand of hair behind my ear. "A bet about who would say 'I love you' first. Me or you. And..." he let a puff of air out of his mouth, "I just lost."

I tipped my head back and groaned. "Fred, really?" I asked, looking at him in exasperation.

Fred took another sip of his firewhiskey and nodded before setting it down. "We only made the bet about a week ago when I first told him how I felt about you. I thought it would be an easy win for me because I was going to tell you on the train ride home for the holidays, but that got all messed up." He half-smiled and shrugged. "And now you've beaten me to it."

"Can I-can I hear you say it?" I asked, a faint blush coloring my cheeks.

"Say what?" Fred asked, a lopsided smirk lifting the corner of his mouth. When I made a face, he actually laughed. "I love you," he finally said, his face lit up with a smile as his eyes wandered over my own face. "Happy now?"

I nodded. "Mhm," I whispered.

Fred smiled wider and then leaned down to kiss me. I let out a happy sigh before resting my head on Fred's shoulder again. Suddenly, I felt tired. I didn't know if it was the firewhiskey, exhaustion after such a long few days, or both, but it was getting harder and harder to keep my eyes open.

I felt Fred wrap an arm around my shoulders and pull me closer, pressing a kiss to the top of my head as he did so. He let his lips linger there for a bit as he trailed his fingertips lightly up and down my arm. And a few seconds later, I was asleep.


	59. Chapter 59

By the time we were headed back to school after the holidays, I wasn't sure how I felt about going back. Going back meant that I'd get to see my brother regularly again, which I wanted. But going back also meant seeing Umbridge regularly again, which I didn't want. The one exciting thing was that we still had the D.A. to look forward to.

The morning after we returned from break, I went down to breakfast to see my friends all looking rather serious. "What's the matter?" I asked as I sat down next to Fred.

He wordlessly slid that morning's issue of the Prophet over to me and my eyes widened instantly when I saw the headline. _Mass Breakout from Azkaban_ it said. Underneath the headline were ten black and white photographs that filled up the entire rest of the front page. I skimmed over the pictures as well as the captions underneath that provided their names and the crimes they had committed. Two stood out to me more so than the others. One was Bellatrix Lestrange, who was convicted of the torture and permanent incapacitation of Frank and Alice Longbottom.

"Longbottom?" I asked, wrinkling my nose in confusion.

"Yeah, Neville's parents," Julian said quietly from across from me. "Harry, Ron, Hermione and I saw Neville and his grandmother visiting them when we went to go visit Mr. Weasley. Remember when Mrs. Weasley was yelling at him for tampering with those stitches? Well, you and the twins left, and so did Harry, Ron, Hermione and I a few seconds later. We were going to get some tea, but we ended up in the ward for people whose minds have been altered."

"How?" I asked.

"We saw Professor Lockhart," Julian said.

"No way," Fred chuckled. "He's in the nuthouse now?" He stopped and looked down at the table sheepishly when I gave him a death glare.

"Neville's parents were _tortured_," I said, "and you're calling the ward they're in a _nuthouse_?"

Fred's ears turned red. "Sorry," he said. "It's not funny. I didn't think."

"Anyway," Julian continued, "we kind of got roped into talking to Lockhart. He didn't recognize us, but he likes to show anyone who will listen how well he's re-learned to write his name."

"Well, some things never change, I guess," George said. "The self-absorbed git loses his memory and still ends up loving to write his name."

"So then we saw Neville and his grandmother leaving," Julian said. "They came out from behind a curtain blocking off the beds at the end of the ward. Neville looked really uncomfortable, but his grandmother told him he shouldn't be ashamed and then she told us why they were there and what had happened to Neville's parents. And then Neville's Mum came over and passed Neville an empty gum wrapper. Apparently, she does this every time they visit. Neville's saved every one."

I shook my head sadly. "Merlin, that's awful," I sighed.

"I didn't tell you because it wasn't my business," Julian said. "Neville should be able to tell people on his own terms. But now..." He shrugged and looked at the paper in my hands.

"No, I agree," I said. My eyes shifted back to the newspaper and to the other Death Eater I had noticed earlier. Antonin Dolohov, who was convicted of the brutal murders of Gideon and Fabian Prewett. I knew that Prewett was Mrs. Weasley's maiden name and Fabian and Gideon were Fred and George's middle names. I pointed to the caption under Dolohov's name. "Were they-?"

"Our uncles," George said, staring at the Dolohov's sneering face. "Mum's brothers. They were twins too and Mum's always saying how we remind her of them..."

"We were only three when they died," Fred continued. "We don't really remember them, but for some reason, I can remember the day they died. Mum was in hysterics. She got a letter and started screaming almost instantly. Ron was a year old. He started crying. I don't know what George and I did-I can't remember. But I expect we were scared and confused too. And then Mum and Dad left to go deal with it all. But they didn't explain anything to us until later. They just Flooed us all to Auntie Muriel's and then left. Bill and Charlie probably remember it better."

I reached for Fred's hand under the table and gave it a small squeeze. "I'm sorry," I whispered. "That's still really tough."

Fred nodded, but shrugged one shoulder at the same time. "It's weird. I was so young that I don't feel _sad_ over it exactly-I barely knew them, you know? But I wish I did. According to Mum, George and I would've taken quite a liking to them. She always says she wonders what it would have been like if we met them, but at the same time she doesn't want to know."

I smiled. "Dealing with just you and George _is_ difficult enough sometimes."

"Did you read the rest of the article?" Julian asked, carefully selecting a piece of toast from the plate in the middle of the table. He was always so picky about his toast. He only tolerated the tiniest amount of burnt edges. Anything more than that was a huge _no_.

"No, why?" I answered, turning back to my brother.

"They blame the breakout on Sirius," he answered.

"What?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"Yeah, he and Bellatrix are distant cousins, you know, so the article kind of plays off that," Julian said. "As if he helped his cousin and all her disgusting friends escape from prison, just like he did."

I shook my head. "It's just so easy for them to blame everything on him," I sighed. "It's like he's their own personal scapegoat. Fudge would much rather push the blame on Sirius than admit that he was wrong for refusing to believe You-Know-Who is back."

"Well, yeah, he'd look like an idiot if he did," Fred said. "If he finally admitted Harry and Dumbledore were right all along, he'd look like a pretty awful Minister of Magic, wouldn't he?"

"Well lately he _has_ been an awful Minister, so..." I trailed off and shrugged as Fred smiled.

"I suppose you have a point," he chuckled.

The morning after the article on the attacks came out, a new Educational Decree was also created.

"'Teachers are hereby banned from giving students any information that is not strictly related to the subjects they are paid to teach'," George read off the notice board the next day. He rolled his eyes. "She just doesn't want the teachers passing on any information they might know about the breakouts or anything related," he said. "They want us to be dumb, vulnerable and unprepared. It's insane! You-Know-Who will wipe us all out in one go this way."

"Don't say that," I said, shaking my head vigorously as I scowled at the newest decree. "Besides, we've at least got the D.A. helping us to prepare. I can only imagine where we'd be without that."

"Dead," George said flatly.

"Shut _up_," I answered, swatting him in the arm.

"You know what this means, though, don't you?" Fred asked in a hushed voice ten minutes later as we took seats in the back of Umbridge's class. He was smirking and he had that devious look in his eyes. The one that could either make me feel exhilarated or scared. Right now, it was scaring me.

"What?" I asked bracingly.

Fred reached into his bag and pulled out a deck of cards. He waved them around and smirked wider. "She can't tell us not to play Exploding Snap during class. It goes against the decree."

I groaned and buried my head in my arms as George and Lee both laughed. Sure enough, once Umbridge had gotten class started and everyone-or _mostly_ everyone-was reading from their books, the explosions began from the desk behind me.

"I'm going to have to ask you two to put that game away at once," Umbridge said from her desk. She was shooting daggers at the twins, but I knew if I turned around, I'd seen them grinning at her.

"Exploding Snap has got nothing to do with Defense Against the Dark Arts, Professor!" Lee said gleefully. "That's not information relating to your subject matter!"

"Detention, Mr. Jordan!" Umbridge screeched. She turned back to the twins. "And if you two do not put that game away this instant, it'll be a detention for you both as well."

Fred and George looked at each other, still grinning, before they both shrugged and continued with their game. Five seconds later, there was another explosion and the twins were assigned a detention.

"Whatever happened to only pulling pranks on her when she can't prove it was you?" I asked in frustration after class.

Fred shrugged. "This wasn't a prank, first of all, Lilah. And secondly, those are fine for the most part, but George and I like to be recognized for what we do." He stopped beside a portrait of a field of cows and tapped the bottom with his finger, where there was a small, flowy signature. "Artists always sign their work, don't they?"

I couldn't help it. I let out a quiet laugh. "I suppose," I said. "But right now it's costing you. By the end of the year, your hand will be a mess."

"I have to admit," Fred said, gazing at the back of his left hand as he continued walking, "I do miss having just your handwriting on here. It's prettier than mine and it always reminded me of you. It's kind of unfair. At least you just have my handwriting on your hand, however faint it may be at this point."

"Don't say that," I told him with a sigh. "It's not funny and it's not the kind of reminder I want us to have of each other."

"Well, it is what it is," Fred said with a small smile and a shrug as he slipped his hand into mine. "Tell Hermione to have the murtlap ready tonight, will you?"

I sighed heavily. "As you wish," I answered.

* * *

The next day we found out that both Hagrid and Professor Trelawney were put on probation by Umbridge. Her evaluations of classes had shown her that they were the two 'weakest' teachers in the school.

"Well, you have to admit that Trelawney's insane," Fred said with a laugh after we've heard the news. "It'll probably be her that gets sacked. Hagrid always showed us really interesting things in class."

"That's the point," I said. "Interesting to people like you and Hagrid are dangerous to everyone else. Besides, if the class was so interesting, why did you end up dropping it?"

"Because I don't need to know how to identify a bowtruckle in order to run a joke shop," Fred said.

Nevertheless, I felt badly for Hagrid. It was clear he liked teaching and I didn't want Umbridge to fire him or even worse, force him to leave.

Julian, Harry, Ron and Hermione were nervous for Hagrid as well. They already spent more time than I did visiting his hut and hanging out with him. So now, they had taken it amongst themselves to give him advice on how to stay on Umbridge's good side. Well, it was mostly Hermione, to be honest. She'd said numerous times she would be willing to even plan Hagrid's lessons if it came down to it.

The one thing that could semi-distract everyone from awful things like Umbridge and Azkaban breakouts were the D.A. meetings. It seemed as if everyone was determined to work even harder now that we knew Death Eaters had escaped from prison and were on the loose. It was obvious that Harry was proud. We were all learning so quickly, especially Neville, who mastered the Shield Charm second only to Hermione one week in the middle of January.

But in addition to the D.A., I still was swamped with homework. Sometimes I felt as if there just weren't enough hours in the day to finish everything. Not enough hours to eat, sleep, do homework, spend time with my friends, and go to D.A. meetings. Our NEWTs would be taking place in about five months and they didn't seem as far away now that the holidays were over. I was terrified to say the least, but Fred and George were just as calm and casual as ever. Instead, they were working more and more on their products and inventions.

They would sneak away to their 'secret headquarters' (the rooftop area George had told me about) almost every night, scurrying through the secret tunnel behind the blank stretch of wall until they reached the roof. They'd not only invent up there, but they'd also taken to testing their products out up there instead of in the common room where Hermione could see them. Sometimes I joined them and sometimes I didn't. But either way, I knew where they were most nights if they didn't turn up in the common room after dinner or if they disappeared for a bit between classes or during one of our free periods.

One day, as January came to a close, I was headed back to the common room after being in the library. I had headed there after dinner to get some homework done where it was quiet but now I had finally decided I'd had enough with homework for one night. Besides it was almost after hours. If I stayed out any later, I'd risk getting in trouble.

Halfway there, I heard voices coming from behind me and froze. One of the voices belonged to Umbridge. I immediately looked around before squeezing myself behind a statue that was standing to my left so that I could wait for her to pass. Honestly, she was the last person I felt like dealing with right now.

"Professor, I saw the Weasley twins going through a secret passageway," a voice I recognized as Marcus Flint's said as his and Umbridge's footsteps drew closer. "And I have a feeling that could only mean they're doing something they aren't supposed to."

"That wouldn't be surprising," Umbridge replied.

"Are you going to do something about it?" Flint asked, almost gleefully.

"Of course, Mr. Flint. They're already out after hours. And that's not counting whatever rules they're breaking at the end of that passageway. Show me where you saw them go."

Flint didn't respond, but I heard them continue to walk by and I could tell the stupid ugly goon was smiling at the fact that he was about to get the twins busted. I, on the other hand, was angry and afraid for the twins. The last thing I wanted was for them to get another detention, even though I knew at this point they couldn't care less. But if I had anything to do with it, they were going to get out of Umbridge's way. I had to warn them before she and Flint could catch them at anything.

I bolted out from the statue as soon as I was sure Umbridge and Flint were gone and then I ran in the opposite direction. I had to make sure I wasn't going to run into Umbridge on the way to the passageway, so I couldn't go the same way she was going, but I also had to get there _before_ she did. Way before. I had to have enough time to get there, warn the twins, and then get away before she even got close. But as I ran, I was beginning to think that it was more and more impossible with every step I took. But that fear also made me run faster, trying my very hardest to get to the twins first.

Finally, I rounded the corner to the hallway where the entrance to the secret passageway was. But then I immediately had to turn and hide around the corner I had just come around. Flint was already showing Umbridge how he had seen the twins open up the section of wall that led to the passageway. I mentally swore as my heart pounded. I was too late. The twins were going to get another detention and they wouldn't be able to continue to invent and test their products anymore. They were running out of places to do it. Hermione would see them in the common room and now Umbridge knew about this passageway.

I leaned my head against the wall and closed my eyes, trying to think of another way to get the twins out of this, but I couldn't think of a thing. Umbridge was on her way up there right now and any second she'd probably catch them testing their inventions on a group of first years and she'd lose her mind. She could even punish them in more ways than just a detention.

Swallowing, I pushed off the wall so that I could peer around the corner again. But just as I was poking my head around the wall, someone grabbed my arm from behind. I yelped and spun around to see the twins standing behind me, smiling.

"Hey," Fred said breathlessly. "We've been looking for you. We thought you were right behind us, but in the commotion, you must have gotten separated. What are you doing still hanging around? We have to get going, don't we?"

I stared up at him dumbly, my mouth agape. "Huh?" I managed to squeak out, now successfully making myself sound as dumb as I currently looked.

The twins looked at each other in confusion before looking back at me.

"Are you feeling okay?" George asked. "Or was Fred speaking in words that were too big for you? Or perhaps even another language." He raised an eyebrow and smirked.

I continued to stare at them blankly until Fred sighed and grabbed my arm. "Come on, we can't afford to stand around. Otherwise your impressive rescue will have gone to waste."

"What do you mean?" I asked as Fred dragged me back towards the common room. "Fred, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Fred suddenly came to a halt and turned to face me. "You're kind of scaring me, Liles. Did you hit your head or something?" When I stared back at him in confusion and horror, he let out a laugh of disbelief. "You burst in on us while we were on the roof and warned us that Flint had tipped off Umbridge and that they were coming to bust us. We all got out just in time. Thanks to you."

I gaped at him again as I suddenly felt as if the wind had been knocked out of me. What was going on?

"Fred," I whispered, shaking my head, "I never-I didn't-I never even made it to the secret passageway. Umbridge beat me to it. I had to hide around the corner and that's when you found me."

"No, Lilah, you were there," George insisted. "We saw you with our own four eyes." He gestured to himself and Fred.

I shook my head. "No, I wasn't. I was on my way back from the library when I heard Umbridge coming. I hid behind a statue and heard Flint telling her he'd seen you go through the secret passageway. Umbridge said she was going to go check it out and I _wanted_ to warn you. I was thinking of it. I knew you'd been testing your products up there and I didn't want her to give you more detentions-or worse. So I ran here as fast as I could, but like I said, she and Flint beat me to it."

Fred and George looked at each other again. "Lilah," Fred said slowly, "we know what we saw."

"And I know what I did," I answered defiantly.

Fred looked at me for a second before breaking out into laughter. "I know what this is about," he said. "You're trying to be modest. Typical."

"Modest?" I cried. "No, Fred, this is the exact same thing that happened with Danny!"

"You were probably trying to be modest with him, too."

"You didn't offer up that suggestion when I first told you about it," I said.

Fred shrugged. "It makes sense," he said. "It's exactly like you to pretend you didn't do something heroic."

"How do you explain me not being wet?" I asked.

"Drying spell, just like Danny said," Fred answered at once.

I shook my head wildly, my mouth agape. "You really think I'd lie to _you_ about all this?" I asked. "Even if I was pretending I didn't save Danny for the sake of everyone else, you think I'd insist upon it to _you_? You think I'd insist I didn't come to warn you just now?"

The twins looked at each other. "Yeah, maybe," Fred said. "You don't like being the center of attention. You wouldn't want anyone to put you in the spotlight for saving their ass. Including me and George."

I stared at him in disbelief. "As much as I wanted to warn you, I didn't," I whispered shakily. I was scared to say the least. I didn't know what was happening. Was something wrong with me? Was I going crazy? I felt as if I were losing my mind and no one would believe me.

"Okay, Lilah, whatever you say," Fred snorted as he and George laughed.

"I'm serious!" I cried in frustration, storming past them towards the common room.

"Hey, Lilah, wait!" they called as they jogged to catch up to me.

"Just forget it," I muttered without looking back.

"Hey, just wait, please," Fred said, grabbing my arm and spinning me around. He placed his hands on my cheeks as his eyes roamed over my face. "Maybe you've just been overworking yourself," he whispered. "You've been working so hard preparing for the NEWTs and doing all your homework on top of it all. And then you've also been attenting the D.A. meetings regularly." He rubbed his thumbs over my cheeks. "You've been working too hard. Not getting enough sleep. It's all messing with your head."

"What if there's something wrong with me?" I whispered. "What if I'm going insane?"

Fred chuckled quietly. "There's nothing wrong with you. You just need a good night's sleep is all."

"I need to study, Fred. I need to do really well on my NEWTs and also do really well in all my classes. I can't-"

"If you keep stressing yourself out and putting so much pressure on yourself, you _are_ going to go nuts," Fred told me. "Please, promise me you'll get some sleep."

I closed my eyes and sighed before resting my head on Fred's chest and letting him wrap his arms around me. "Okay," I whispered.

"I love you," Fred murmured, leaning down and kissing my forehead.

"I love you too," I whispered, puling away and looking up at him.

"Come on," Fred said, grabbing my hand and pulling me forwards. "Let's go."

I let him lead me back towards the common room, suddenly feeling even more tired than normal. It was all too easy to accept Fred's reasoning and just agree to get some rest. But in the back of my mind, I couldn't help but think that he was wrong. I knew what had happened and I hadn't set foot in that lake to save Danny and I hadn't set foot in that passageway to warn the twins. Something odd was happening and while I was curious to know what it was, I was also insanely terrified.

* * *

"You did this to yourself, you know. It's the same thing that happened fifth year when you were stressing yourself out with all of your OWL preparations. And it's exactly why George and I _don't_ get all worked up about exams. It leads to things like this."

I raised my head and looked up at Fred through narrowed, watery, tired and red rimmed eyes. It was nearing the end of January and I had come down with a cold. I was rarely ever sick, but Fred was right. The last time I had had a cold this bad was in fifth year. And it hadn't helped that I had been overworking myself to study and do homework, leading to me nearly fainting in the library. If Oliver hadn't been there, I would've been passed out on the floor for who knows how long.

"Can't you just shut up for five seconds?" I rasped out. "I swear, if you talk one more time, I will hit you with this textbook." I pointed to my heavy History of Magic textbook.

"If you're looking to knock me out cold, you could just have me read it," Fred smirked. "It would save you the energy of lifting it up and hitting me with it, but it would have the same desired effect. The boring material will surely knock me out at the least, kill me at the most."

I scowled even more and returned to my book, feeling as if I were going to collapse any second. I shivered, despite the fact that I was dressed warmly and sitting in front of the Gryffindor fire. I probably was developing another fever. Wonderful. At least I didn't feel faint this time around. That was a plus.

"Lilah," Fred said softly. When I met his eyes, he was looking at me with concern. "Get some rest. Please. You've been working way too hard."

"I need to pass my exams with flying colors, Fred. I need to get a NEWT in every subject."

"Why?" Fred asked. "You're not living with your mother anymore. You don't have to feel pressure from her to get perfect grades. Your dad won't mind if you don't get a NEWT in every class."

I shook my head. "But I want to be able to get a job when I leave school. I want to be able to do whatever I want. When I decide, that is. I still haven't found anything that feels right." I bit my lip and swallowed. My throat felt like it was full of sandpaper.

"You will," Fred assured me. "There's still time. I know it doesn't feel like it, but there is. I promise. You will be fine. You can afford to put these books away for a night and get some sleep." He smiled teasingly. "Come on, you know you want to."

"I _do _feel pretty lousy," I whispered.

Fred smiled and put an arm around my shoulders as I leaned into him. He pressed his lips to my forehead and I sighed at the contact.

"Merlin, your forehead's _warm_," Fred said in surprise.

"Probably a fever," I sighed. "I _feel_ cold." As if to prove my point, I shivered. I pulled the sleeves of my sweater down over my hands and snuggled closer to Fred, who was quiet. His silence made me suspicous after a bit and when I looked up at him, he had a thoughtful look on his face. "Uh-oh, what is it?" I asked.

"Wait here for a second," Fred said slowly, removing his arm from around me and getting to his feet. "I have an idea."

"No, don't leave," I croaked. I didn't even bother to hold myself up in his sudden absence, feeling to weak to do so. Instead, I let my limp body flop down onto the cushion he'd just vacated.

"I'm coming back," Fred smiled. He leaned down and gently rubbed a hand over my head for a second before turning and jogging up the stairs to his dorm. A moment later, he'd returned, a tiny, square, orange object in his hand. He squatted in front of the couch and held it out to me.

"What's this?" I asked, propping myself up on my elbow and taking the object from him.

"The curing half of a Fever Fudge," Fred said. "George and I think we've got them perfected. No more boils have appeared on ourselves or on our other test subjects." He grinned. "I've never tried it on someone who's had a natural fever before and I think now's the perfect opportunity." He smiled at me. "I just thought...what if the curing halves of the Fever Fudges _could _cure real fevers? Now is as good a time as any to find out." There was a pause as he beamed at me. Then, his smile faltered as he took in my expression. "It should work," he added hurriedly.

I stared down at the candy hesitantly. "I don't know, Fred..."

"Go on," Fred urged. When I didn't move, he sighed. "Look, I wouldn't offer it to you if I wasn't sure it would work."

"You said it _should_ work," I said. "You said you've never tried this. You came up with this idea on a complete _whim!"_

"I'm ninety-nine percent sure it'll work," he said.

"I want you to be one hundred percent sure," I argued, trying to hand the candy back to him. He refused.

"Lilah, please?" he asked pleadingly

"Are you asking me to do this for your benefit or mine?" I asked with a frown. "Do you care if I get better or do you just want to know if your invention works?"

Fred's expression was actually pained, which immediately made me feel bad. "Of course I want you to get better," he whispered. "Why would you think I would take your sickness as nothing less than serious?"

"Because you're using it as research for your products," I said.

"Which are also very important to me," he argued quietly. "You know that. Come on, I just want to see it in action."

I swallowed as I looked back down at the candy. I _was_ kind of desperate at this point. And I didn't think I could make it up to Madame Pomfrey for a pepper-up potion at this point without falling asleep in the hallway. Besides, it was after hours and with my luck, I'd get stopped by Umbridge or a member of the Inquisitorial Squad. _They_ wouldn't care that I had a reasonable excuse to be out. They wouldn't care that I was sick. Besides, I did know how much this meant to Fred and I was usually open to opportunities to help him and George out.

I sighed. "Fine," I answered. I turned the candy over a few more times before taking a deep breath and putting it in my mouth.

"How do you feel?" Fred asked hopefully.

I slowly blinked at him as the chills I'd been feeling began to get steadily worse. I was feeling dizzy even though I was lying down and Fred's voice sounded far away. "Fred, I-I feel worse," I mumbled, almost incoherently as I fought the urge to pass out. I felt as if I was fading fast and I couldn't bring myself back to reality. I was slipping from consciousness and couldn't keep my eyes open. Fred's voice was calling my name, but it was faint and growing fainter by the minute. I couldn't even formulate a response in my head before I gave in to the unconsciousness.

* * *

I let out a groan as I shifted on the soft object I was lying on. My head was throbbing uncontrollably and I almost wished I was unconscious again. But I wasn't. And now I was curious about where I was and about what had happened last night after I'd taken the Fever Fudge, so I forced myself to open my eyes. When I did, the first thing I saw was a white ceiling. I swallowed and looked to my left to see Fred and George sitting in chairs beside my bed. They were both asleep, their heads drooping backwards onto the backs of their chairs. They were both snoring lightly.

I, on the other hand, was lying comfortably in a bed. A hospital wing bed, I noticed as I looked at my surroundings. That made sense. Something had gone pretty wrong last night and I wanted information.

"Hey," I whispered, reaching out and poking Fred's arm. I winced at how croaky my voice sounded. I cleared my throat and poked him again, harder this time. "Hey," I said, making my voice a bit louder.

With a jolt, Fred sat up and looked around before his eyes settled on me. He let out a sigh of relief and quickly nudged George awake before moving foward and kneeling beside my bed, taking my hand in both of his and looking down at me with wide blue eyes. "Hey," he whispered. "You're awake."

"What he means to say is _you're alive_," George added with a smile as he stood up behind Fred's shoulder and looked down at me. "He was convinced he'd killed you last night. You should've seen him. He was a wreck. Burst in here like a raving lunatic, you lying limp in his arms as he shouted for Madame Pomfrey."

"And what were _you_?" Fred asked, shooting George a look over his shoulder. "Calm? I don't think so."

I snorted. "Fred? A wreck? Never," I whispered.

Fred turned back to me and let out a breath of laughter. "George is right," he sighed. "I thought-I thought-" he swallowed. "It would've been all my fault if something happened. I asked you to take the Fever Fudge."

"But I agreed to it," I answered, reaching up with my free hand and sliding it through Fred's hair. I paused. "What happened exactly?"

"Your fever didn't get better at all," Fred whispered. "It skyrocketed. You were clearly shivering, but then you were also drenched in sweat. You lost consciousness and then you even vomited." He shook his head. "I'm really sorry, Lilah. I thought it would work, but clearly it still needs some tweaking before we sell it."

"Or it's just not able to be used on natural fevers," I said. "You said you'd never used the candy on someone with a real fever before. If I'd had a fever already induced by the candy, the curing end would've worked. But since I didn't..." I shrugged.

"That could be it," Fred said. "Either way, maybe we should do some more tests to be sure." He paused. "On ourselves first, of course." He gestured to himself and George.

I shrugged. "Well, you wouldn't _have_ to," I said. "It does serve its purpose. It cures the fever that the other half of the candy induces. You didn't intentionally create these for real fevers. You just thought it wouldn't make a difference."

"Yeah, well, can you imagine how great it would be to have candies that lower regular fevers? A whole line of illness curing sweets. That way people can have more options than just pepper-up potions."

"How will they fit in with all your joke products?" I asked.

"They won't," Fred answered. "It's just a thought...I don't even know if it's possible."

I snorted. "Knowing you, it is."

Silence fell between us for a moment before George spoke. "Do you feel any better?" he asked me. "Madame Pomfrey managed to bring your fever down and she gave you some pepper up potion."

"I feel a lot better," I said. I smirked. "She must have freaked out when you brought me in here. I'm sure I was a mess."

"She yelled at us like there was no tomorrow," Fred laughed. "But she did let us miss class this morning to stay here with you."

My eyes widened. "I forgot about classes!" I said, shooting up in my bed.

"Woah, woah, woah," Fred said in alarm, pushing me back down. "Relax. You're not going anywhere today. Madame Pomfrey wants to keep you here to keep an eye on you. You know, since a joke product created to induce fever collided with your real cold and caused some pretty freaky results. She just wants to make sure you'll have no further reactions and that you're going to continue to get better."

"But-"

"Ange promised to bring you all your homework later and fill you in on everything you've missed," Fred said. "Don't worry." He paused. "Take this as an actual excuse to relax for a day and not worry about school. Trust me, you need to slow down for a bit, okay?'

I sighed and nodded. "Fine."

Fred smiled and and got to his feet before leaning down and giving my forehead a swift kiss. "Feel better," he whispered. "And get some sleep. George and I will be back later."

I nodded and smiled. "I'll hold you to that promise," I whispered.

Fred gave me a tiny smile before sliding his hand from mine and walking towards the door with George at his side. Soon after they left, Madame Pomfrey was back to give me more pepper-up potion and then I found myself falling asleep again, unable to fight the drowsiness.

Just after dinner, the twins were back along with Ange, Alicia, Katie, Tess and my brother. Madame Pomfrey almost lost her head at the sight of them, but in the end, she let them stay. Ange had brought all the homework I'd missed from a day of classes and the twins had brought food from the kitchens, something I was very grateful for. I was starving.

"What happened to your face?" I asked Fred with a raised eyebrow as he took a seat on the edge of my bed. I had just noticed a small bruise around the corner of his right eye.

Fred smiled and looked at my brother. "Want to tell her, Jules?"

Julian turned a light shade of red. "I punched him."

"You what?" I cried, widening my eyes.

"Well, what was I supposed to do?" he asked, looking back at me in exasperation. I was just sitting in the common room last night, minding my own business, when I hear this idiot," he pointed to Fred, "start losing his mind and calling your name. I look over to see you drenched in sweat and out cold. And then you vomited. And the next thing I know, Fred's picking you up and running out of the room. And then I find out all that happened because he tried to cure your fever with his _joke_ product. I needed to knock some sense into him."

"It was a noble attempt," Fred said. "But sadly, it only left this itty bitty bruise." He pointed to his eye. "I was hoping for an impressive shiner, to be honest. Julian's going to need to work on his punching skills."

"His punching skills are just fine," I said. "He beat up Sam for me, remember?"

"I wanted to hurt Sam way more than I wanted to hurt Fred," Julian shrugged. He looked at Fred. "I didn't really_ mean_ to punch you. Well, I guess I did. I was mad. But I'm sorry. I know you would never hurt Lilah on purpose and when I thought about how scared you looked..." He shrugged again.

"No harm done," Fred grinned, clapping Julian on the shoulder.

I smiled and looked at my brother as I leaned over and stole one of Fred's Fudge Flies, much to his annoyance. "What happened to my shy little brother?" I asked. "Remember when you used to hate talking to people? You brought your hamster to Mum's Christmas party for comfort. And now you're punching people left and right on my behalf. Crabbe and Goyle when they teased me about the Rita Skeeter article, then it was Sam, and now my own boyfriend."

Julian rolled his eyes. "I grew up, I guess," he sighed.

"I'll say," I snorted.

"Besides," Julian added, "I'm your brother. I want to protect you. I owe you for all the times you've helped _me_ out."

"No, you don't," I whispered. I shook my head. "Seriously, don't get into fights on my behalf. You've got to stop that, actually. Punching people doesn't always solve things. I mean, wouldn't it be much easier to use _words_?"

"I knew you'd say something like that," Julian sighed. "But can you just...let me feel good about beating up anyone who has a go at my sister?"

I giggled and rolled my eyes. "Does it makes you feel more _grown up_?"

"It does," Julian laughed, tossing a licorice wand at me. I caught it and took a bite as I smiled.

"Jules?" I whispered.

"Yeah?"

I grinned wider at him. "Thank you."

He gave me a soft, lopsided smile in return. "Anytime, Lilah."


	60. Chapter 60

"What do you want to do on the Valentine's Day Hogsmeade trip?" Fred asked me during dinner. It was a week before Valentine's Day and Fred and I actually hadn't talked about the holiday at all until now.

I shrugged. "I don't care. If you want to go into Hogsmeade, we can. If you don't, we don't have to. I'm perfectly content with staying here."

Fred smiled at me. "I'd like to go into Hogsmeade," he said. "Just as long as we don't go to Madame Puddifoots. That's where I put my foot down. You think I'm being figurative, and sure, that may be the case, but you'll find I'm also being quite literal because I refuse to set foot in that place. Actually, I might break up with you on the spot if you tell me that's where you'd like to go."

I laughed. "I hear that's where Harry's going. You mean you don't want to spend Valentine's Day in the same place that the _Boy Who Lived_ celebrates _his_ Valentine's Day?"

"Not when the Boy Who Lived has crappy taste in restaurants," Fred snorted.

"Oh, come on," Angelina laughed. "He didn't choose the place. Cho Chang did."

"Doesn't surprise me," Fred said with a roll of his eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Angelina asked, smiling and giving Fred a look.

"She just seems like the type is all," Fred shrugged.

"And there's something wrong with that?" Angelina answered. "There's something wrong with a girl who wants to go to Madame Puddifoot's as opposed to one who doesn't?"

"_Yes_," Fred laughed. "Have you seen the place, Ange? It's so..." He trailed off and wrinkled his nose as he thought. "Foofy."

"Foofy?" I giggled.

Fred turned to look at me. "Please answer my question and please tell me you don't want to go there."

I shrugged. "Whatever you want, Freddie," I laughed.

"What's with the indifference?" Fred asked. "Why aren't you refusing to go within ten feet of that place? Doesn't it repulse you?"

"It doesn't _repulse _me, Fred," I laughed. "Is it my kind of place? No, of course not. But I'm not so afraid of the occasional-what was the word?-oh yeah..._foof._" I smiled and raised an eyebrow at him. "I'm not going to adamantly object going in there just because someone else wants to.

"Nobody wants to, though. That's the point," Fred argued. "Plus, their foof isn't occasional foof. It's in your face. Constantly. All the time. And double on Valentine's day. We might die if we go in there. Foof overdose."

"Fine," I said with another giggle. "If that's how you feel, then I've already told you I'm happy to go somewhere else. Wherever you want."

"Okay, Zonko's it is!" Fred said. "All day long."

I rolled my eyes before turning back to my food. "If that's what you want to do."

Fred was quiet for a second. "What do _you_ want to do?" he suddenly asked quietly. "You're one half of this relationship after all."

I shrugged as I thought about it. "Kitchen date when we get back from Hogsmeade?" I asked.

Fred smiled. "Of course," he answered. "Maybe we can pick up some socks for Dobby while we're in Hogsmeade. Gladrag's Wizardwear always has the best ones. I personally love the ones that start to scream when they get too smelly."

"Those do sound useful," I remarked.

Fred leaned over and pressed a quick kiss to my cheek. "So, it's a date?" he asked.

"It's a date," I whispered back, giving him a smile.

Just then, Julian slid onto the bench across from us, looking breathless. "I need help," he said.

"What's wrong?" I asked in alarm. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, but my dignity may not be unless I can get this right," he said.

"Get what right?" I asked in confusion.

"Where's the best place to take a girl on a date for Valentine's Day?" Julian asked.

"The Shrieking Shack," Fred said. "No one ever goes in there so you'll have the whole place to yourselves." He wiggled his eyebrows at Julian as he took a sip of his drink. "And," he added. "You know the truth about _why_ no one ever goes in there, so you know perfectly well it's not haunted."

I gaped at Fred before giving him a light punch in the shoulder. "No!" I insisted. "First of all, that's not a proper date whatsoever. Secondly, we're talking about my little brother!"

"Yeah, and?" Fred asked. "He's fifteen! He'll be sixteen in four months' time."

"He's still my little brother," I muttered. "I don't exactly want to picture him snogging some girl in the Shrieking Shack."

"Why, because I'm too young to even know what snogging _is_?" Julian asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, because it's disgusting to think about," I retaliated.

"You're one to talk," Julian laughed.

"I'll have you know that Fred and I do not broadcast that kind of thing, nor do we go over the top when we're in public. I'm very conscious of that because I'm considerate. Fred here is not, so I have to do a lot of work to keep him restrained."

"Yeah, thank Merlin," Julian muttered.

"So you know how I'm feeling now," I said with a smirk. When Julian didn't answer, I only smiled wider. "Who's the girl? Is it the girl you took to the Yule Ball? She was nice."

"No," Julian said with a shake of his head. "Someone else. She's in my year. In Hufflepuff. Katherine. But everyone calls her Kat."

I craned my neck to look over at the Hufflepuff table. "Which one is she?" I asked curiously.

"Lilah, stop," Julian said, shooting me a glare. "Stop it. You're being obvious."

"What, you think she's constantly looking at you and is going to see me in the process?" I laughed as I stopped looking for whoever this Katherine girl was. "Just point her out to me. Discreetly."

Julian sighed and surreptitiously turned his head, resting his chin on his shoulder and looking the rest of the way over with his eyes. "The one about halfway down the table. She's facing us. Brown hair. Blue eyes. Freckles. Dimples."

I shared a look with Fred before turning back to my brother and letting out a breath of laughter. "Jules, I can't possibly see her eye color, freckles or dimples from here."

"You must really like this girl," Fred said.

"It's not hard to notice those things about a person when they're close up," Julian replied defensively. "They're just things regular people notice. Just because I noticed her eye color or her freckles doesn't mean I _like_ her."

"Or her dimples," Fred grinned. Julian tried to toss a piece of broccoli at him, but Fred laughed and ducked. "But in any case, the point is that you _do_ like her, whether you noticed those things or not. Unless it's typical to ask people you don't like to go on a date on Valentine's day." He looked at me. "Is that what the kids are doing these days? I wouldn't know, being so old and mature and wise." He smiled angelically.

"Shut up," I muttered, rolling my eyes. I looked back at the Hufflepuff table. "The one who's talking to that girl with the long black hair?"

Julian nodded. "That's her."

I smiled and looked back at him. "She's pretty. Have you asked her yet?"

Julian nodded again. "Asked her, but I don't have any ideas about where to go."

"You could come to an idea together, like Fred and I just did," I shrugged.

Julian shook his head. "I want to surprise her. It is our first date after all."

"Might I suggest the _fabulous_ Madame Puddifoot's?" Fred asked with a wink. "Brilliant, from what I've heard."

Julian pretended to gag, but then he widened his eyes. "What if she _does _want to go there?"

"I'm sure she'll enjoy herself wherever you bring her," I said.

"I'm not bringing her to Madame Puddifoot's," Julian insisted.

"Fred and I are going to the Three Broomsticks," I said. "You could do that too."

Julian shrugged. "I guess that's okay, but I don't know if I want to go where you and Fred are going either."

"Why not?" I asked, pretending to be offended.

"Because either you're going to be sitting there being disgusting or you're going to be sending me looks from your table. Or worse, you'll try to come over and talk to me."

"Jules!" I gasped, trying to fight back a laugh. "You seriously think we'd do that?"

"Yes," he insisted. "You'd probably try to get all kinds of information on Kat and Fred would make some snarky embarrassing comment."

"He's right," Fred said, looking at me. "Scary accurate, actually."

"Well any information I'd want to get on this girl would be because I have to make sure she's decent," I said defensively. "I can't have my brother dating just anyone. She has to be good enough."

"Lilah," Julian sighed.

"Come on, Jules, that's not fair," I answered. "You'd do the same for me. If you didn't like me being with Oliver or Fred, you'd have said something. Or done something. Punched them, probably, like you seem to be so keen on doing."

Julian shot me a look before he sighed. "No, you're right. I would do the same for you. But luckily I already knew Oliver and Fred were good guys before you started dating them. Oliver slacked off towards the end, obviously, but-"

"He's still a good guy, Jules," I whispered. "And he did still love me up until the end."

Fred loudly cleared his throat and I shot him a look. "Relax," I told him.

"Moving on from the subject of Wood," Fred said loudly, making a face at me as I rolled my eyes, "let's go back to Julian and his love life. I do think Lilah has a point, Jules. But," he added quickly before Julian could protest, "I'm sure she'll have nothing to complain about once she does meet the object of your affections." He smiled and took on a dramatic, formal business-like look. "I say that because I think we can both trust you enough to make good decisions." He looked at me. "Isn't that right, Lilah?"

I shook my head before cracking a smile and turning to my brother. "He _is_ right, actually. I do trust you and I'm sure Kat is lovely."

Julian smiled. "Thanks, Lie, I appreciate that."

I nodded and returned the smile before going back to my food. "I just...can't believe you're going on your first date, Jules," I said, looking back up at him and smiling slightly. "It's crazy. But I'm proud of you. You're really growing up to be an amazing person."

"Please don't get so sappy on me, Lie," Julian groaned, rolling his eyes. He hesitated before looking at me with a faint smile of his own. "But thanks."

* * *

A few days later, I was studying in the library after dinner when someone appeared in front of me, their presence casting a shadow over my textbook. When I looked up, I saw Hermione standing there, wringing her hands and biting her lip while giving me a tentative smile. "Hi," she said. "Can I sit down?"

"Go ahead," I said slowly, nodding to one of the empty chairs across from me. Once Hermione had sat down, we looked at each other in silence for a bit before I spoke. "So, what brings you to this part of the library?" I asked.

"I wanted to ask you if you were okay with something," Hermione said. She hesitated. "I convinced Harry to give an interview for the Quibbler in the Three Broomsticks on Valentine's Day. You know, to give him the chance to get his own account of the day Gabrielle died out there. To get the truth out there in his own words. Words that haven't been warped by the _Prophet_."

"I think that's a great idea, Hermione," I said. "It's just...two things. One, do you think people will believe Harry's story if it's written in the Quibbler? I mean, it's not that I don't like Luna. She seems great, but...unfortunately a lot of other people consider that magazine to be a bit of a joke. I find it hard to believe there might be a Crumpled Horn Snorkack out there myself. And two, why are you asking me if I'm okay with all this? It doesnt' have anything to do with me."

Hermione cleared her throat. "Well, we're using the Quibbler because Luna said she and her father would be willing to do it. They believe Harry's story and they're willing to help put it out there, which is what we're trying to do. Put it out there. We can't afford to be picky about _who_ puts it out there, exactly."

"Beggers can't be choosers," I said with a smile.

"Exactly," Hermione answered, smiling back. But then her smile faltered. "And the reason I was asking if you were okay with it is because the person I asked to do the interview is...Rita.

"Rita Skeeter?" I asked in surprise, my eyebrows shooting up.

"Well...yes," Hermione said. "She doesn't have much choice when I ask her to do things now. For one, she's out of work and desperate. Secondly, I know her secret and I can expose her at any second. Which is what I told her after I made her promise to not pull any funny business." She paused. "But I know what she and Sam did to you and I didn't know how you'd feel about me bringing her back around. I know you're going to the Three Broomsticks with Fred. If you want, I can pick somewhere else so you won't have to see her..."

"No, Hermione," I said quickly. "Don't worry about it. I can ignore her. And like you said, you have a pretty big secret to dangle over her head." I shrugged. "It's not her I'm worried about as much as Sam. He's in prison now, but he'll be getting out this summer. And then he'll be free to walk around and ruin peoples' lives some more. Rita's actually been doing a pretty good job of minding her own business."

Hermione looked at me sadly for a moment. "So, you'll be okay with the interview happening?"

"Yeah, definitely," I said. "Like I said, Rita's the lesser of the two evils when you're comparing her and Sam. Besides, you're right. Harry does need to get his story out. People deserve to know."

"Thank you," Hermione said with a grin. "Truly. Believe me, this article is going to be brilliant. I'm hoping we can get a lot more people on Harry's side now."

"I hope that, too," I whispered.

"I will tell her to leave you alone, though," Hermione said. "Just in case she gets any ideas when she sees you or has the urge to say anything." She smiled wryly. "Don't forget, she does have to do what I say."

I smiled and shook my head in awe. "Unbelievable, Hermione, really," I chuckled. "You've got a grown woman on a tight leash all because you were smart enough to find out her big secret."

"Well-I only thought of it because Harry gave me the idea," Hermione stammered.

"Maybe, but you actually caught her," I said. I grinned. "Sometimes I don't know what we'd all do without you."

Hermione beamed before hesitating. "Do you mind if I sit here and study with you?" she asked, pointing to an empty seat at my table.

"Not at all," I answered, smiling back before clearing some of my things away for her to sit down.

* * *

"Tell me what they're doing...but don't look."

"Lilah, how can I tell you what they're doing if I don't look?"

I sent Fred an frustrated look to match the one he was giving me. "You're facing me. You're also facing them. Pretend you're talking to me-or _actually_ keep talking to me for that matter-but then glance over my shoulder to look at them. If you pointedly stare, they'll know. Honestly, for someone so invested in pranks, it seems like you have no tact when it comes to sneaking."

"Shut up," Fred scoffed as his eyes shifted to a point beyond my shoulder for a brief moment before returning to meet mine. "They're fine," he reported. "Happy?"

"No," I replied. "Elaborate."

Fred let out a dramatic sigh and rolled his eyes as I looked at him expectantly, eyebrows raised. It was Valentine's Day and the two of us were sitting in the back corner of the Three Broomsticks. Julian and Kat had come in not too long after us and taken a seat near the front window. They were on the same side of the building as us, just across the room. Far enough away for us to be sneaky, but they were still in our line of sight-well, Fred's really-so it was perfect. My back was to them, but Fred had a clear view, so I was making him give me reports about what was going on. It was something he didn't seem too happy about.

"They're just talking, Lilah," Fred said, looking at me in exasperation. "They're not holding hands or kissing or anything. Just talking like two normal human beings." He quickly glanced over my shoulder again. "Julian looks _really_ happy. Please don't ruin it for him."

I gaped at him. "I'm not going to ruin anything!" I exclaimed. "I just want to know what's going on. I have a right to, you know. I'm his sister."

"Sure, but can't you just wait for him to introduce you two properly? Spying on them isn't the way to go. Besides, I was under the impression that you were on a date with _me_ today. Frankly, I wouldn't be too thrilled if you spent the whole time playing spy." He raised an eyebrow as he took a sip of his drink.

I stared back at him for a moment before sighing and slowly spinning my firewhiskey bottle around in my hands. "No, you're right. You're completely right." I looked up at him and half smiled. "I'm sorry. I love you."

Fred rolled his eyes, but I saw a lopsided smile lift the right corner of his mouth. "Yeah, yeah," he said. "Sure."

"I do," I said, giving him the sweetest smile I could manage.

Fred let out a snort of laughter, shook his head and leaned back in his seat as he rested an arm across the back of the booth and looked at me in amusement. "You're unbelievable. Truly."

"So are you," I responded. "Truly."

"Were you being sarcastic?" Fred narrowed his eyes at me.

"Partially," I admitted.

Fred stuck his tongue at me and I laughed before swirling my spoon through my bowl of soup.

"You okay?" Fred asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm just still worried about our exams. Worried about passing. Still partially hating that my mother kicked me out. I mean, it's going to be great living with my dad, just not without Julian. And remember what he told me on Christmas? That Mum's trying to take away Dad's custody? What if she does?"'

"Well, like you told Julian on Christmas, the worst case scenario is that you have to wait until he's seventeen. Yeah, it'll be awful. It'll be painful. But you'll make it. And like Julian said, when he's seventeen, he's out of your mother's house."

I nodded. "Yeah, I suppose."

"And she can't take him out of school," Fred said.

"She could. Technically," I said. "If she gets custody, she can move him away."

"I doubt she'd do that," Fred said. "She loves her job too much, right? She'd never give that up."

I shrugged. "It still doesn't matter. I'm leaving school after this year anyway. Once I leave, I'm hardly ever going to see Jules. And if she gets custody...It's just still such a long way until he's of age. At least, it feels like it. I'm so used to never going a day without him and it was hard enough losing the privilage to see my dad every day and I hate that it's happening with my brother too."

Fred was quiet for a moment. "I'm sorry, Lilah," he whispered. "I really am. I know I can't quite relate to what you're going through, but I know that if I was forced to split from any of my siblings, I'd have a rough time." He paused. "I guess technically I was forced to be split from Percy, but I don't really care about that. He chose to leave. You and Julian didn't have a choice." When I didn't answer, he continued. "And as for your exams, you're going to do fine. And when you do decide what you want to do once you're done with school, you'll have the pick of the lot. Whatever you want. You could even come work for me."

"And do what?" I asked. "I can't invent or create products like you and George do."

"You could follow instructions if we gave them to you," Fred argued.

"Not if it involves Potions," I reminded him. "And what use is it if I'm not flexible and able to do all the kinds of work that needs to be done?"

"You could be our assistant," Fred said.

I shrugged. "I don't know if that's what I want to do. Maybe on the side or something, but..." I let out a puff of air and shook my head. "But I'm not looking to ruin our date, okay? I don't want to be depressing."

"You _were_ staring to remind me a bit of Moaning Myrtle," Fred teased.

I snorted and rolled my eyes. "Thanks, Fred." I paused. "So how are things going with your products?"

"Good," Fred said. "The Skiving Snackboxes are nearly done. And George and I also thought up another idea."

"Yeah? What is it?"

"Headless Hats," Fred said. "You put them on your head and your head becomes invisible. I think it'll give people quite a scare, don't you?"

"Yeah, I'd imagine seeing someone walking around without a head would be pretty startling," I agreed with a smile.

"And we're obviously going to do a line of trick wands," Fred said. "And we're even going to do a line of those heel-breaking shoes that you gave us the idea for back in third year. Remember? When you made your boggart-mother's shoe break to get everyone to laugh?"

I nodded. "I remember."

"So far we've obviously only got the Snackboxes, the Ton-Tongue Toffees, the Extendable Ears, the Toad Tablets, the Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder and the Canary Creams ready to go. Plus a few trick wands. But we've got loads more ideas in our heads and a bunch actually in the works."

"Such as?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

Fred grinned. "Now, I can't tell you everything," he said. "Some of it will have to stay secret so you can be surprised when you come to the shop afer it's open. But I will say George and I have been working on fireworks. And also experimenting with the Fire Launcher."

"The Fire Launcher?" I asked.

"Tentative name for that product we bought from Zonko's back in October," Fred said. "The one we wanted to tweak to shoot out the fireworks? I know Fire Launcher sounds a bit basic, but as I said, it's tentative."

"What was the original name of the product?" I asked.

"The Invisible Watchdog," Fred said. "Since it wards off intruders like a watchdog would, but it's hidden in the ground so no one knows it's there." He shrugged. "Again, not my choice for a name, but I didn't invent it, so..." He trailed off and smiled.

I stared at him thoughtfully for a moment. "What about something to do with dragons for the products new name?" I asked. "Dragons are kind of like fire launchers." I smiled and shrugged.

Fred nodded, his face lighting up in excitement. "Yeah...yeah, that's good. Dragons. They spit fire and are kind of badass, aren't they?"

"Sure," I shrugged, letting out a giggle as I just looked at him.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing," I said, shaking my head. "I just...seeing how excited you get over pranks and jokes and your products and your joke shop...it's one of the reasons I fell in love with you. You're passionate."

Fred looked at me for a second, a smile crossing over his features. "Thanks, but you're being sappy. That kind of talk belongs in Madame Puddifoot's, a place we agreed to not set foot in today."

"It wasn't _that_ sappy, Fred, come on!" I laughed.

"Yes, it was," he answered. "At least for me."

I rolled my eyes, but didn't reply. "So can you see Harry from here? How does it look like his interview's going?"

Fred shrugged. "Can't tell and don't care to find out. Today I'm only focused on you." He grinned.

"Now who's being sappy?" I teased as Fred laughed. A few minutes later, we paid for our food and left, making our way to the door and out into the chilly winter air. I snuck one more look at my brother and Kat on the way out. They did look happy. And Julian was so engrossed in whatever Kat was saying, he didn't even look up, which meant he didn't even see me. I smiled. As weird as it was, I was happy for him. I also glanced at Rita Skeeter and my stomach dropped as I saw her eyes narrow and a smirk cross her face as she spotted me and Fred holding hands. But then I saw Hermione nudge her sharply and I felt better. Hermione had her blackmailed, I had to remind myself. As much as I didn't support that sort of thing, I had to admit that in this case it did make me feel a lot better about the whole Rita Skeeter situation.

"So, where next?" Fred asked, slipping his hand into mine once we were outside.

I opened my mouth to answer, but before I could, I heard someone calling my name. I turned and fought back a groan as my stomach sank. It was Danny. I hadn't actually had a conversation with him since that night the Slytherins had thrown him in the lake. Mostly it had just been quick hellos in passing or at the D.A. meetings. And I was still always catching him staring at me. Fred hated it. I didn't know if I found it funny, endearing or annoying how threatened Fred seemed to be by an eleven year old, but either way, I still had to put up with his scowls and angry grunts every time Danny waved at me or every time we caught him looking.

"Ignore him," Fred muttered darkly, tugging on my hand.

"I can't," I hissed back. "He knows I've seen him. That's rude."

"Tell him to bugger off," Fred whispered.

"No," I answered indignantly. "Fred, I've told you that I'm not going to be _rude_ to him."

"And I think if it gets him off your back, then why not?"

"Because I-" I cut off quickly because Danny had reached us then. He was already flushed red from the cold, but his cheeks colored even more as he looked up at me.

"H-hi," he stuttered out, smiling shyly.

"Hi," I answered, giving him a tiny smile in return. "Erm...what's going on?"

"I just wanted to give you this..." Danny flushed redder than ever and produced a red carnation from behind his back. "I think-I think...I think you're really nice. And, er...pretty."

I fought back a giggle. If the poor kid's face got any redder, he was going to be indistinguishable from a tomato. "Thanks," I said, reaching out for the flower. "I'm flattered, but listen, Danny, I-"

"She's taken," Fred said bluntly, his voice practically a growl and his expression stony. He swatted my hand away from the flower. "In case you haven't noticed. So if you'd leave her alone from now on, that'd be great."

I gaped up at him in horror as Danny shrunk back, looking fearfully up at Fred.

"I'm-I'm sorry," he said quietly, looking at the ground. It looked like he was about to cry and my heart practically broke. "I'm s-sorry," Danny said again. And then he tossed the flower onto the ground at my feet before turning and jogging away.

"Merlin, Fred, why'd you have to be such an ass?" I snapped, glaring at Fred before dropping his hand, picking up the fallen flower and running after Danny. I figured comforting him and apologizing for Fred's behavior was necessary right now, but Fred was definitely going to hear it later, that was for sure. I wasn't done with him yet. I caught up to Danny after a few seconds and grabbed his arm. "Hey, Danny, wait," I said gently, turning him around. Just as I suspected, he had tears in his eyes.

"What?" he asked, hastily wiping them away and acting like he was fine. I smiled.

"Don't mind Fred," I said. "He can be pretty blunt sometimes. He acts without thinking and sometimes he's territorial. Sometimes it makes him look like a downright jerk. Such as now. But underneath he's a really great guy..." I trailed off. "I just don't want you to think he's some kind of horrible bully like those Slytherins are. Because he's not. He's great. He has six siblings, so he's usually very protective...I didn't think he'd ever snap at a kid, but..." I stopped as I realized I was rambling. I also fought the urge to roll my eyes at everything I'd just said. Even when I was completely outraged at my boyfriend, I still defended him. "Anyway," I continued, "he's not a bad guy, but what he did back there wasn't right. It was rude and uncalled for and I'm sorry on his behalf."

"You shouldn't have to apologize for him," Danny said, looking up at me and shrugging.

"No, maybe you're right," I answered. "But I just wanted you to know that I don't agree with what he did. I think you're a sweet kid, really." I hesitated. "And I am flattered that you think so highly of me. But the thing is that I _do_ have a boyfriend. And, well, I think you're a bit too young for me, yeah?" I smiled hesitantly.

"I just turned twelve last week," Danny informed me, standing up taller.

I laughed. "And you're very grown up. But hey, you don't need to be worrying about girls at this age. Trust me, you have lots of time for that and romance is a pain. Put it off as long as you can."

Danny smiled and it was quiet between us for a second. "I can take the flower back if you want."

"No," I told him. "I want to keep it. And honestly...don't think this means you have to stop talking to me," I said. "Don't let Fred scare you off. Just because I can't be your Valentine doesn't mean I can't be your friend."

Danny beamed. "You're probably one of the nicest people I ever met," he said.

"I have a little brother," I explained. "I'd hope that if he was in your place, someone would be this nice to him."

"Thanks, Lilah," Danny said with a smile.

"Don't mention it," I replied, starting to back away. "And I'll see you at the next D.A. meeting, okay?"

"Yeah, definitely," Danny answered. He waved before turning and heading back in the other direction, while I turned and looked back towards where I had left Fred. He was gone. He hadn't passed me and Danny, so that meant he had gone back to the castle. Figured. He was sulking.

I made my way back inside and went up to the common room. Everyone must have either been in Hogsmeade or studying for exams in the library or in their dorms this afternoon because surprisingly, the room was empty. Except for Fred, who was sitting in front of the fire, his arms crossed and a scowl on his face as he stared into the flames. I found myself glad that the room was empty because my anger was flaring up again just looking at him.

"Did you have to be such an obnoxious prat back there?" I asked, stopping in front of him with my hands on my hips as I glared down at him.

He turned his eyes to me, an equally intense glare on his own face. "_I _was being a prat? _Me_? Seriously, Lilah? What about Danny? What about _you_?"

"Me?" I asked, widening my eyes. "_Me_?"

"Yes, you," Fred argued. "Smiling at him, trying to accept that stupid flower...which you still went back and got, I see." He nodded towards the carnation. "Being nice to him is only going to get his hopes up!"

"I went back and _told_ him that he needs to tone it down!" I said.

"Tone it down? _Tone it down_?" Fred stood up and stared down at me furiously. "Lilah, are you serious?"

"I can't tell him to stop feeling something," I insisted. "But I made it clear that I'm dating someone. I'm dating you. Not that I really should have needed to. I mean he's eleven..."

"Yet you took the flower," Fred sneered.

"What was I supposed to do?" I cried. "Leave it on the ground where you threw it? After you _pushed_ my hand away, no less! Honestly, Fred, I wasn't aware you were so controlling and possessive! And you had no right to snap at him like you did! You made him _cry_!"

Fred snorted. "Oh, boo-hoo. What a baby."

I could practically feel steam coming out of my ears as my blood boiled. "He is an eleven year old boy, Fred Weasley," I scowled, my voice low. "He is a child and you treated him like crap for having a little kid infatuation on me because he thinks I saved his life."

"But you didn't!" Fred cried He sneered at me again. "Or so you claim. So if that's true, you're just going around letting him believe you're some big hero when you're not! Why, do you just enjoy his attention?"

"You're such a bastard," I whispered, gaping up at him. "Not too long ago, you were trying to say I was simply being modest. That I really had saved his life and that I had come to warn you and George about Umbridge and Flint. Now I'm a liar? And an attention seeking one at that? Honestly, I didn't know that was what you took me for." I crossed my arms and scoffed. "Furthermore, none of that gives you a reason to treat another human being the way you did today. He wasn't _hurting_ anyone, Fred. He wasn't _seriously_ pulling anything on me. How would you feel if someone treated Ron or Ginny the way you treated Danny?"

"Ron and Ginny at least have more tact than to go after someone who's taken!" He paused. "Well, at least Ginny does."

"Danny's eleven!" I yelled. "He's a kid! I cannot for the life of me understand why you are so threatened by a child! What does it say about what you think of _me_? Do you think I'm going to leave you? For a first year? For someone I barely know?"

"I _didn't_ think you would," Fred snapped, "but since you're so keen on leading him on, now I don't know!"

"Don't be stupid! And I was being nice!" I shouted. "I didn't want to treat him like you did!"

"Of course, you were being _nice_!" Fred laughed bitterly. "Because you're always nice! You always have to take care of someone and protect someone! So much so that you ruin our date by playing into some kid's games! Only after you spent a good chunk of our time at lunch spying on your brother because, yet again, you're taking care of someone who can take care of themselves just fine!"

"Oh, I didn't ruin our date, Fred," I said with a bitter laugh of my own. "You did. _You _ruined it. I really can't understand your reasoning here. I can't. I have no idea what your problem is or why you're threatened by Danny but you need to get over it. You were a complete and utter ass out there! You were rude and inconsiderate and heartless and mean. And I even defended you to Danny afterwards." I let out a bitter laugh and shook my head. "My mistake. You know what? For the first time since I met you, I'm ashamed to be your friend. I'm ashamed to be your _girlfriend_." I stared up at Fred for a moment, who seemed to be rendered speechless for once. Finally, I shook my head before turning and heading upstairs to my dorm.

* * *

Fred and I didn't speak for nearly an entire week. Neither one of us would say a word to the other. We wouldn't sit near each other in class and we wouldn't look at each other during meals. I started spending evenings in my dorm rather than the common room. As the days went by and my anger wore off, I started to miss him a little bit, but I wouldn't admit it. I still thought he'd been out of line and I wanted to hear him admit it. Although part of me wondered if he ever would. Sometimes he could let his pride get in the way.

Finally, it was Thursday and time for another D.A. meeting. I met up with Tess and walked there with her since I didn't want to walk with Fred and the others.

"Still not talking to Fred?" Tess asked sympathetically as we walked.

I shook my head. "He was way out of line, Tess."

"I know. I agree with you. I was just asking. You'll have to make up sometime, you know."

"Who says we _have _to?" I asked bitterly. "This could be the end of everything as far as you know."

"No, it's not the end of everything," Tess laughed. "Firstly, as angry as you are, you're still absolutely crazy about him and the confliction is driving you batty. How can you be so angry at someone, yet still love them so much, right? And that being said, you do love him too much to let this stand in the way of your relationship. Admit it, this is a silly fight."

"Not really. I had every right to be angry," I answered. "He was awful, not only to Danny, but to me."

"That's not what I said was silly. It was silly that this had to happen in the first place."

"If you're saying Fred was silly, since he started it, then you're right."

"Well, I guess that is what I'm saying then," Tess said. "He shouldn't have been jealous of Danny. But...do you think you were a bit harsh? Telling him you were ashamed of him?"

"I was, Tess!" I exclaimed, gaping at her and pausing in the middle of the hall. "He has so many siblings and he's an older brother to two of them. Three, technically, if you count the mere minutes older than George that he is. I just never thought he'd be that heartless to a little boy."

"He was threatened," Tess said, resuming her walk down the hallway. I followed, jogging a bit to catch up.

"By an eleven year old! There's nothing to be threatened by!"

"I think," Tess said reasonably, "that he wasn't necessarily threatened by what was happening as much as the idea of it happening. That and just the principle of it all. He just doesn't want anyone liking you like _he_ likes you, even if it's an eleven year old kid. He's protective, just like you, but he handles it differently. You've said it yourself. It's the reason you two always end up clashing."

"He wasn't protecting me," I said. "He was protecting himself. He was being _possessive_ of me. It wasn't like Danny was being creepy or too assertive or anything. It wasn't as if I was afraid of him. I knew what the whole thing was. A little kid infatuation. But Fred couldn't see it like that."

"He loves you," Tess said. "Wasn't his boggart fifth year losing you? You deciding you didn't want to be his friend anymore?"

"That was a while ago," I said quietly. "Besides, he's not going to lose me to Danny. That's ridiculous and completely the entire point of all of this."

"Think about it," Tess answered. "You've only gotten closer since then. I can imagine that fear might have intensified. You're his girlfriend and as I've said, he loves you. Even though I'm sure he knows he's not really going to lose you to a first year-even if it's almost an empty threat, well the threat is still there, empty or not."

I was quiet as I thought that over. "I still think I deserve an apology," I said. "And so does Danny, really, although I doubt that'll happen."

We reached the Room of Requirement and stepped inside. Fred, George, Alicia, Ange, Katie and Lee were already there. I smiled at everyone, except Fred, who I only made brief eye contact with to see what he would do first. He looked away, so I did too. I partnered with Tess for that meeting and tried my best to not look Fred's way. It was hard, though. As much as I didn't want to look at him, I couldn't help myself. It was as if my eyes moved completely on their own.

"You definitely miss him," Tess teased as the meeting ending and we gathered our things. She smiled as I shot her a look. "By the way," she added, "I didn't see Danny tonight. I wonder why."

I blinked as I realized she was right. He hadn't been at the meeting. "Do you think he's still scared of Fred, despite what I told him?" I asked. "I swear, if he's going to ditch meetings because of Fred, I-"

"You don't know that," Tess said, "so let's not jump to conclusions. I can try to talk to him if you want. He's in my house after all."

I nodded. "Okay," I said with a sigh as I watched Fred and George leave together ahead of us. "I guess I'll see you later, then." I waved goodbye to my friend before starting to take the long way back to Gryffindor tower. I didn't want to risk catching up to the twins. But then halfway there, I changed my mind and decided that maybe I could get some homework done in the kitchens tonight. Change of scenery from my dorm and also from my roommates pestering me about Fred. So, I turned and headed back down towards the kitchens. As I made my way down the hallway where the kitchens were located, I heard quiet voices and the sound of sniffling from up ahead. Confused, I kept going , keeping my footsteps as quiet as possible. Finally, the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room came into view. A little boy was sitting on a bench outside and two figures were crouched in front of him. I froze as I realized the boy was Danny and the other two people were the twins. My heart nearly stopped as I realized Danny was not only crying, but clutching his left hand. It suddenly clicked. He had been in detention. That's why he hadn't been at the meeting.

"The pain stops after a while," George was whispering gently.

"Yeah, and the marks will fade," Fred added. "You can hardly see our marks anymore."

I half-smiled. I knew that was a lie. The twins' marks were worse than ever. It would take them forever to heal, if they did at all.

"Essence of murtlap will help," Fred went on. "Trust me. Some of the sixth and seventh years in your house should have some. Ask around."

"Have you ever been to the kitchens before?" George asked.

Danny sniffled and shook his head as I leaned my shoulder against the wall as quietly as possible, still listening and completely in awe of the situation.

"They're right down the hall," Fred said pointing. "Behind the painting of the bowl of fruit. Tickle the pear and the painting swings open. House elves work in there and they'll give you anything you want. And as much as you want. They're really generous."

"We can bring you if you'd like," George said. "Fred and I were actually just on our way ourselves."

"Why are you being nice to me?" Danny asked, looking at Fred. I held my breath, awaiting his reply.

Fred was quiet for a moment. He looked at the ground for a bit before clearing his throat. "Because, I uh, I..." He let a puff of air out of his mouth. "I hate admitting things like this, but I was out of line last weekend. I was rude. You didn't deserve it. And I'm, uh...sorry."

Danny was quiet for a moment before he sniffled again. "You must really like Lilah," he said, a smirk actually tugging at the corners of his mouth, "for you to yell at an innocent eleven year old boy." He looked at Fred angelically.

Fred gaped at him in astonishment for a moment before laughing. "You're a snarky little thing, aren't you?" he asked. A smirk appeared on his face. "Nah, I don't really like Lilah all that much, despite what my actions might say. She's kind of annoying."

"Yeah, sure," Danny snorted with a roll of his eyes and a smile.

Fred chuckled, but then his laughter died down and he looked at Danny seriously. "In all seriousness...yeah, I love Lilah," he said quietly. "She's my best friend." He hesitated. "And sometimes I think she's too good for me. She's got a heart of gold and it's the reason why she completely let me have it after my stunt last weekend. She couldn't stand how I treated you and she was really upset. Hasn't even _looked _at me since. She even said she was ashamed of me, which stung actually. A lot. And I don't get hurt by much, believe me." He shrugged. "But maybe I deserved it."

I swallowed as a lump formed in my throat and my chest tightened.

"Nah," Danny said. "I'd get jealous too if I were her boyfriend and anyone else had a crush on her. Especially an annoying first year like me."

"Maybe you're not so bad," Fred said with a smile. "But let's get one thing clear, shall we? Lilah's not on the market, okay?"

Danny smiled. "Got it." There was a pause. "I know she has a brother, but she wouldn't happen to have a sister too, would she?"

Fred and George shared an incredulous look as they both gaped at Danny again. "Unbelievable," Fred whispered with a chuckle. "But no, she doesn't."

"Eh, it was worth a try," Danny shrugged.

Fred laughed, stood up and tilted his head towards the kitchens as George stood beside him. "Come on, let's go get you a late night snack."

Danny smiled and stood up from the bench. Fred clapped him on the shoulder before he happened to glance in my direction. He saw me leaning against the wall and froze. "You guys go ahead," he said slowly, directing his words towards George and Danny without breaking his gaze from my face.

George looked from me to Fred and back again before putting his hand on Danny's shoulder and guiding him down the hallway. "Come on," he said quietly.

Fred and I stared at each other in silence until they both disappeared. My eyes were still filled with tears and when I blinked, a few leaked out and rapidly slid down my cheeks. I pushed off the wall and just stood there, staring at Fred. I shook my head. "You're _unbelievable_!" I cried, stomping my foot in frustration as I let out a breath of laughter through my tears.

"I've heard," Fred said quietly, a smirk lifting one corner of his mouth as he shoved his hands into his pockets. He was quiet for a moment. "I'm sorry, Liles," he finally said. "I messed up. And I didn't realize it until you told me you were ashamed of me. It felt like a slap in the face. I don't want you to be ashamed of me. I want to be someone you're proud of."

"Well, maybe you just made up for what you did last weekend," I said. "The way you treated Danny just now. It means a lot that you tried. He was upset and you put everything behind you to comfort him. You dealt with this whole situation like a _normal _human being. I knew that older brother instinct was in there somewhere." I gave him a watery smile.

"Am I forgiven?" Fred asked with a raised eyebrow.

I smirked at him as I walked forward, pretending to think. "That depends," I said.

"On what?" Fred asked.

"Are you going to treat me to a secret, late night Honeyduke's run this weekend? I think a bag of Fudge Flies is calling my name."

Fred laughed. "Sure," he said with a smile. "I think that can be arranged." I stopped in front of him and grinned, despite the fact that there were still tear tracks on my face. Fred reached out and gently wiped them away with his thumb. "I love you," he whispered.

"I love you too," I answered, leaning up to give him a quick kiss.

"Hang on," Fred said with a chuckle, "I'm not done yet." And then he pulled me back for another longer kiss, pulling away only briefly before going back for more.

Finally, I laughed and pulled away. "Come on," I said, taking his hand. "I'm starving. Let's go get some food." And with that, I led him down the hallway towards the kitchens.


	61. Chapter 61

"So how did your date go the other day?" I asked my brother casually as I walked with him down to Quidditch practice. I was still going to watch, even though Fred and George weren't playing anymore. Fred had tried to get me to stay in the common room with him, but I said no. For one, he was usually working on inventions with George and would have only half paid attention to me anyway. Second, I still enjoyed watching the rest of my friends practice.

"Fine," Julian answered, just as casually as I had asked him the question.

"You think you're going to see her again?" I asked.

"Are you asking because you're genuinely interested or because you're sneakily trying to get information on my love life?" Julian asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow as he glanced over at me.

"Jules, come on," I sighed. "I do honestly want to know. I'm asking because I care. And because I thought we could talk about this kind of thing. I thought we could talk about _anything_."

"We can," Julian admitted. He looked at the ground before looking back up at me. "Fine. Yes, I really like her, the date went well and I want to see her again. On another actual date, considering I do already see her quite often here with classes and meals and everything..." He quickly closed his mouth and turned a light shade of pink when he realized he was rambling.

I smiled. "That's great, Jules. I'm happy for you." It was quiet between us for a moment. "When do I get to meet her?"

Julian glanced at me and cleared his throat. "Tonight. She's coming to watch practice."

I looked at him in surprise. "Yeah?"

He nodded. "Don't act weird, okay?"

"Weird? Me? Never," I answered as Julian snorted. "Angelina doesn't care that you've invited a Hufflepuff to watch the Gryffindor practice? Or did you not tell her?"

"I told her," Julian said. "Figured it'd be best to do that rather than blindside her. But she actually allowed it. Seemed a bit hesitant at first. She's worried Kat would go telling the Hufflepuff team what we've been doing. But then she decided we weren't doing anything this practice she particularly cared about the Hufflepuffs finding out about. And besides, I told her that Kat would never do that. It's not really how Hufflepuffs typically operate. They're not sneaky like that. And it's not how Kat operates as a person either. She's nice."

I smiled. "Can't wait to meet her."

We reached the Quidditch pitch and looked up into the stands to see Kat already sitting there, a textbook in her lap. She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and waved shyly at Julian, who smiled and waved back.

I grinned as I stared at him. "Someone's lovesick," I teased, poking him in the side.

"Stop it, Lilah, come on!" he whined, wriggling around and trying to push my arm away, causing me to laugh.

"Good luck with practice," I called as I walked towards the stands. "I'm going to go have a nice little chat with Kat." I stuck my hands in my pockets and smiled.

"Seriously, Lie, don't be weird. Keep it normal. Please."

I shrugged and smiled innocently. "What's your definition of normal?" I teased. With that, I laughed and turned around, leaving Julian scowling behind me. I worked my way up into the stands and took a seat beside Kat. "Hi," I said with a tiny smile. "You're Kat, right? I'm Lilah."

"Oh, Julian's sister!" Kat exclaimed. She reached out and shook my hand, grinning widely. "He's told me so much about you!"

"Yeah?" I asked. "Funny, because sometimes I think he's really embarrassed of me." I paused. "For instance, before I came up here, he begged me to embarrass him in front of you. He's actually told _me_ quite a bit about _you_."

Kat blushed and looked down at her textbook. "He's not embarrassed of you," she said. "At least, not from what I got out of all the things he's said about you." She hesitated. "And he's really talked about me a lot?" She peered up at me with her giant, round blue eyes.

I nodded. "Yeah, he's told me all about you. I've been waiting ever so patiently to meet you in person, actually, so I'm glad you're here."

"Likewise," Kat smiled.

"I do have to warn you, though, and my brother will kill me if he finds out I'm saying this, but..." I blew a puff of air out of my mouth and smiled. "Be nice to him, okay?"

Kat laughed. "He did say you were a bit protective of him."

I grinned wider. "Oh, I can only imagine the stories he's told you about me and he'd probably say a _bit_ protective is an understatement." I looked at her. "He's just...he's my little brother, you know? We're close."

"No, I get it," Kat said, gazing out at the field, where Angelina had just started practice. "I have two older brothers and when they catch wind of Julian, they're going to be down both of our throats in a heartbeat. And they won't be as calm as you are, trust me. They'll be like dogs to a bone, pestering me with a million questions."

"So are you and Julian...a thing?" I asked. "Officially?"

Kat shrugged. "Not quite. But even still, if my brothers saw me breathe in a boy's direction, they automatically assume there's something going on." She paused. "They're not mean or anything. Or even intimidating. They're not like my bodyguards or something. They're just older brothers and I can't fault them for being protective and nosey."

"Do they come to Hogwarts?" I asked.

"Yeah. One's a sixth year. He's in Ravenclaw and his name is Kyle. The other one's a seventh year. He's in Hufflepuff with me and his name is Jason." She looked at me. "Do you have any classes with him? Jason Reynolds?"

I shook my head. "Not that I can think of. My friend Tess might, though."

"Oh, yeah, I know Tess," Kat said with a nod. "She's really nice."

I nodded. "Yeah, she's great. We've been best friends for as long as I can remember."

We were quiet for a moment as we watched the players out on the pitch.

"Your brother's really good," Kat commented. "He must practice a lot."

I hesitated. "We never used to get to use brooms. Neither of us even used to own one. We live in a Muggle neighborhood. But once we met the Weasleys, we were allowed to go play at their house. It's surrounded by trees and fields and hills. Hardly any people around and the only people that are in the area are wizards."

Kat nodded. "You're dating Fred Weasley, aren't you?"

"Yeah, you've heard of him?" I asked with a wry smile.

Kat snorted. "Everyone's heard of him. He and his brother are kind of...famous, aren't they? Famous for breaking the rules. Famous for pulling pranks and acting up?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, I suppose they are."

"And everyone heard about how they got kicked off the team," Kat said, nodding towards the practice going on in front of us. "It's totally unfair, by the way. Everyone thinks so."

"Yeah, they're pretty angry about it, naturally," I answered. "It's their last year, you know?"

"Makes sense," Kat said.

We watched the rest of practice together and the time seemed to fly by. We managed to not only watch the practice but start to get to know each other. I felt a lot better now that I had met Kat. Not that I had expected her to be horrible or anything, but I had just wanted to meet her in person before things got too serious between her and my brother.

"Did you behave yourself?" Julian asked with a raised eyebrow as I passed him at the end of practice.

"Why don't you ask Kat?" I said with a smile, patting his shoulder as I walked by and gesturing with my chin over my shoulder, where Kat was coming towards us. I paused. "I like her, Jules. She's great."

Julian beamed. "Yeah? You think so?"

I smiled back and nodded. "Yeah. I approve."

"That's a relief for sure," Julian said with a snort. I lightly punched his arm before heading back up to the castle.

* * *

About a month later, the March issue of the Quibbler was printed, containing Harry's interview that he had given with Rita Skeeter on Valentine's day. I had to admit, I was a little nervous to look at it at first, half expecting everything Harry had said to have been turned into utter rubbish. But it actually seemed very well written and accurate. I was impressed to say the least.

The morning the article came out, Fred, George and I were sitting near Ron, Hermione, Harry and Julian at breakfast. Suddenly, the mail came, bringing a ton of letters for Harry.

"Fan mail," I said curtly, giving the letters a wary stare. I hadn't forgotten what it was like to get that.

"Hey, you never know," Fred said positively, giving me a half-smile, "they could be good letters. Maybe Harry's interview converted everyone to believers."

I snorted. "Doubt it."

"In any case, I think Harry might need a bit of help," Fred said, as he and George leaned over and took a few letters each.

"This woman still thinks you're batty, Harry," Ron muttered, glaring down at a letter he'd just opened. "Stupid."

"Oh, look, but this one believes you!" Hermione said.

"This one's on the fence," Fred muttered. "She says you don't come across as a mad person, but she doesn't want to believe You-Know-Who is back either. Well, none of us do! Honestly, what a waste of parchment!"

I watched them open a few more letters, feeling a mix of worry and amusement all at once. I knew how brutal those people could be. I hadn't forgotten what it had been like for me and I also hadn't forgotten what had happened to Hermione when she had received letters like this. Bulbotuber pus had been included in one and had made boils appear all over her hands. I was sure she hadn't forgotten either, but she looked unphased now.

A few more letters were opened before we heard a high pitched noise from behind us.

"What's going on over here?" Umbridge asked sweetly.

"Opening mail," Fred answered. "Is that a crime now?"

I tugged on his sweater, my eyes going wide, but he ignored me.

"No, Mr. Weasley. I am just asking," Umbridge answered. "Is _that_ a crime?" She blinked innocently at him and he scowled. Umbridge smirked and turned back to Harry. "Where have you gotten all these letters from, Mr. Potter?"

Harry hesitated, but then seemed to decide it wasn't worth lying. She'd find out the truth sooner or later. "It's fan mail. Or hate mail depending on how you look at it. I gave an interview to the Quibbler about what happened to me last June."

"What do you mean you gave an interview?" Umbridge asked, her mouth falling open.

"I mean that someone asked me questions and I answered," Harry said slowly. "Here." And he thrust a copy of the magazine at her. She took it and her mouth dropped even more as her eyes scanned the front page.

"When did you do this?" she whispered.

"Last Hogsmeade trip," Harry answered.

"Well, there will be no more Hogsmeade trips for you, Mr. Potter," Umbridge said breathlessly. "And you will be getting another week's worth detention!" She rolled up her copy of the Quibbler and walked away with it tightly in her fist.

"She's out of her damn mind," Fred grumbled, glaring at Umbridge's retreating back. "I hope karma takes good care of her one day."

There were grumbled responses of agreement from the rest of us as we all went back to our breakfast, our mood already dampened for the day.

Later on, a new Educational Decree had been created and put up with all the others outside the Great Hall, for everyone's reference and enjoyment-or unenjoyment. It stated that anyone found in possession of the Quibbler would be expelled. Not that it stopped anyone of course. People just Transfigured them to look like another book or magazine if they could. And if not, they hid them inside their real textbooks. Everyone found a way to get their hands on Harry's interview and soon, every detail had appeared to go around the entire school.

"Might be a record," Fred commented casually as we walked through the hallways, trying to see how many people we could catch either looking at or talking about the interview. "The whole school's buzzing well before lunch."

"That's good, isn't it?" I asked. "We want people talking about it. And Umbridge banning the interview was probably the best thing she could have done. Because now she's only guaranteed that everyone's going to want to read it."

"Good point," Fred said, nodding. "And hopefully, they'll just be convinced to take Harry's side."

Luna also informed us at breakfast one day that no copy of the Quibbler had ever sold out faster. "Dad's reprinting!" she exclaimed. "He can't believe it, he says people seem even more interested in this than the Crumple Horned Snorkack!"

"You don't say," Ron muttered, rolling his eyes. Hermione nudged him and he hurriedly stuffed a bite of eggs into his mouth.

So, despite Umbridge's negative reaction to the article, things seemed to be going quite well. Seamus, who had made it clear at first that he thought Harry was a nutter, apologized and said he believed him. And a lot of other people seemed to be taking his side now as well. It looked as if Harry were popular again, but it unfortunately seemed as if it were one of the many waves of popularity that seemed to come and go throughout his time at school. He'd be the famous Boy Who Lived one minute, then the Boy Who Lies the next. And now he was back to being a hero. If even I was waiting on eggshells for the popularity to turn south again, I could only imagine how Harry felt.

"So," Fred said to me at dinner a few weeks later. He had a proud, triumphant smile on his face.

"So what?" I asked dubiously, a smirk turning up the corners of my own mouth.

"George and I finished working on the Triple S."

"The Triple S?" I asked, giving him a confused look. "Fred, you've got to stop using your product names when you're perfectly aware I have no idea what they mean yet."

"Remember you told me that the permanent name for the Fire Launcher should have something to do with dragons?" Fred asked.

I nodded slowly. "So the Triple S is the Fire Launcher? But what does Triple S have to do with dragons?"

"The dragon George and I faced in the Triwizard Tournament was the Swedish Short Snout," Fred explained. "Three S's."

"It could also stand for small spark shooter...you know, pertaining to the actual product," I said. "So the three S's kind of have a double meaning. They stand for a dragon, and also for words that describle the product."

"See, it's perfect!" Fred exclaimed.

I smiled. "So it's finished? It shoots out real live fireworks?"

"It does," Fred said. "It'll shoot out regular Filibuster fireworks that George and I plan to sell at the shop, and it also shoots out a few we've invented ourselves."

"Such as?" I asked.

"You'll see in time," Fred said with a smirk. "But they're really cool and definitely not your average firework."

"Of course not," I answered. "_You _invented them."

Fred chuckled, but we were suddenly interrupted by a shriek coming from the entrance hall. The whole room went silent and stared toward the doors. Nobody moved for a beat, and then Professor McGonagall stood up and left the room. I looked around to see where Dumbledore had gone, but I realized I hadn't seen him at the staff table in the first place. I briefly wondered where he was, but I couldn't dwell on it because a moment later, the whole school began to follow to see what the fuss was about.

Fred stood up and grabbed my hand so we wouldn't get separated. He led me through the crowd until we were out of the room. And then we wormed our way to the front, where I was suddenly able to see a very distressed Professor Trelawney standing there. She looked awful. Her hair was standing up in places, her glasses were lopsided and her numerous shawls and scarves were dangling haphazardly from her body, some trailing on the floor. Two large trunks lay on the ground beside her. One was upside down. It looked as if they had been thrown down the stairs after her. I turned towards the stairs and it took me a moment to see that Umbridge was standing at the bottom of them. It would have taken me longer if it hadn't been for all the pink. She was so short that she almost blended in with the students surrounding her.

"This cannot be happening!" Professor Trelawney cried. "I refuse to accept it!"

"You didn't realize this was coming?" Umbridge asked, her eyebrows raised in amusement. "Incapable though you are of predicting even tomorrow's weather, you must surely have realized that your pitiful performance during my inspections, and lack of any improvement, would make it inevitable you would be sacked!"

I winced. "She's lost it," I hissied to Fred. "She's crazy."

"She hit that point a long time ago," Fred muttered back.

"You c-can't!" howled Professor Trelawney, tears streaming down her face from behind her enormous glasses. "You c-can't sack me! I've b-been here sixteen years! Hogwarts is m-my home!"

"It _was_ your home," Umbridge said, "until about an hour ago, when the Minister of Magic countersigned the order for your dismissal. Now kindly remove yourself from this hall. You are embarrassing us."

"You know, if anyone should be sacked," Fred said darkly, "it should be Umbridge, right in her stupid toad face." He looked at me. "Can I do the honors?"

"No," I said with a roll of my eyes.

"Thought you'd say that," Fred answered, "but come on. I mean, maybe we all think Trelawney's a bit batty, but Umbridge is treating her like crap!"

I nodded as I bit my lip. "I know," I whispered. I didn't know what else to say. I felt awful for Trelawney, but there wasn't anything we could do. Umbridge was way too powerful.

Professor Trelawney was sobbing now, sitting on one of her trunks with her face buried in her hands. Professor McGonagall rushed forward and began patting her on the back. "There, there, Sibyll. Calm down. Blow your nose on this..." She pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to Trelawney. "It's not as bad as you think. You won't have to leave Hogwarts."

"Oh really, Professsor McGonagall?" said Umridge, taking a few steps forward. "And your authority for that statement is...?"

"That would be mine," said another voice.

We all turned to see Dumbledore stepping forward now, coming in from the front doors, which was very odd. What had he been doing outside?

"Yours, Professor Dumbledore?" said Umbridge. "I'm afraid you do not understand the position. I have here-" she pulled out a piece of parchment- "an Order of Dismissal signed by myself and the Minister of Magic. Under the terms of Educational Decree Number Twenty-three, the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts has the power to inspect, place upon probation, and sack any teacher she-that is to say, I-feel is not performing up to the standard required by the Ministry of Magic. I have decided that Professor Trelawney is not up to scratch. I have dismissed her."

Dumbled smiled. He looked at Professor trelawney and said, "You are quite right, of course, Professor Umbridge. As High Inquisitor you have the right to dismiss my teachers. You do not, however, have the authority to send them away from the castle. I am afraid that the power to do that still resides with the headmaster, and it is my wish that Professor Trelawney continue to live at Hogwarts." He looked at McGonagall. "Might I ask you to escort Sibyll back upstairs, Professor McGonagall?"

"Of course," she answered, helping Professor Trelawney to her feet and leading her upstairs, charming her trunks to float in front of them.

Professor Umbridge was standing stock still, staring open mouthed at Dumbledore. "And what," she said in a whisper, "are you going to do with her once I appoint a new Divination professor who needs her lodgings?"

"That won't be a problem," Dumbledore said pleasantly. "You see, I've already found a new Divination teacher, and he will prefer lodgings on the ground floor."

"You've found-_you've _found?" Umbridge squeaked. "Might I remind you, Dumbledore, that under Educational Decree Twenty-two-"

"-the Ministry has the right to appoint a suitable candidate if-and only if-the headmaster is unable to find one," Dumbledore said. "And I am happy to say that on this occasion I have succeeded. May I introduce you?" He turned to face the open front doors. Suddenly, a figure stepped through them. A figure with the torso of a man, but the body of a horse. He had white-blonde hair and pale blue eyes and his hooves clicked on the stone floor with every step.

"A centaur," Fred deadpanned, his mouth hanging open. "Is Dumbledore mad?"

"This is Firenze," Dumbledore said happily to a thudnerstruck Umbridge, "and I think you'll find him suitable."

* * *

"This is mad," George laughed, later that night. We were all back up in the common room, and people were buzzing about the new teacher. Mostly girls, I noted. "Dumbledore hired a centaur to teach a class."

"Hey, Hermione," Parvati Patil said, stopping by Hermione's armchair, "I'll bet you regret giving up Divination now, don't you?" She beamed.

"Not really," Hermione said casually. "I've never really liked horses."

I snorted and I saw Hermione's mouth turn up slightly at the corners.

"He's not a horse, he's a centaur!" Parvati exclaimed. "A _gorgeous_ one!"

Fred turned to gape at me. "This whole school is going cuckoo. I thought all the girls ogling Lockhart was bad enough, but now they're ogling a horse-man. A man-horse."

"A centaur," I snorted.

"I know that, but he's still half horse!" Fred said. "I'd rather have Lockhart. At least he had all human parts. Seriously, please don't tell me you find that Firenze guy-horse-centaur-whatever-attractive. If you do, I'll assume you're crazy and dump you."

"Fred," I sighed, rolling my eyes. "But no, I prefer boys with two legs, thanks."

Fred stared down at his legs in wonder. "Ah, look at that...I meet that requirement." He stretched his legs out and wiggled them before beaming at me.

"Ah, but you're a redhead," I said, shaking my head. "I hate redheads."

Fred snorted. "Yeah, like you hate Fudge Flies."

"Yeah, exactly," I grinned, leaning over to kiss him.

* * *

At the next D.A. meeting, everyone was more excited than ever. Today we'd be learning how to do a Patronus Charm. I was excited, don't get me wrong, but I knew the spell was difficult and we didn't have anything to practice on. We didn't have any real dementors-which was definitely a good thing-but we didn't have a boggart either which was what Harry had practiced on.

"Maybe that'll make it easier to think of a happy memory, then, right?" Fred suggested as we stood up to start practicing and I voiced my concerns. "There won't be any dementors making it difficult so we'll be able to think clearly."

"Yeah, but in the real scenario there will be. So what if we can do it now, but not then? What good will that be?" I shrugged and looked at him worriedly.

"Well, maybe we should just work on being able to conjure one now," Fred said. "Let's start with that and then we can work on strengthening them later. One step at a time, Lie, okay?"

I nodded and we then got to work. It took ages for anyone to finally produce a successful Patronus. All that happened for a while was either nothing, or a thin mist would come out of someone's wand. But then, to most everyone's suprise, Ginny was the first person to produce a real one. Hers was a brilliant looking horse that galloped around the room once before disappearing.

"Fantastic, Ginny!" Harry cried.

Five minutes later, Luna Lovegood became the second successful person, producing a hare from the tip of her wand. She beamed serenely at it as it hopped around her.

Fred let out a disgruntled growl. "This isn't fair. If Looney Lovegood and my little sister can do a Patronus, I should be able to."

"Don't call Luna that," I told him, tring to concentrate on my own Patronus. All I was getting was mist at the moment, but it was better than Fred, who was getting nothing. "And do you think my mist looked thicker that time?"

"How should I know?" Fred asked.

I sighed and went back to practicing. Another five minues passed and I still hadn't made much progress. Fred, however, had moved up to producing a mist, just like me.

"I'm going to run out of happy memories soon," Fred grumbled. "None of the ones I'm thinking of are working. I've used everything. From the day George and I made the Quidditch team, to the day we signed the papers for our shop premises. From the day I met you, to our first kiss. I even tried the day I asked Angelina out." He shrugged when I glanced at him. "What? It was a happy memory. Just like I'm sure you have happy memories with Oliver."

I nodded. He did have a point. And I had tried to use some of those memories with Oliver to conjure a Patronus. But none of them had worked.

"Maybe you're not concentrating on the memory enough." Harry was just passing by us and he stopped so he could talk. "You have to concentrate and really focus on the memory. It has to be the only thing in your mind. It has to just...take over. It's almost as if you have to mentally transport yourself back to it. Let it fill up your entire head. Your entire body, really." He smiled at us. "Go on, try again."

Fred and I looked at each other. "Together?" Fred suggested.

I nodded. "Together."

I closed my eyes and held up my wand as I quickly tried to settle on a memory. I had to admit, as many times in life as I'd been upset and as many times life had handed me difficult or rotten situations, there were plenty of times when I'd be insanely happy. Moments that involved Tess, my Dad, the twins, Ange, Alicia, Katie, even Oliver. And a lot of moments with my brother too. Suddenly, I thought of something. It was a vague memory from a really, really long time ago. I must have been about five and Julian was two. It was Christmas Eve. One of the early years when Mum was actually happy. She had Christmas carols playing on the radio and a fire in the fireplace. She had Julian in her arms and was dancing around the room to whatever song was playing. Julian was laughing and resting his head on her shoulder. And then Dad had taken Julian from Mum and set him on the ground beside me. He took Mum's hand and proceeded to lead her in a fast paced, hilarious sort of waltz around the room. My dad had never been a good dancer and he always liked to make it into even more of a joke by dancing as horribly as possible every time he did dance. He said that if he _made_ it funny, then when everyone laughed, he'd be eliciting it on purpose.

I remember that particular Christmas, laughing at his antics. Mum did too, her head thrown back and her dimples showing. I remember thinking she was so pretty and she and dad were so perfect. I remembered wanting what she had. Someone who could make me laugh as much as Dad made her laugh. Later that night, Mum made us hot chocolate, and afer that, tucked me and Julian into bed, kissing our foreheads and whispering _Merry Christmas_ as she did so. I had gone to bed with the biggest smile on my face that night. It was one of the few times I could remember when I felt like we were a family. It was perfect. And more than anything, I just wanted that for myself. I wanted a family and I wanted us to be whole, unlike how mine was now. I wanted a family that was like the way mine used to be. Because back then we were happy.

"Ready, Lie?" I heard Fred ask, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah," I answered. "On the count of three?"

Fred nodded. "One..."

I closed my eyes, remembering the smell of the pine needles on our Christmas tree that year, the warmth of the fireplace.

"Two..."

I remembered the warm, happy feeling in my stomach, not just from the hot chocolate Mum had made, but the one from watching her and Dad laugh and dance around the room, Dad looking as if he had two left feet. I remembered Julian sitting beside me, sucking his thumb and holding his teddy bear, smelling clean from his bath. I remembered Dad tickling my sides and Mum kissing my forehead. I remember her actually telling me she loved me and tucking me in, pulling the covers up to my chin and smiling at me. I remembered wanting a Christmas like that every year. And as bad as things were now, and as much as I doubted I'd have one like that with my own family, another part of me realized I could have a Christmas like that again with other people I loved. I had come pretty close last Christmas at Grimmauld Place with the Weasleys, Dad and Jules. I loved them all dearly and we had all been together. Fred and George had surprised me with Julian and it had been the greatest gift I could have asked for.

"Three!"

"Expecto Patronum!"

I stepped back in surprise as Patronuses poured out of both Fred's wand and mine. But my mouth dropped open when I realized something else surprising. They were identical. Foxes. They were both foxes.

"What...?" Fred breathed as the two foxes ran around us, chasing each other and nipping at each other's tails.

"That's odd," I said as they disappeared. "Why are ours the same?"

"Can that happen, Harry?" Fred asked.

Harry shrugged. "I suppose so. I've never actually heard anything about it, but there are a lot of people in the world, so maybe they'd just have to replicate eventually..." He shrugged and looked at us guiltily as if apologizing for his not-so-informative answer.

"But ours being the same?" Fred asked, gesturing to me. "That can't just be random, can it?"

Harry shrugged again. "I honestly don't know. I wish I could give you a better answer." He gave us another apologetic smile. "Great job on finally conjuring one, though." He patted Fred on the shoulder before turning and walking away.

"Maybe I'll hit the library later on," I muttered, "see if I can figure something out."

"You don't have to," Fred said. "I was just curious is all."

"No, I know, but I am too. I want to find out about that. It is odd."

We practiced for a bit longer, a lot of people actually managing to conjure a Patronus by the time we were done. George managed his towards the end of the meeting. His Patronus was a lemur, which I found very fitting. It lept around the room, causing me to let out a giggle at the silly animal. "It's adorable, George," I laughed.

Before I could answer, the room suddenly fell oddly quiet. I spun around and immediately saw why. Dobby was running through the room towards Harry, an anxious look on his face as he nervously twisted his fingers.

"Hi, Dobby," Harry said once the house-elf had reached him. "What are you-what's wrong?"

"Harry Potter, sir," the elf squeaked, trembling from head to toe. "Harry Potter, sir...Dobby has come to warn you...but the house-elves have been warned not to tell..." He made an odd, nervous whine before looking around running headfirst into the wall. I let out an involutary gasp. I knew house-elves usually tried to punish themselves for going against orders, but I'd never seen it happen before.

"What's happened, Dobby?" Harry asked, grabbing the elf's tiny arm and holding him so he couldn't get away and hurt himseslf again.

"Harry Potter...she...she..." Dobby hit himself in the face with his frree hand, which Harry promptly grabbed as well.

"Who's _she_, Dobby?" He looked downat the elf, who was staring wide-eyed up at him. "Umbridge?" Harry finally asked.

To everyone's horror, Dobby slowly nodded. Anything to do with Umbridge couldn't possibly be good.

"What about her?" Harry asked. "She hasn't found out about this-about us-about the D.A.?"

Dobby nodded again and let out that same nervous whine. I felt as if my blood had suddenly run cold.

"Is she coming?" Harry asked quietly.

For the third time, Dobby nodded. "Yes, Harry Potter, yes!" he finally wailed.

Harry straightened up and looked aroundat all of us. Every last person in the room was frozen in place, completely panic stricken.

"What are you waiting for?" he finally shouted. "Run!"

From then on, it was complete and utter chaos. Fred grabbed my hand and yanked me towards the door. But since there was only one way out, we were forced into a crazy throng of people trying to get out of one tiny opening. But we finally made it through and out into the corridor. Fred and I ran at top speed in the direction of the common room.

"There's no way we can make it all the way back there in time," I panted. "If Umbridge is on her way, she probably has the Inquisitorial Squad out too and we could run into them."

"Luckily I know a few shortcuts and hiding places," Fred said breathlessly, making a sharp left and roughly yanking me with him. I stumbled and almost fell, but Fred steadied me before giving me an apologetic glance. "Sorry," he said.

"Don't mention it," I muttered. "My arm doesn't _need_ to be in a socket anyway."

Fred rolled his eyes before skidding to a stop in front of a tapestry. "This way," he said, ushering me behind it and into a secret passageway. "Leads to the hallway one over from Gryffindor tower," he said. "It's the only passageway we've ever found that doesn't go to other floors. It stays on the seventh. It's kind of a roundabout way back, but at least it's hidden and it came in handy tonight, that's for sure."

I simply nodded before letting him lead me through the passageway. "I hope everyone made it back to their common rooms okay," I said after a bit. "If anyone got caught..." I trailed off. "What if Dobby had never come to warn us? Can you imagine what would have happened?"

"We'd all be in deep trouble," Fred answered. "Although...a part of me would have liked to see Umbridge's face when she discovered us. That would have been pretty priceless, don't you agree?"

I thought that over for a moment. "Yeah, I guess I do. But it might not be worth it. She'd probably find some kind of crazy punishment to give us all."

"Besides the quill?" Fred asked.

I shrugged. "Maybe." There was a pause. "Fred?" I finally asked.

"Yeah?" he answered, glancing at me in the dim lighting of the passageway. We were walking at a normal pace now, but we were still holding hands and I felt his thumb glide along mine.

"How do you think she found out?" I asked.

It was quiet for a moment. "No idea," Fred said. "Someone probably told and if that's the case, we'll find out tomorrow. Hermione jinxed the sign up sheet, remember?"

My eyes suddenly widened. "Do you think someone remembered to grab that on the way out of the room? Because if not, Umbridge now has all of our names and running away will have been for nothing."

Fred gaped back at me in shock and panic for a moment before turning and aiming a swift kick at the wall beside him. "Damn," he hissed. "I doubt anyone grabbed it. We were all too worried about running before Umbridge and the Inquisitorial Squad could get too close. I'll bet Hermione didn't even think of it. Although, if she did, we'll all be forever in her debt."

I groaned. "We're doomed," I said. "We're going to be expelled and then my mother is going to kill me when she finds out. We might as well say our goodbyes now."

"And you tell _me_ not to be dramatic," Fred snorted, rolling his eyes as we reached the end of the passageway. Fred stuck his head out and looked around before leading me out into the hallway and towards the common room. "But you're not living with your mother anymore, so why does it matter?"

"Because as angry with me as she is now and as much as she doesn't want anything to do with me now, her finding out I've been _expelled_, and because I was a part of some 'stupid, crazy, reckless defense group'," I made quote marks in the air, "would drive her so mad, she'd _have_ to track me down to tell me off, then kill me. She'd try not to, but she'd be sitting there twitching until she finally attempted to get her two cents in."

"We're not going to get expelled, Lie. She can't expel all of us," Fred assured me as we reached the fat lady's portrait. He gave the password and we stepped inside to see what looked like all of the Gryffindor D.A. members already there. Except for Harry. My stomach dropped.

"Good to see you all made it back okay," Fred said as we joined Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Julian, Ange, Alicia, Katie, Seamus and Dean by the fire.

"Yeah, but Harry didn't," Dean said solemnly, looking up at us from the spot on the floor.

"Malfoy got him," Julian said. "I saw it. They're in Dumbledore's office right now."

"And get this," Ron said angrily, looking at Fred. "Apparently Umbridge called the Minister in. Katie and Alicia saw him heading for Dumbledore's office. And he brought Percy with him."

"Percy's here?" Fred asked frowning. "With the Minister? To help talk about the D.A. and what Umbridge wants to do about it?" He scowled. "What a piece of dirt." He shook his head and sank down into an empty seat. "Is he really that blind?"

"I think the biggest issue here is the fact that we left the list behind," Hermione said. I swallowed and sighed as she confirmed my suspicions from earlier. "We're all going to be in trouble."

"Lilah and I were just talking about that," Fred said, looking up at her. "And I was saying that she can't expel all of us. So I think we're safe from that."

"You don't know what she can and can't or will and won't do," Hermione said. "She banned you, George and Harry from Quidditch and banned Harry from Hogsmeade."

"That's different, though," Fred said. "It's Quidditch and Hogsmeade. Things that people consider privilages. Expelling us dismisses us from _school_. And as much as I've joked about ditching and as much as I've always joked about wishing I could be dismissed from school...I don't want to actually be _expelled_. That really would break Mum's heart-especially after everything with Percy."

"But you were considering not even coming back this year, weren't you?" Hermione asked. "What's the difference?"

Fred raised an eyebrow. "There's a big difference. If George and I didn't come back this year, it would've been our own choice. Being _expelled_ isn't a choice. And either way, Mum would've had a breakdown, which is why I told you we came back in the end. And actually, I think it was the right choice. We had research to finish and then there was the D.A., which was incredibly useful." He glanced at his brother. "But now that the D.A. and Quidditch are over and George and I have nearly all of the research we need and now that we have a lot of products invented and perfected...Things might have changed. Leaving on our own accord now that we're ready would be a lot better than being expelled or leaving when we weren't ready. And look at the way things are. Look at what Umbridge is doing."

"That doesn't mean we can all up and leave school," Hermione sniffed.

"No, but George and I are ready," Fred said. "We're through here."

"So what are you saying?" I asked him, raising an eyebrow.

Fred let out a breath of laughter. "Relax. Nothing's been planned yet. Nothing's even been discussed. I'm just talking off the top of my head. Trust me, if anything was planned, you'd be one of the first to know." He hesitated. "Anyway, my point was that Umbridge is not going to expel a group of, what, thirty kids? She can't."

"What did you mean when you said you were ready to leave?" Hermione asked. "How could you be ready? Where are you going to go? Where are you going to get the money to buy, open and run your own shop?"

The twins looked at each other as I shifted in my seat. I tried to fight back a smirk as I saw Harry doing the same.

"We've told you, Hermione," Fred said with a smile, "ask us no questions and we'll tell you no lies."

"If you did something illegal..." Hermione began.

The twins let out loud laughs. "No, Hermione," George said, "we didn't break the law. Mum would keel over and die on the spot if we did. Plus, on the chance that we were dumb enough to commit a crime and get caught, well, how could we run a joke shop from prison?"

"As flattering as we'd look in our prison jumpsuits, we'd prefer to stay on this side of the Azkaban walls," Fred added. "We can cause more innocent trouble that way." He grinned.

"You promise that if you do plan something, you'll tell me?" I asked, meeting his eyes. "You won't just...leave, will you?"

"What kind of person do you think I am?" Fred asked. "Of course I'd tell you. You're my girlfriend. I love you. I wouldn't do that to you. And I know you wouldn't go rat George and I out either. I don't think we'd plan for the whole school to know right away. No, we'll leave them with a couple of nice pranks to remember us by and then we'll disappear while they're too busy admiring our handiwork."

"You sound really sure of a plan for someone who just said nothing's been planned yet," I said with a raised eyebrow.

"It's not," Fred answered with a smile. "It's just that George and I had put a lot of thought into how we'd do this in the event that we did. Like I said, we did seriously consider not coming back and we also seriously considered leaving on a few occasions, but we did always have reasons to stay."

"And now?" I asked quietly.

Fred leaned over and kissed my temple. "There's still you. There's always you. Which is why you shouldn't get your knickers in a twist just yet, okay? Seriously, _nothing's been planned. _Nothing's definite. So calm down, okay?"

I nodded and leaned my head on his shoulder. "Okay," I whispered back.


	62. Chapter 62

I watched the flames of the common room fire work its way entirely around the crumpled paper that had just been tossed into them. The edges of the paper turned back and fell away as the fire disintegrated them to ashes.

The crumpled, burning paper was once the newest Educational Decree that had gone up on every common room notice board this morning, the day after the D.A. had been discovered. The Educational Decree stated that Umbridge had been made the new headmistress of Hogwarts after Dumbledore had left.

According to Harry, who had been brought up to Dumbledore's office after being caught, the headmaster had taken responsibility for the D.A., claiming that the group's name was _Dumbledore's _Army, after all, not _Potter_'s Army. Apparently, Umbridge had been quick to accuse Harry of putting it together. It was the truth, but Dumbledore wasn't having that. He took the blame and then disappeared.

As for who had tipped Umbridge off about the D.A., it had been Marietta Edgecombe, Cho's friend. Harry had informed us about it after he came back to the common room last night, but this morning, we had all seen what Hermione's little jinx had done to her. Boils covered a huge portion of her face, which was bad enough as it was, but then on top of that, the boils spelled out the word _sneak_. Part of me felt awful for her. Who knew what had driven her to tell Umbridge? But another part of me was just as upset with her as everyone else was. She had put an end to something that had been really, really beneficial for a lot of people in a lot of ways. I heard Cho wasn't even speaking to her anymore.

Umbridge also announced at breakfast that anyone whose name was written down on the D.A.'s signup sheet would report to a detention tonight in the great hall. A ripple of groans passed through the room. Obviously, no one wanted to go, but there was no way out. Dumbledore wasn't here, Umbridge was _headmistress_, and she had the signup sheet in her possession. If someone neglected to show up, she'd know and who knew what she'd do.

That's what I was thinking about as I watched the newest Educational Decree slowly burn away in the common room fire. This was a complete disaster, all because someone had been a tattletale. As much as I was trying to give Marietta the benefit of the doubt, it was hard. I had enjoyed the D.A. just as much as everyone else. I had learned so much and I had actually had a lot of fun doing it, which was how learning should be.

Later that night, the Gryffindor members of the D.A. met in the common room and solemnly walked down to the great hall together. Fred slipped his hand into mine and gave me a brief smile as we stepped out of the portrait hole. "Nervous?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Nah, unfortunately, I've done this before. I don't _want_ to go by any means, but at least I know what to expect. I just feel bad for all the younger kids, you know? Especially the ones who have never had a detention." I shook my head. "How can Umbridge sit there and watch all these _children_ writing in their own blood and just be okay with it?"

"She's insane, Lilah, that's why. I'd thought that much was obvious by now."

"It is," I sighed as we reached the great hall. The four tables had been pushed aside for the time being and there had been a group of desks arranged in the middle of the room. The desks were all evenly spaced apart and there were enough for each of us. On each desk was a piece of parchment and one of those awful quills.

"How does she even own so many of them?" Fred asked, shaking his head and scowling.

"Fudge probably sent them all to her happily," I replied. "Unlocked them from whatever secret, hidden room in the Ministry they were kept in just for her."

Fred snorted as we took seats at two desks next to each other. George sat on Fred's other side and Angelina sat at the empty desk to my left.

Once we were all seated, Umbridge stood up from her chair at the front of the room and smiled down at us. "Now that we're all here and seated, we can begin. You will be writing lines for me tonight. You will write _I must not break rules_. You will write it until I have felt the message has sunk in enough and I choose to dismiss you. And for those of you who do not know..." Her eyes swept the room as she smiled a bit wider, "you will not be needing any ink. You may begin." And with that, she sat back down in her chair and took a sip from the cup of tea on the table beside her.

Chewing slightly on my tongue, I picked up my quill and stared down at the parchment. Bracing myself for what was to come, I took a deep breath and began to write. Soon enough, the skin on my left hand was ripped open again and blood began slowly leaking out. The words on my parchment gleamed a red matching the color on my hand.

_I must not break rules_. I must have written it about a thousand times. Maybe more. Maybe less. Either way, it felt like I'd written it a thousand times. I lost track of time. I lost track of numbers. How long we'd been there. How many times I'd written that sentence. All I wanted was for it all to end.

And finally, it did. After an excruciating amount of time, Umbridge announced that we could leave. There was a mad scrambling for the door, but at the same time I couldn't help but notice how defeated everyone looked. As if Umbridge had won and broken them down. I hated the thought.

"You look like you're in deep thought," Fred commented as he fell into step beside me, staring down at his wounded hand.

"She's won, hasn't she?" I asked quietly, looking up at him.

Fred was quiet as he blinked at me. Then, he half-smiled. "No, of course not, Lie."

"How can you say that, Fred?" I asked stopping in the middle of the entrance hall. "Look at them." I gestured to the people passing us to head up the stairs or down a side staircase to the Hufflepuff common room. "Everyone's miserable and everyone has a nice scar on the back of their hands. She caught us. The D.A. is over. She took that away and she took Quidditch away from you, George and Harry. She's taking every bit of hope from everyone and she's giving you no reason to stay here at school." I paused and looked away. "You're going to leave now that the D.A.'s over, aren't you? You're going to make plans?"

Fred was quiet for a moment. "Lie..." he whispered, but it was enough to give me my answer.

I shook my head. "So on top of everything, she's driving you and George out of school. Away from your last year, which she ruined. You were supposed to be enjoying it. But instead..." I trailed off. "And she's driving you away from me. Maybe it's selfish to hate that, but it's how I feel."

"Lie, look at me," Fred said, gently placing a finger on my jaw and turning my head so I was looking at him. "Nothing can drive me away from you. Sure, maybe _if_ I leave, we'll be physically apart but it's not forever, okay? It's temporary. Besides, let's not get ahead of ourselves here. George and I haven't-"

"You may not have definite plans yet, but you're going to make them. How could you not? You're through here. You said it yourself. I'm not stupid, Fred. You're ready to be out on your own, as much as I wish you weren't for my own selfish reasons. But at the same time, I'm _so_ proud of you." I looked up at him sadly. "I'm just-it hurts, you know? But asking you to stay wouldn't be right. If you _did_ have any hesitations about leaving, they'd involve me, so I'm telling you now, I think you need to go. As much as I don't want you to go, I _do _want you to go. You need to."

Fred didn't answer. I saw him swallow as he processed what I'd said. And then he pulled me into a giant hug, tightly enveloping me in his arms. "Merlin, I love you so much," he whispered against the top of my head.

I felt my throat constrict. "I love you too," I whispered. "Promise you'll give me a date when you know?"

"I told you I would," Fred said, pulling away. His eyes roamed over my face. "You'll be the first to know. And probably the only, besides Lee."

"I can't be the _only_ person who knows if Lee knows too, Fred," I said with a smile.

"Okay, you'll be one of two people who know. Happy?" Fred chuckled, ruffling my hair.

"Thrilled," I replied, slipping my hand into his and leading the way up the stairs.

* * *

"I have news."

It was about a week later and I had just returned to the Gryffindor common room after being in the library. I'd been spending quite a bit of time in there lately, not just because of homework and studying, but because I'd also been trying to find out why Fred and I had the same Patronus. Hermione had even helped me research, considering she spent a lot of time in the library as well. She and I had almost become some sort of study buddies. We sat together frequently, sometimes in silence and sometimes quizzing each other. And when I had brought up the Patronuses, she had actually been very eager to help.

"We have news too," Fred said, gesturing to himself and George as I slid into the empty seat at their usual corner table in the common room. He looked up at me. "But you go first."

"I found out why our Patronuses were the same," I said.

"Yeah?" Fred asked, raising his head from where it had been propped up on his hand and looking at me in interest. "Why, then?"

I chewed on my lip as I smiled slightly. "Apparently, a Patronus can change when you're in love. It'll change to match the person you're in love with. But since you and had already fallen in love before we cast our Patronuses, they didn't have to _change_. They just automatically appeared the same."

Fred looked at me for a moment. "Seriously?"

"Seriously," I answered.

"So whose Patronus was the fox first?" Fred asked. "Whose Patronus changed to match the other?"

I shrugged. "No idea. We may never know. Maybe the Patronus of the person who fell in love first changes. But we can't answer that for sure in regards to ourselves, so..."

"I bet yours changed," Fred said with a smirk. "You totally fell in love with me first. I'll bet anything. And besides, foxes seem more..._me_. They're usually red in color, right? Like my hair. And they're sly. Like me."

I glared at him. "How can you be so sure that I fell in love with you first?"

"As I've _just _said, Lilah, foxes are more my kind of animal," Fred said. "And as _you_ said, the Patronus of the person who fell in love first changes to match the other one."

"That was a guess, Fred Weasley," I said stubbornly, crossing my arms. "And you're just guessing when you say the fox was originally your Patronus. How do you know yours wasn't a lemur originally, like George's?"

Fred looked at his brother and they both laughed. "Maybe because I'm not in love with George," Fred chuckled. "I love him, sure, but I'm not _in_ love with him. If a Patronus changed to match everyone we simply _loved_, wouldn't we all have a bunch of different Patronuses? How would that even _work_? Would a different one come out every time or would the one Patronus just flicker through each animal?"

"I don't know, I didn't research that far," I answered in exasperation. "Besides, that _isn't_ how it works, so there probably isn't an answer."

"Ah, well, it's all water under the bridge," Fred said casually. "Nothing worth getting worked up over, really."

"You wouldn't be saying that if it was the other way around," I said. "If it appeared as if _your _Patronus had changed, you'd be acting all disgusted to save face because you'd think being the first one to fall in love makes you weird and less manly or something, even though that's not the case at all."

Fred looked at me mock-interestedly. "Is that so?" he asked, his eyes wide with false enthusiasm as he nodded his head vaguely. "Please, tell me more about what I would think."

I scowled at him. "You're a jerk sometimes, you know that?"

Fred nodded. "Mhm. I'm aware."

I rolled my eyes and turned away. It was quiet for a moment before I peered back over at Fred. "What's your news?"

Fred met my eyes seriously before his gaze shifted downwards to his hands, where he was twirling a quill between his fingers. He raised his eyes to look at George before looking at me again. "George and I are leaving on the sixth of April."

I gaped at him. "That's a week from Saturday! And your birthday's on Monday!"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Fred asked with a smile.

"Nothing...I suppose it's a good thing that you'll be here for your birthday, but..." I shook my head. "What really matters is that the sixth of April is a week from Saturday. It's nine days away. That's not a lot of time."

"I know," Fred shrugged, "but we've made our decision. We've finally perfected another product we've been working on. It's one even you don't know about yet. So we're going to do one last impressive prank and then we're out."

I drew in a slow, deep breath before letting it out just as slowly as I pulled my legs up onto the chair and hugged my knees to my chest.

"Lie?" Fred asked, peering over at me.

I looked back at him and smiled. "I'm happy for you." I looked at George. "Both of you. And I mean, in three months, I'll be officially done with school and I can spend as much time with you as I want...just like normal, right? I just have to get through the, what, ten or eleven weeks that'll be left of school by the time you leave."

Fred and George both chuckled. "Yeah," Fred whispered. "But you can do it, Lie. And we'll write each other. It won't be that bad." He smiled. "I swear, girls make everything so much more dramatic than they need to be."

I shot him a look. "Just shut up, Fred," I sighed. "It's fine if you're not going to miss me. I didn't expect you to."

"Oh, come on, Lie, don't pull that," Fred groaned with a laugh as I tried not to smile. He reached over and took my hand, lacing his fingers through mine. "I _am_ going to miss you. Swear on my life."

I smiled sweetly at him. "How much will you miss me exactly?"

"Definitely not as much as you'll miss me, that's for sure," Fred answered seriously.

I groaned and leaned backwards in my chair, gently pulling my hand out of his grasp. "You're impossible!"

Fred laughed and stood up before leaning forward and resting his hands on the armrests of my chair so he was hovering over me. "I've heard," he said quietly, a smirk slowly appearing on his lips as his eyes wandered over my face.

I whined before lifting up one of my legs and poking him in the stomach with my foot. "Go away. I'm not falling victim to your stupid charms."

"That's all you've got?" Fred teased. "A tiny _poke_?" He grabbed my ankle and smiled wider.

"Fred, don't-" I warned. But he didn't listen. He began tickling my foot and I started to laugh wildly, my leg kicking out uncontrollably. But luckily for Fred, he had a strong grip and could prevent himself from getting kicked in the face. Finally, he stopped tickling me and I closed my eyes and rested my head on the back of the chair as I caught my breath. "You're awful," I whispered.

"I love you," Fred whispered. I opened my eyes to see him leaning forwards on the arms of the chair again, smiling softly at me. My heart stopped and my stomach melted.

"I love you too," I whispered back.

Fred leaned in and kissed me without another word. When I started to pull away, he shook his head slightly and let out a noise of protest before kissing me again.

"When your child is born, make me godfather!" George suddenly said loudly. "Honestly, it's the least you can do if you're going to be fornicating right in front of me."

I blushed and pulled away. Fred, however, wasn't having it. "Ignore him," he said quietly, gently taking my chin between his thumb and forefinger and kissing me again.

"Wow, I just can't believe that in nine months I'm going to be a godfather!" George exclaimed happily. "It's just so exciting." I could hear him pretending to get all choked up. "It's such an honor, really. Happiest moment of my life."

I peered around Fred's arm to see George pretending to wipe his eyes with a piece of parchment lying in front of him.

"Oi, keep your fake tears off of our invention sketches," Fred said.

"Well, I wouldn't have any fake tears to cry if you and Lilah weren't so bloody sweet. Godfather, wow, this is just too much!"

I couldn't help myself. I had to let out a laugh. "George, I'm not sure I've ever seen a more dramatic person in my life and that's saying something since I also happen to know your twin pretty well."

"Hey!" Fred objected, playfully tugging on a strand of my hair. "Be nice to me or I'll dump you."

"I think you like me too much to do that," I said with a devious smile. "In fact, did you or did you not just tell me you _loved _me?" I fluttered my eyelashes at him as I smiled wider.

Fred frowned. "I knew I should have never said it out loud," he sighed, collapsing back into his chair.

We were silent for a bit before I stuck my leg out and poked Fred's knee with my foot. When he looked up at me, I smiled faintly. "Thanks for telling me about you leaving, though."

He nodded. "Of course, Lie, like I said, you'd be one of the first and only to know about it."

"What an honor," I snorted, pulling my knees even tighter to my chest and resting my chin on them. "So you're not going to tell me what your last big prank is?"

Fred and George looked at me in horror as they shook their heads. "Of course not!" George exclaimed. "That would ruin everything! It has to be a surprise for everyone, so no special treatment for anybody."

"Can you give me a hint?" I pleaded, looking at Fred. "Please?" I made a pouting face at him.

"Don't give me that," Fred answered, shaking his head. "I know you're not one of those people."

"One of what people?"

"The pouting kind. So that's not going to work on me, Lie," he answered. "George is right. The prank is going to stay a secret until April sixth. So don't ask again if you know what's good for you." He smirked.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Fine. I guess I can wait." I sighed heavily.

"You're going to have to," Fred chuckled.

I retaliated by sticking my tongue out at him. And, being the completely mature person that he was, he responded by doing the same thing back to me.

* * *

We celebrated the twins' eighteenth birthday on Monday night in the kitchens. Me, Fred, George, Lee, Angelina, Katie and Alicia. The house elves brought us everything we wanted, and they even surprised the twins with a cake. I wondered at first how they had known today was their birthday, but then I remembered that the twins hadn't exactly been quiet about it when we had come down here over the weekend.

As everyone else started up with singing Happy Birthday, I slipped my hand into Fred's and rested my head on his shoulder, snuggling into him. I felt him kiss the top of my head. "What's wrong?"

"Just missing you already," I whispered back.

"Don't think about that tonight," Fred said. "Please? For my birthday? I don't want anyone to be upset on my birthday, especially you and especially for that reason. You know as well as I do that you're going to be just fine."

"I know I will be," I answered. "But, what, that means I'm not allowed to miss you?"

"No, of course not," Fred answered, kissing the top of my head again. "But still...don't think about any of that tonight. A request from the birthday boy."

I let out a breath of laughter and nodded. "Okay. Anything you want."

"That's what I like to hear," Fred chuckled as everyone else finished singing. And then he and George blew out their candles in one puff from each of them.

Later that night, I treated the twins to a late night Honeydukes run. I paid for whatever they wanted, just like Fred had done for me on my birthday. And then every day after that leading up to their departure, I tried to spend as much time with Fred as possible, even if we just sat beside each other in silence as I studied and he worked on inventions. I just wanted to be around him. Part of me expected him to tell me he needed to plan that big prank with George alone, since I wasn't supposed to know what it was and all, but he never did. I didn't know if they had already planned everything, or if they were doing it after they said they were going to bed, but either way, I was grateful that Fred never did leave my side when we were together. Maybe he wanted to spend as much time with me as possible too.

The afternoon of his departure, the two of us were at the entrance of one of the hidden passageways, hidden away behind the tapestry that covered it. It had been Fred's idea to come here. He had grabbed my hand and started walking. I had had no idea where we were going until he dragged me behind the tapestry. And then before I could say a word, he had backed me up against the wall and kissed me.

"Getting it all in now before you're deprived for a few months?" I teased with a breathless giggle, pulling away slightly.

"Shut up," Fred murmured, immediately going back in for another kiss. I smiled and wound my arms around his neck as he pushed himself closer to me. One of his hands slid upwards from my hip, traveling further and further up my side.

"You think it's wise to get this carried away?" I teased, pulling away again.

"Who said I'm getting carried away?" Fred asked. His eyes were still closed as he rested his forehead against mine. "I've hardly even done anything."

I grinned again. "You're well on your way there," I whispered, reaching up to put a hand on his cheek. "I don't know if it's because you're leaving, but you seem...different. Urgent, I guess. And if we get carried away right before you leave, well...that's not how I want it to go."

"You want flower petals and candles?" Fred chuckled, pulling away and opening his eyes.

"That's not what I said," I protested, rolling my eyes. We stared at each other in silence for a moment as I slid my hand down his cheek, gently rubbing my thumb over the corner of his mouth. "I'm really going to miss you," I said.

Fred swallowed. "I know," he said. "I'll miss you too. But it'll only be a few months until we see each other again. Really not that long."

I leaned up and kissed him again before pulling away slightly and going in for another one. "How much longer do you have?"

Fred glanced at his watch. "Approximately six and a half minutes," he answered.

I smirked. "Well then, let's make the most of them, shall we?" I asked, searching his face as I smirked wider.

"I thought you'd never ask," Fred answered with a grin before leaning in to kiss me again.

* * *

About thirty minutes later, I found myself running to the entrance hall in a complete panic. Ginny had burst into the common room not too long ago to inform us that Fred and George had done two things. One, they had let loose a bunch of their fireworks around the school. The ones that multiplied whenever someone tried to get rid of them. There was even one shaped like a dragon that had chased after Umbridge for a bit. And then, they had set off a portable swamp in one of the corridors. And finally, they had now finally been cornered in the entrance hall by Umbridge and the Inquisitorial Squad. And the news was traveling rapidly around the school, so I was certain that there'd be a growing crowd gathering.

Angelina, Katie and Alicia had all gaped at Ginny in shock while Lee and I looked at each other. We were the only two that had known Fred and George's plan and we knew they hadn't wanted to get caught by Umbridge at all and they hadn't wanted to leave in front of the whole school. And now Ange, Katie and Alicia knew about the prank, but they still didn't know the twins were planning on leaving. Ginny didn't know either. Or Ron for that matter. No one did, but they'd know soon. But they finding out about all of it wasn't what I was worried about. I was really worried about Umbridge. What would she do now that she had cornered the twins? Would she prevent them from leaving? _Could _she? And what would she do if she did stop them?

Angelina was the first to start heading to the portrait hole and the rest of us followed immediately. We were running as if our lives depended on it. By the time we got to the entrance hall, a fairly large crowd had already gathered. We had to push our way through to get to the front in order to see what was going on. We finally reached a point in the front just beside my brother, Hermione and Ron.

"You're all awfully out of breath," Ron commented. "Was it that exhausting squeezing through the crowd just to cross the room? I know it's a thick crowd, but-"

"What are you going on about, Ron?" Angelina sighed. "We all just ran here from the common room. Ginny came and told us about what Fred and George had done."

"Oh, I thought you were with Lilah," Ron answered.

"We were," Angelina answered slowly, as if he were dumb. I looked at him quizzically as well. I was confused to say the least.

"Well, Lilah wasn't in the common room," Julian said. Okay, now I was really confused. My brother was backing Ron up, which meant there were two people who seemed to be misinformed on the situation.

"Yes, I was," I answered. "What are you talking about, Jules?"

"We all just saw you standing across the great hall. A lot of people were headed downstairs to dinner and the twins were standing by the door already. You were coming from the kitchen hallway and running for them. But halfway there, you looked up and saw us-or maybe you had seen the Inquisitorial Squad. They were just behind us in the crowd but they'd already been sent here by Umbridge. She already knew the twins were on their way out. Anyway, once you saw them, I don't know, the crowd had started to gather-everyone had sensed something was going on-but it looked like you almost vanished. We just figured the crowd had swallowed you whole."

I gaped at him, starting to feel faint. This was officially it. I was more scared than ever. This was the third time someone had seen me do something I hadn't done. The third time someone had seen me in a place where I hadn't been. I turned to Angelina.

"Please tell them-and reassure me-that I was in the common room with you the whole time."

"She was," Angelina said. "I don't know what or who you saw, but it couldn't have been Lilah. Must've been someone who looked like her at first glance."

"What, you don't think I know my own sister?" Julian asked with a raised eyebrow. "It was her."

I swallowed thickly. I could feel everyone looking at me. I didn't know what to do. Julian and Ron just looked confused while Hermione was frowning almost thoughtfully as if she knew there had to be some logical explanation to this but had no idea what it was. She was probably planning to go to the library and research it, though.

Before I could think any more about it and before I could have any time to start panicking about it, my attention was turned back to the reason we were here. The twins were standing in the center of the semi-circle the crowd had created around them. They were looking a bit agitated, probably about the fact that they were conered, but they also looked defiant as if they knew they'd be getting out of here whether they had an audience or not. They were also looking at something-or most likely some_one_ standing at the bottom of the staircase. Someone I couldn't see but could guess was probably Umbridge.

"So!" Her high pitched voice rang out through the silent crowd, confirming my guess that she was standing there. "So...you think it amusing to turn a school corridor into a swamp, do you?"

A swamp? That's what they had done? They had turned an _entire corridor_ into a _swamp_? They were unbelievable. I wasn't surprised that's what they'd done, though. If I had been surprised, I would've been unable to feel the urge to laugh. I actually had to stifle it into my arm.

"Pretty amusing, yeah," Fred answered casually, looking back at Umbridge without the slightest sign of fear.

Suddenly, Filch elbowed his way down the stairs to Umbridge's side, looking like he was about to start crying with happiness. "I've got the form, Headmistress," he said, waving a piece of parchment that was gripped in his hand. "I've got the form and I've got the whips waiting!"

My mouth fell open. What was _that _supposed to mean?

"It's an approval form from the Minister to bring back the old punishments," a voice whispered from behind me. I turned to see Harry standing there. I stared at him with my mouth still agape, so he went on. "I snuck into Umbridge's office to use her fireplace. Fred and George's swamp not only was their one last prank, but it also served as a diversion." He hesitated. "Anyway, I heard Filch come get the form while I was under my cloak."

I didn't know what to say. I was in complete shock. As Angelina began pressing Harry for more information, I turned back to the scene in front of me, my heart banging around in my chest as my insides churned. Umbridge had the twins cornered and I didn't see how they had any way of escaping. Even if they ran out the front doors, they'd be caught within minutes. They'd be caught before they could reach the front gates and the point where it was safe to Apparate. And they didn't have any other means of transportation. And worse than that, when Umbridge caught them she was going to hang them in the dungeons and whip them. The words were sickening to even think about. It made me want to vomit.

"Very good, Argus," Umbridge said. She looked back at Fred and George. "You two," she said, gazing down at them, "are about to learn what happens to wrongdoers in my school."

The members of the Inquisitorial Squad, who were all looking as if they had front row seats to the greatest show on earth, smiled wider. A few of them pulled out their wands as they stepped towards the twins, ready to grab them.

"No!"

The word was out of my mouth before I could stop it and everyone in the room turned to look at me. My face instantly turned bright red. It was pretty unlike me to bring myself to the center of attention, but Umbridge had officially driven me to a breaking point. I forced myself to look at her and keep going. "You can't do that!"

"Ah, but see, I have the Minister's approval, Miss Fitzgerald," Umbridge said quietly. "I have it in writing." She gestured to the form in Filch's hand.

"I don't care! It's wrong! It's completely sick!" I said, feeling on the verge of tears. I was conscious of Angelina's hand on my arm, but I barely felt it. I knew if I turned I'd see her biting her lip, wishing I'd be quiet to stay out of trouble, but still feeling the same way I did.

"You'll hold your tongue if you know what's good for you, Miss Fitzgerald," Umbridge said. "Another word from you and you'll be joining your dear boyfriend and his twin in the dungeons."

At this point, my blood was boiling and I didn't care what I did or what consequences my actions or words had. I couldn't take it anymore. Maybe later I'd care, but right now, I just wanted to fight back. Blood was pounding in my ears. I felt my mouth opening again, but before I could speak, I heard my name.

"Lilah."

It was firm but gentle all at once. It was Fred's voice. I turned to look at him and instantly I felt my shoulders sag as my eyes filled up with tears. He was staring at me evenly, but his eyebrow was raised slightly in amusement.

"Shut up, okay?" he said. He looked back at Umbridge, his expression no longer even or calm, but full of contained rage. "You see, George and I actually aren't sticking around to see these punishments after all, contrary to what our new _headmistress_ thinks." He spat out the word 'headmistress'.

"What do you mean by that, Mr. Weasley?" Umbridge snapped.

Fred looked at his brother. "George," he said, "I think we've outgrown full time education."

"Yeah, I've been feeling that way myself," said George lightly.

"Time to test our talents in the real world, don't you think?" Fred continued.

"Definitely," George said.

And before Umbridge could say anything else, they raised their wands and at the same time, shouted, "Accio brooms!"

There was a loud crash from somewhere many floors above and suddenly Fred and George's broomsticks flew around the corner, one still trailing the chain and peg that had attached them to Umbridge's office wall. The brooms streaked down the stairs and stopped right in front of the twins.

"We won't be seeing you," Fred told Umbridge, swinging his leg over the broomstick.

"Yeah, don't bother to keep in touch," George added, mounting his own broom.

Fred's eyes swept the crowd. "If anyone fancies buying a Portable Swamp, as demonstrated upstairs, come to number ninety-three Diagon Alley-Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes," he said loudly. "Our new premises!"

"Special discounts to Hogwarts students who swear the're going to use our products to get rid of this old bat," added George, pointing at Umbridge.

"Stop them!" Umbridge shrieked, but it was too late. The Inquisitorial Squad hadn't taken more than two steps when Fred and George kicked off from the ground, shooting into the air. Fred looked across the room to Peeves, who was hovering in midair, level with the twins.

"Give her hell from us, Peeves."

Peeves grinned, swept his hat from his head and saluted the twins. I let out a watery laugh of disbelief. Fred and George might've been the first two people Peeves had taken an order from. Ever.

I turned back to the twins as they wheeled their brooms around. I was silently begging Fred to look at me. Part of me felt that if he did, I'd fall apart, but a bigger piece of me needed him to look at me. Just once more before he left.

And just then, he did. It was as if he had read my mind. His eyes met mine and I could feel him searching my face, even from a distance. There was so much I suddenly felt the need to tell him, from _good luck _to _don't leave_, from _I'm proud of you_ to _take me with you_. But I couldn't say them, I just had to hope he knew how I felt. And I think he did. He sent me a reassuring smile before winking and looking at George. They grinned at each other before speeding out of the open front doors into the approaching dusk.

* * *

**A/N: I know it's been ages since I've updated, but I basically got to a point when I was just super discouraged with this story and had kind of just hit a wall with it. But recently I came up with another story idea and decided to come back to this one to get myself back into practice with writing until I can fully work out the new story and start writing it. Plus I'd hate to leave this story unfinished, so we'll see how things go! Anyway, I hope everyone likes this new chapter!**


	63. Chapter 63

There was something seriously wrong with me. I hadn't been able to stop thinking that since Fred and George had left only a mere three hours ago. Since Ron and Julian had sworn to seeing me across the entrance hall when I knew I hadn't been there. Angelina had known it too and so had Ginny, Katie, Alicia and Lee, who had all backed up my story. I was confused and lost and scared. I would've thought it was just me going absolutely bonkers, but then wouldn't that make Ron, Julian, Hermione, Danny and the twins crazy too? They'd all seen me be somewhere where I had known I wasn't. Or maybe it was just me that was insane. Maybe I had done all those things and couldn't remember. But then what about Angelina and my other friends backing me up about being in the common room before the twins left? _They_ had seen me there for sure.

"Maybe you've been sleepwalking," Ron suggested one night as we all sat in front of the fire.

"That's silly and doesn't add up in the least," Angelina said. "She wasn't sleeping earlier when Ginny came in to tell us about the twins. And even if she was, she didn't leave our sight, first of all. Second of all, even if she did, she left the common room with us. There was no way she could've gone down to the kitchens, ran to the entrance hall, then disappeared and ran to the common room, only to run back down with us. Additionally, I don't think she was sleeping right before she rescued Danny. Quite the opposite, actually. She was trying to beat up some Slytherins. And she wasn't sleeping when she was trying to warn the twins about Flint and Umbridge finding the secret passageway either."

"She could've fallen asleep in the library beforehand," Ron said. "That's where she was, right? Studying? That would put anyone to sleep."

"I didn't fall asleep. I was awake and conscious of what I was doing," I said. "Plus, like Angelina said, it doesn't add up for the other situations."

"Do you think someone's pretending to be you?" Katie asked. "Maybe someone's been taking Polyjuice Potion to pose as you and save people!"

"Who would do that and why?" I asked, making a face. "That would be kind of...well, odd. Why me? And why use Polyjuice Potion at all? Why not just be themselves?"

"Anonymity," Katie answered. "They don't want people to know their real identity."

"So they help people as me instead?" I asked. "They let me get all the credit?"

"Maybe they don't mind," Katie argued.

"They'd still need my hair to make Polyjuice Potion," I said. "And no one's ripped out any of my hair lately. I'd certainly know."

"That's not the only way to get hair," Hermione objected. She hesitated as we all looked at her. "I'm not saying there aren't any holes in the Polyjuice Potion theory, but if someone did want to brew the potion, they wouldn't actually have to rip out someone's hair. You _could_, I suppose, but hair falls out naturally. Onto things, people, furniture, hairbrushes."

"So then someone could be stalking me, stealing hair from my hairbrush or off of my sweater," I snorted. "Not creepy at all."

"I highly doubt that's what's going on here," Hermione said. "Like you said, there wouldn't really be a point to someone posing as you to help people. It wouldn't make sense."

"Someone could be messing with you," Alicia said. "One of the Slytherins. They'd take great pleasure in making you go insane."

"But a Slytherin helping people?" Ron asked. "Come on."

"You'd be surprised. Not all Slytherins are Malfoys," Angelina pointed out. "But even the ones that are might go through great lengths to get a rise out of someone."

"Not lengths like this," I said. "Not brewing Polyjuice potion for a month and posing as me. That's entirely too much work. Besides, some of the Slytherins aren't even smart enough to brew that potion. _I'm _not even smart enough to brew that potion."

"You could still probably do it loads better than Montague," Alicia chirped supportively.

I rolled my eyes. "Thanks, Leesh." I was quiet for a moment. "Do you think I should tell someone else? McGonagall maybe? I mean, I can't tell Dumbledore since he's not even here..."

"What can McGonagall do?" Lee asked. "She'll probably be just as clueless as we all are or just think you're going nuts."

I sent him a glare.

"How do you know that?" Angelina asked. "She might know something."

"It just sounds to me like someone's playing games with you," Lee said. "It's not like you're sick or crazy or hallucinating."

"Again, how do you _know_?" Angelina sighed.

"The guy says I'm not crazy and you're asking him how he knows?" I teased. "It's obvious isn't it? I've always been the picture of sanity."

"Come on, Lie, of course you're sane," Angelina said gently. "It's just...none of us know what's going on. Maybe someone else can help you. Or at least help us get to the bottom of it. And if someone is playing games with you, McGonagall could stop them."

"Not if Umbridge just shuts her down," Ron muttered.

"Umbridge doesn't have to know," Alicia said.

"She'll find out," Ron answered. "She butts her way into _everything_."

His words were met with silence. The only sound was the crackling of the fire. "Well, we'll just have to hope she doesn't," Angelina finally answered.

* * *

By the next day, most of Fred and George's Portable Swamp had been removed. Only a small bit remained, right against the wall in the middle of the hallway. At first I wondered if Professor Flitwick had somehow missed a spot, but by lunchtime, the area had been roped off and I had to fight back a smirk. He had left it there on purpose, almost as some sort of tribute.

"Amazing work, really," Flitwick said during class that afternoon. "And all this time I thought they were tuning out every word their teachers were saying."

"Maybe not every word," Angelina muttered, "just the bits they didn't need. They retained what they wanted."

I nodded and fought back a smile. I would have to write to Fred later on and tell him about the bit of swamp left and about what Flitwick had said. I knew they'd be pleased.

In the days after their departure, the students of Hogwarts began to almost take on the prankster role the twins had left vacant in their absence. Lee snuck a niffler in through Umbridge's office window one morning and by the time she returned, her office had practically been overturned. She blamed Hagrid, but seeing as there wasn't any proof, she couldn't do anything.

Also, in almost every class, students were using at least one of Fred and George's Skiving Snackboxes in order to get out of class. Mostly, though, it was nearly everyone in the class doing it. No sooner would Umbridge walk into the room than the fevers, nosebleeds, vomiting and fainting would begin. It drove her up the wall. Eventually, she caught on to what was causing everyone's illness and tried to carry on with class. She also tried threatening with detentions if we didn't stop at once. But we usually just took the detentions.

"You still have a bit of blood under your nose," Alicia pointed out to me at lunch one day a week after Fred and George had left. We had just left our Defense Against the Dark Arts class where no work had been done, no matter how much Umbridge had tried to keep the class going.

I swiped at my nose with the back of my hand a few times, removing the dried blood. I sighed as I stared down at my plate. I had missed Fred and George desperately ever since they left. It had gotten a bit easier, but sometimes the feeling would come in waves, like now, after we'd just been using their products to drive Umbridge crazy, just as they'd wanted. "I miss them," I said, voicing my thoughts out loud.

"You're writing to them almost every day," Angelina said with a raised eyebrow.

"It's not the same and you know it," I told her. I paused. "You-you must know."

"Know what?" Angelina asked quietly.

"I mean-you were-you and Fred-" I stopped and cleared my throat. "Being with him is contagious. Being around both of them is like that, really, but Fred-I mean...I love him. In a different way than I love George, you know? And I just want to be with him _all_ _the time_." I groaned and buried my head in my hands. "Oh Merlin, I'm pathetic! I sound obsessed!"

Angelina actually laughed. "No, you sound like a person who's in love. I do know what you mean, by the way. Fred has this way of making you believe you can do or be whatever you want. If you're feeling quiet, he gets you to talk. If you're feeling down, he gets you to laugh. If you're feeling like the whole world's crashing down on you, he makes you believe you can climb out of the rubble, put everything back together and then come out on top."

I nodded. "Even if we've all been using their products to prank Umbridge, it's not the same. She's still making stupid decrees and she still sits in Dumbledore's chair at meals smiling smugly. I can only imagine what she looks like sitting in his office. At least with the twins here, they'd know just what to say and just how to take it all in stride. I don't feel as good at it without them here."

"Yeah, I know," Angelina sighed.

"You have to admit, though," Katie piped up from across from me, "it _was _pretty uplifting that Harry saw McGonagall whispering to Peeves the right way to unscrew one of the chandeliers. It's uplifting that the rest of the teachers are on our side."

I smiled. "You're right," I said. "I never would have thought I'd see the day where McGonagall doesn't stop Peeves from causing trouble, never mind actually encourage it."

As the days went on and the end of the year approached, I was more stressed than ever. I still hadn't brought up the issue of the strange double I seemingly had running around to McGonagall. I felt like I barely had time to breathe as it was with all the homework and studying I was doing. Plus, I was letting myself dwell too much on what Lee had said. What could she do? What if she just simply assumed I was losing my mind or was stressing myself out to the point I was seeing things? Even if my friends could back me up, that didn't mean McGonagall would believe me.

Besides all that, I had NEWTs coming up. I desperately wanted to pass every single one with flying colors so that I'd have lots of options when I decided I knew what I wanted to do with my life. Which was another thing making me nervous. I still had _no_ idea. Nothing seemed right. My stomach felt as if it were constantly in knots and I knew all this constant stress and worrying wasn't doing me any good, but I couldn't help it.

By the time the Hogsmeade trip in May came around, I was decided on not going. I couldn't afford to lose valuable study time. But my friends had other plans in mind.

"You need to get out of the castle," Katie insisted. "You're looking quite sickly. We're going to bring you to the Three Broomsticks and get some food in you."

"I eat," I said.

"Barely," Katie answered with a snort.

"The fresh air will do you good," Angelina added. She smiled. "Let's start down at the other end. Near the Shrieking Shack. And then we'll work our way back up."

"Why?" I asked curiously.

"A bit of change never hurt anyone," Angelina shrugged.

I rolled my eyes and followed my friends down towards the Shrieking Shack, trailing a bit behind and not really listening to their giggles or their conversation. I was lost in my own world. I missed Fred. I was worried about my exams. I was worried about becoming homeless once I left school. And I was starting to think I was going crazy on top of it all.

Suddenly, I caught a flash of something that I immediately noticed and registered even through my haze of thoughts somehow. But it was so quick that I thought perhaps I had imagined it. I thought I had seen a flash of red hair from around the corner of the Hog's Head. I blinked and shook my head. No, I was just thinking of Fred too much. There were quite a few other redheads around here, including two of Fred's siblings. Besides, he'd have no reason to be in Hogsmeade. He didn't even go to Hogwarts anymore, I reminded myself.

Just as I was turning away from the Hog's Head, a familiar face peered around the side of the building and this time I saw the red hair for sure. But I was more concerned with the fact that the person looking at me _was _Fred. My mouth dropped open and I froze.

"I wrote to him," Angelina said, doubling back a few feet to stand beside me. "I figured you needed him. You've been pretty miserable lately and a big part of it was due to the fact that you missed him. And, like we talked about, I know how he has a knack for making people feel better. So...I hoped he'd be able to get you back to normal. I don't like it much when you behave like such a sad sack."

I snorted and nudged her before turning to face her. "Thanks, Ange," I whispered, throwing my arms around her. "It means a lot."

Angelina grinned. "Have fun," she said quietly, pulling away and walking back up the way we had come with the others. And then I turned back to Fred, who was grinning at me from around the corner of the Hog's Head. He jerked his head in a gesture for me to join him before disappearing from sight.

Looking around to make sure no one was watching, I jogged around the corner and immediately flung myself into Fred's arms, burying my head in his shoulder and squeezing my eyes shut. "What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Angelina wrote me," Fred answered. "She said you were miserable."

"She told me, but...you actually came all the way out here? What about Umbridge? What about the shop? How're things going with that, by the way?"

"One thing at a time," Fred chuckled, pulling back and holding me at arm's length. He studied my face for a moment. "Of course I came all the way out here, Lie. Angelina kind of had me freaked out about you. And I couldn't care less about Umbridge. She's not my teacher anymore considering I ditched school for good."

"Yeah, but in that case you're not supposed to be here anymore," I said. "And I'm assuming you know that and that you do care a bit or else you wouldn't have hidden way over here behind the Hog's Head."

Fred rolled his eyes and let a puff of air out of his mouth. "I don't want her to catch me because then I couldn't talk to you in peace. Otherwise, I'd march back to the castle and give her a good punch in the nose. I still think she's an idiot and I still think she deserves it."

I smiled. "Where's George?" I asked.

"Back at the shop," Fred answered. "We've been busy trying to get it all set up for the grand opening. We've been able to bump it up a few months and now we're opening the second week of June." He beamed.

"What about all those discounts you offered before you left?" I asked. "For people who want to use your products to get rid of Umbridge? How can they buy any if you aren't open yet?"

"Owl order, Lie, where have you been?" Fred asked teasingly.

I nodded. "Well, we've all been using whatever we've managed to get from you before you left," I said. "Driving Umbridge batty, which might be the only good thing going for me right now."

Fred sighed. "Have you talked to McGonagall?"

I shook my head. "No. I've been busy and I'm sure she's busy as well. Besides, nothing else weird has happened lately. Maybe it's all stopped."

"Well, the school year's going to be over soon," Fred said. "So if you're going to tell her, you'd better do it soon."

I let out a huff and rolled my eyes as I crossed my arms.

"Come on, Lie, don't do this," Fred pleaded. "I'm trying to help you and you're acting like a sulky teenager."

"You're a teenager too, you know, not some old, wise know-it-all, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't chastise me. And you can be just as sulky, if not worse."

"Not the point, Lie," Fred said. "And there's no need to be lashing out at me. I know you're under a lot of stress, but you don't have to take it out on me." He crossed his own arms and looked down at me with a raised eyebrow.

I felt my shoulders slump as I let out a whine and leaned against the wall of the Hog's Head before sliding down to the ground and burying my head in arms as I pulled my knees to my chest. I wanted to make myself as small as possible.

A moment later, I felt Fred sit beside me. He didn't say anything, which I appreciated.

"I'm sorry," I finally whispered, without raising my head from my arms. "I'm lashing out at you for no reason." I turned my head so that I was looking at him. "The truth is that I've really missed you. It's been really hard with you gone. You always know how to make me feel better." I swallowed. "I need you and you're not here. But the reason you're not here is a good one. You're following your own dreams, which are more important. I can't hold you back."

"You're not holding me back," Fred said. He paused. "If I knew you were going to be this upset, maybe I wouldn't have left."

"Don't be stupid," I said. "You had to go. I'm being ridiculous. Honestly." I paused. "See, this is what I mean. I'm holding you back. Maybe we should just..." I trailed off and shrugged as I picked at a tiny hole in the knee of my jeans.

"Just what?" Fred scoffed. "Stop seeing each other?"

I shrugged again and refused to meet his eyes.

"Are you out of your damn mind?" Fred asked. "That's ridiculous! Lie, I _love_ you and from what I've gathered, you still feel the same way about me. Why should we break up if none of that's changed?" He hesitated. "It _hasn't_ changed, has it?"

I finally looked up at him and met his clear blue eyes. I half smiled. "No," I whispered. "It hasn't."

"Then stop talking nonsense," Fred whispered back, returning the tiny smile.

I sighed. "I know I'm acting like a child, but..."

"You're not acting like a child. You're just having a small breakdown." He smiled. "Happens to us all. And it's not surprising with all the pressure you've been putting on yourself." He shook his head. "I know why you want to get perfect marks on your exams, but from what I heard, you're working just as hard, if not harder than Hermione. I mean it, you've got to slow it down. You're making yourself crazy, Lilah, don't you see it?"

"Clearly," I sighed.

"I've been thinking," Fred said. "You know, about things you could do once you left school. And well...what about tutoring? You know, like the one you used to have? You mentioned you liked the idea of being a teacher, but you didn't like the idea of being at Hogwarts the whole year, which I understand. It would definitely be difficult to not be around me for a whole school year. I mean, you're clearly not handling it well now, so that's not a good indicator..."

I gave him a tiny shove as I smiled. "But Miss Sullivan used to tutor Julian and I in _everything. _Including math. Which I'm awful at."

"So pick a subject. Anything. Some families hire tutors just for a specific subject. There are families who teach their children most subjects on their own before Hogwarts, but hire a tutor for one or two. Families hire tutors for Squibs. Hell, you could even tutor Muggle children if you wanted. And some magical families will hire tutors during summers and holidays to work with their children on subjects they're not doing so great in at school. I'm sure if you're mother knew about that one, she would've tried to get one for you for Potions, huh?" He smirked and nudged me.

"How do _you_ know about it, then?" I asked curiously. "And how did you think of this idea before me or anyone else? I mean, it's never been one that was ever suggested to me in my career meetings with McGonagall, but it is obviously a job choice..."

"I may or may not have done some career research," Fred answered with a guilty smile.

"In the library?" I asked. "When?"

"Not the library," Fred asked. "Flourish and Blotts. Yesterday. I was just passing through, looking for a book that might help George and I with some products, and I kind of...stopped off in the career section."

I laughed and leaned over to kiss his cheek. "If I ever needed a reminder that you _do_ love me, this is it," I said. "You did research for me."

"Don't get too comfortable," Fred laughed. "This isn't going to happen all the time. In fact, my trip to the bookshop yesterday helped me meet my yearly quota for bookshop visits. One a year. That's it."

I sighed and rested my head against the Hog's Head wall as I looked at him.

"So what do you think?" Fred asked. "Of the tutor idea, I mean."

"I think it's a good one," I said. "I like it. I'm interested."

"But?" Fred prodded. "I feel one coming on."

"But..." I sighed, letting a puff of air out of my mouth as I looked away. "What will my mother say? I mean, it's not like I'm going to make it big as a tutor. I'm sure they don't even make as much as a regular professor."

"But they make enough to support themselves, don't they? I mean, from what you've said, it doesn't sound like Miss Sullivan was living in poverty."

"No, but I mean, I don't know what she made. And I couldn't _ask, _Fred."

"No, of course not," Fred laughed. "But she did fine. And so will you. If you want to do it, your mother needs to suck it up and let you be happy. You aren't even living with her anymore, so she shouldn't even get a say."

"She's still my mother. And she'll make sure she gets her two cents in no matter where I'm living or how long it's been since we've talked. I guess it's another thing I'll have to talk to McGonagall about. But if I can't muster up the courage to talk to her about my...double, then it'll just be a talk about my future."

"Either way you have to talk to her," Fred said, "so why not let it all out?"

"She might tell me I'm crazy," I said.

"Yeah, she might," Fred said with a smile as he nodded teasingly.

"Jerk," I muttered, rolling my eyes.

"At least go talk to her about being a tutor. If it's something you're interested in, you can start off doing that and you never know, something else may come up along the way. You certainly have the marks to do whatever you want. Unlike me."

"Yeah, but you've always known what you wanted and made sure you just got the marks you needed for it."

"And I'm lucky what I wanted to do is working out for me," Fred said. "But for a while, I didn't know if I'd be that lucky, remember? That was my breakdown."

"Breakdown?" I scoffed. "Please. You and George were as calm and put together as ever."

"You think I don't get nervous?" Fred asked. "You don't think I second guess myself? Ever? Not even for a split second?"

"Well...maybe a _split_ second. At the most," I said. "But never any longer."

Fred chuckled. "Alright, I'll give you that," he said. "But I'm human, Liles. Losing all my and George's savings to Bagman and not having any money to open our shop wasn't a good time. There were times when I wasn't sure what we'd do. But we never stopped trying. And then we got lucky when Harry gave us his Triwizard winnings. And here we are. We've done it. So you shouldn't give up either. Don't listen to anyone who says you can't do it. Because you can prove them wrong. Aren't George and I enough proof of that?"

I nodded. "I suppose you are," I whispered.

"And for the record, I'm missing you just as much as you're missing me," Fred went on. "Trust me, it's not easy on me being away from you. You keep me in check. You remind me I don't always have to be so blunt. Like on Valentine's Day when I snapped at Danny. I was an ass and you let me have it."

"You were way more blunt and rude than usual that day," I said.

"Yeah, well, I'm quite fond of you. So what?" Fred snorted.

"He's a kid, Fred," I laughed.

"I know, I kind of went a bit nuts," Fred laughed. "Jealousy is an evil emotion. But once I calmed down and once you had let me have it and said you were ashamed of me...that's when I asked myself what I could've been thinking."

"You didn't need me to realize that," I said. "You would've come to your senses eventually."

"Yeah, but you helped," he answered. "Anyway, my point is that we all have our moments Lie where we're afraid or unsure of the future. We all hate loss. But the trick is to keep picking yourself up."

"Rebuilding after a tornado," I whispered, remembering what my dad had talked to me about way back when he was being held in custody at the Ministry.

"Yeah, exactly," Fred smiled. He leaned over and kissed my cheek. "You'll be okay, Lie. Talk to McGonagall. It might help. You'll do fine on your exams. Keep writing to me and I'll be seeing you in person soon enough."

I looked up at him and nodded. "I'm going to be okay," I told myself.

"Keep repeating it until you believe it," Fred said, resting a hand on the side of my head and rubbing his thumb along the skin in front of my ear. "Okay?"

I nodded again. "I'm going to be okay," I said again.

"Good," Fred laughed, leaning in and giving me a quick kiss. "Two down, a million more to go."

* * *

As the end of the year drew nearer, I tried to take Fred's advice and repeatedly tell myself I was going to be okay. I managed to convince myself to talk to McGonagall about becoming a tutor once I left school. She seemed to like the idea as well and wished she had thought of it herself. She gave me a pamphlet about it and informed me that if I were truly interested, I'd have to go to the Ministry to apply and find placement.

That at least took one weight off my shoulders. And as for missing Fred so much, seeing him in Hogsmeade had helped. I still missed him of course, but it was a little more bearable now.

Now all I had to really worry about were exams. I was currently choosing to ignore the whole issue with my double and pretend it never happened. It _hadn't_ happened since the twins had left nearly two months ago. I was just going to hope that it was something due to high amounts of stress and once my NEWTs were over with, everything would stop. I didn't think it was necessary to tell a teacher to either A: be dismissed and told it was nothing, or B: actually be told I was insane and needed to undergo a multitude of odd tests to figure out what could possibly be wrong with me.

The night before exams, I actually let Angelina convince me to turn in early. I let her gently pry my Charms book from my hands and set it on the table. I listened to her when she said to get a good night's rest because it wouldn't do if I went into my exams on no sleep. She _did_ have a point, too. I couldn't focus on no sleep. So I went to bed and fell asleep immediately.

After that, the week of exams seemed to fly by. I was busy almost every day sitting for written exams and then performing the practical sessions, cramming in extra studying whenever I had a free moment.

Julian was busy as well, preparing for and taking his OWLs. According to him, Hermione was the only other Gryffindor he knew working herself just as hard, if not harder than me. But I had to disagree. From what I saw, Julian was studying just as much. Not that he really needed to. He'd do fine. He always did fine.

Halfway through exam week, Umbridge struck again. She officially tried to sack Hagrid and he ran for it. Umbridge had brought back up with her, though, and they tried to send Stunning spells at Hagrid, but hit Professor McGonagall instead, who had been running outside to try and put a stop to the commotion. She was currently in St. Mungo's and while the four spells at once had done a number on her, she was expected to be just fine.

Also during exam week, but far away from Hogwarts, Fred and George had the grand opening of their shop. They wrote and said they were really sorry they hadn't opened on a day when I was home and could have come, but they were ready to open and couldn't wait another day. I couldn't blame them, even though I was sorry I had missed it. But at least I could still look forward to visiting when I was home, even if it wouldn't be on opening day.

Finally, _finally,_ my last exam ended and I found myself walking out of the great hall with a cramped, shaking hand and a feeling like I had had yet another weight lifted from my shoulders.

"Well...we did it," Angelina said, turning to me with a wry smile once we had left the great hall. "We just finished our last Hogwarts exam." She beamed at me. "We're done, Lilah. We're _done_."

I grinned. "We're done," I repeated as my stomach flipped. We were done. I was done. Within a matter of a day or two, I would no longer be a Hogwarts student. The thought excited and saddened me all at once.

"How do you feel?" Ange asked as we started walking again, Katie, Alicia and Lee falling into step beside us.

"Pretty good," I said with a sigh. "A lot better than I did."

"Do you think you passed everything?" Katie asked.

I took in a deep breath before slowly letting it out. "Yeah, I think I did actually. What about you?"

"Not sure how I did in Potions and History of Magic," Lee said, "but the rest were no brainers."

"I'm actually _so _glad I didn't go on to NEWT level Potions," I sighed. "I can only imagine what a nightmare that would've been."

"You know what really would've been a nightmare?" Alicia asked. "Taking our Defense Against the Dark Arts exam without having started the D.A."

The rest of us groaned. "You're right," Angelina said. "That would've been a nightmare."

"I think it's pretty safe to say that if we pass, we owe it to Harry," Katie added.

I snorted. "We owe our success to a fifteen year old. What does that say about us?"

"It says that we're lucky enough to have never had firsthand experience with the Dark Arts like Harry has," Lee answered.

"True," I nodded.

The five of us celebrated the ending of exams by grabbing some food from the kitchens and bringing it outside to eat it by the lake. We sat there until the sun had just about set, just enjoying each other's company and some of the last moments at school.

"You know," I said thoughtfully as we headed back towards the castle's front doors, "maybe it wouldn't hurt to play one last parting prank on Umbridge."

Angelina groaned as Katie and Alicia shared unsure looks.

"I'm in," Lee said at once. "Come on, Ange, it would make Fred and George proud."

"I don't live to make them proud," Angelina snorted. "Besides, I have a pretty good record. I'm not going to ruin it on one of my last few days of school."

"What could Umbridge do if we got caught?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. "We're leaving in two days. For good."

"Don't put anything past her," Angelina warned. "You know what she's like."

I shrugged. "Okay, fine, Lee and I will plan something ourselves, then."

"Fine," Angelina retorted with a smile. "Go ahead."

Lee looked at me. "Fred and George left some of their fireworks behind with me. We could bring those out again. It took ages for them to go away last time."

I grinned. "Perfect. You go get them and I'll make sure she's in her office."

Lee saluted me before running off towards Gryffindor tower. I ran the other way, ignoring the fact that Angelina, Katie and Alicia were definitely rolling their eyes. I began running towards Umbridge's office, but skidded to a halt in front of it as my heart stopped and my smile sank right off my face. Umbridge herself was sitting right outside the door. She was dirty and disheveled and she actually looked terrified. I stopped a few feet away as I looked down at her, unsure of what to say or do. Finally, she looked up and met my eyes.

"Er...are you...all right?" I asked tentatively.

"Centaurs," she whispered. "Are they gone? Have they followed me? Do you think the one Dumbledore hired is rallying the others to come back for me?"

"Centaurs?" I asked, blinking. "Come back for you?"

"It's all that boy's fault. The boy and the girl. _They_ made the centaurs come after me. They let them take me away. They wouldn't help. They lied. They said they would show me the weapon."

"_Weapon_?" I asked urgently, my eyes widening.

"Dumbledore's weapon," Umbridge whispered, staring at the opposite wall. "In the forest."

I swallowed. Something was wrong. She sounded utterly delusional and traumatized by something. But what had happened? Was she telling the truth about the centaurs? Had they done something? And who was the boy and girl she had talked about?

"Lilah!"

I turned to see Danny running towards me, panting.

"Danny, what's wrong?" I asked, frowning at the urgent look on his face.

"I've been looking all over for you!" He cried as he reached me. "For half an hour at least."

"I was down by the lake," I said. "And then I was headed-" I broke off and shook my head. "Doesn't matter. What's going on?"

"My friends and I were taking a walk," he said breathlessly. "And we were walking along the edge of the forest. And all of a sudden...people flew out of the forest. Over the tops of the trees! And they weren't riding on anything! It was like they were floating! No brooms or anything!"

"Okay," I said slowly. "Um...what kind of people? Did you recognize them? Were they students? Or strangers?"

Danny looked at me hesitantly.

"Danny, what is it?" I asked patiently, getting down to his eye level.

"Ron Weasley was one of them. And his sister. I saw their red hair. And I'm guessing Harry and Hermione must have been two of the others. And there was a blonde girl and also another boy. And-and-"

"And who?" I asked, feeling my face pale. Could Julian have been one of them?

"Your brother," whispered Danny.

My brain was whizzing. I had no idea how to process this information. "What?"

"Yeah," Danny said, nodding. "I thought you should know. They flew away. Over the Forbidden Forest! I have no idea where they were going, but it looked like they were headed far away from Hogwarts."

I felt as if the wind had been knocked out of me. I was confused and scared. What did this mean? _Okay_, I thought. _From the beginning_. Umbridge had been in the forest. She had said a boy and a girl had promised to show her a weapon, but then had let the centaurs take her away. She _was_ covered in dirt, which made me think she was telling the truth. And now she was here, in front of her office, completely in shock about something. And in the meantime, Danny had seen Ron, Harry Hermione, my brother and two other people seemingly hovering in mid air before flying away from the castle. I blew a puff of air out of my mouth. I think I needed a teacher. Someone to help me piece this together.

I looked at Danny. "Do you think you can help me bring Umbridge to the hospital wing?" I asked. "I think she's connected to whatever was going on in the forest."

"What happened?" Danny asked, peering around me at Umbridge.

"Not sure. She said she was attacked by centaurs."

"Centaurs?" Umbridge cried fearfully, looking up at us before glancing around wildly. "Where?"

"Oh dear," I sighed.

"She needs help," Danny said, nodding his head matter-of-factly.

I snorted. "That's not new information."

Danny smiled. "I'll get one arm, you get the other."

Together, we heaved Umbridge to her feet. It was a bit easier for me than Danny since I was bigger, but that doesn't mean it was a walk in the park. Umbridge wasn't exactly being cooperative. She kept stopping as we led her down the hallway to look over her shoulder.

"Do you hear hoof beats?" she asked. "I heard a sound."

"Our shoes, perhaps?" Danny asked, trying to tug her arm forward.

"There are no centaurs in the castle, Professor," I said calmly, leading her in the direction of the hospital wing.

"Except Fir-" Danny began, but stopped short when I sent him a look. "Never mind," he muttered.

Finally, we managed to reach the hospital wing. I explained to Madame Pomfrey how I had discovered Umbridge, the odd state she was in, and how she seemed to be afraid the centaurs were still after her.

"But what happened to her in the forest, exactly?" Madame Pomfrey asked, helping Umbridge sit down on a bed. "How did she get there? Why was she there? Who were the boy and girl? What weapon?"

"I'm not sure," I said. "I'm not sure how much she's saying is true. She seems quite out of it."

Danny frowned. "But what about when I saw Harry Potter and-"

"Harry Potter!" Umbridge gasped, sitting up straight. "He let the centaurs take me! He wouldn't stop them! He's been communicating with Dumbledore! Building a weapon! And the others are in on it. All their friends. They told me it was in the forest, but they lied. There was no weapon. They took me there, but there was nothing. It's at the Ministry instead, this weapon."

"The Ministry?" Madame Pomfrey asked.

Umbridge nodded. "Another group of centaurs came after I'd been taken. They overhead Potter and his friends getting on the thestrals and asking to be taken to the Ministry."

"Thestrals?" I asked. That explained it. Thestrals could only be seen by people who had seen death. Otherwise they were invisible. That was why Danny thought Harry and the others were flying in midair. So it looked as if Umbridge wasn't totally bonkers yet. Bits of her story were matching up with Danny's. I still doubted there was any kind of weapon, but what did I know? What I _did_ know, however, was that my brother was off somewhere probably getting himself into danger and the only lead I had so far was the Ministry of Magic.

"He was trying to use my fireplace! Potter! To communicate with Dumbledore! It's the only one in the castle connected to the Floo Network, you know. _And_ it's always connected to Cornelius's office at the Ministry. It's one of the benefits of being Senior Undersecretary to the Minister! When he wanted updates, I was allowed to Floo _directly_ into his office!" She giggled gleefully. "I doubt anyone's ever been able to do that before!"

Madame Pomfrey looked at me. "Thank you for bringing her to me," she sighed. "I'm going to have to keep her here for a bit."

"Do you think she's-do you think she knows what she's saying?" I asked.

"I highly doubt it, dear," Madame Pomfrey said with a shake of her head. "She doesn't seem to be in her right mind."

I nodded as I thought over everything that had happened so far. It seemed as if I needed to make a choice. Go after my brother or stay here. I could alert a teacher, but what if they sided with Madame Pomfrey? Besides, who could I go to? Dumbledore was gone and McGonagall was in St. Mungo's. I doubted Snape would help. Even if he was a member of the Order, I doubted he'd believe me when I told him the story. He'd think I was wasting his time.

"Okay, thank you," I said, turning for the door.

"Thank _you_, dear," Madame Pomfrey said.

Danny followed me out into the hallway and stayed hot on my heels as I headed back for Umbridge's office.

"Where are you going?" he asked. "What are you going to do? I know what I saw! I saw everyone flying on-on-what did Umbridge say? Thestrals? What are thestrals?"

"Danny, I need you to go back to your common room and talk about this to no one, okay?" I said calmly, turning around to look at him.

"What?" he asked. "What are _you _going to do?"

"Doesn't matter. Please, just listen to me," I pleaded, putting my hands on his shoulders. "Go to your common room and say nothing."

"You're not going to go to the Ministry, are you?" Danny asked, his eyes going wide as saucers.

"I need to figure out what my brother's up to," I said. "And the rest of them, too, for that matter. If anything happens to any of them..." I sighed. "I don't know what's going on, but I need to figure it out."

"Well, why can't I come with you? Danny asked. "I could help."

I smiled. "I appreciate that, but no. I should go alone."

"You think I'll be useless, don't you?" Danny asked.

I sighed. "No, it's just that I don't want to drag someone else into this. If I'm wrong, if Umbridge really is delusional, if they're not at the Ministry...well, I could get into enough trouble as it is, but I'm not taking you down with me, okay? Please, just do as I say."

"You want me to sit here and do nothing, then?" Danny gave me a look of utter disbelief. "I'm part of this now, Lilah, whether you like it or not. I have been since I saw...well, whatever I saw. I can help you. I was part of the D.A., remember? I learned loads of defensive spells."

I fought back a smile. This kid was definitely brave, that was for sure. "Look, I know you're smart. You were brilliant in the D.A., but that's not what this is about. This isn't about how smart you are or how good of a wizard you are. I'm not dragging you into this even _more_ than you are now."

Danny actually pouted and crossed his arms. "I can't just sit here on my arse-" I gave him a look. "Sorry. I can't just sit here on my behind and twiddle my thumbs while you go off and do what you need to do."

"Fine, you want to help?" I asked, thinking quickly. "I need you to go find Lee Jordan. Do you know who he is? Fred and George's friend? I need you to go find him and tell him there's no need to set off the fireworks. Just tell him to call it off. Nothing more. Tell him I'll come find him when I get back. Please? It would be such a help. He's planning on setting a bunch of fireworks off to prank Umbridge, but we can't do that anymore. It honestly needs to be done. Someone has to do it."

Danny pursed his lips. "It's still busywork. A distraction. A way to get rid of me."

"Please, Danny," I whispered. "Do it. If I brought you with me and you got hurt, I'd never be able to forgive myself." I made a pouty face.

Danny scoffed, but he was smiling. "You're being overdramatic."

I smiled. "Seriously, Danny. I'd never let myself live it down if I put you in danger. Just do this for me, okay?"

Danny heaved a heavy sigh. "Fine, fine," he said. "Lee Jordan. Boy with the dreadlocks?"

I nodded. "That's the one."

As Danny headed off in the other direction, I ran back towards Umbridge's office. I let myself in and dashed for the fireplace, instantly locating the Floo Powder on the mantle. I grabbed a handful and hesitated, some of the powder falling through my fingers to the floor. I could be totally off. I was going out on a whim believing that everyone had gone to the Ministry of all places. But I had to figure out where my brother had gone and the Ministry was my only lead. Taking a deep breath and not allowing myself to dwell on it anymore, I threw down the Floo Powder, stepped into the fireplace and yelled, "The Ministry of Magic!"


	64. Chapter 64

I stepped out of the fireplace directly into the Minister's dark, silent office, just as Umbridge had said I would. That was a good sign. It meant she wasn't spewing nonsense. She was just kind of out of it and didn't seem to realize _what _she was saying.

I let myself out of the office and made my way through the Ministry at a jog. It was dark and quiet and my footsteps echoed on the tile floors. It was then that I started to feel nervous. This was a big place. If my brother was here, he could be anywhere. It could take ages to search the whole place, and it was entirely possible that I'd just be wasting my time. I let out a cry of frustration and aimed a kick at the wall beside me.

"You part of the Order?"

I looked up, and by the light of the moon shining through the hallway window, I could see that the opposite wall was lined with portraits of previous Ministry department heads. One of them, a woman, was looking at me, letting me know she had been the one to speak.

"Erm..." I began, unsure of what to say.

"It's been going around," the woman said. "The Order of the Phoenix was called in as backup to aid that group of kids that came in looking for You-Know-Who himself. I haven't seen him, but I saw one of his Death Eaters while I was visiting a friend's portrait downstairs." She hesitated. "Although, you don't look much older than seventeen yourself. A bit too young to be in the Order."

"Where did you say you saw the Death Eater?" I asked, ignoring her comment about being too young to be in the Order.

"Downstairs. In the Department of Mysteries," the woman said.

"Great. Thank you!" And with that I took off at a run for the lift. I pressed the button repeatedly, anxious for one to come get me. When it did, I clambered inside and pressed the button for the Department of Mysteries. A loud, clear, woman's voice announced my destination and then the lift began to move, bringing me downwards.

I was out of the lift before the door had even finished opening and running off down the hallway, my heart hammering in my chest. I had no idea why my brother and the others would be here. What was down here? And wasn't this the place where Mr. Weasley had been on guard duty the night he had been attacked? What was he guarding? It must have something to do with You-Know-Who. _Could _it possibly be a weapon? A weapon that You-Know-Who wanted to use to benefit himself? Or a weapon of Dumbledore's that You-Know-Who wanted to destroy like Umbridge had suggested? Either way, from what I'd gathered, my brother could be battling Death Eaters right now and I had to get to him. That knowledge somehow got me to run even faster. I could barely breathe, but I was flying, my legs carrying me faster than I'd ever run before.

I burst through a few doors until I was standing in a circular room with multiple doors. I swore and pulled out my wand, trying to decide what door to go through. I spun in a circle, trying to catch my breath. Suddenly, the door behind me swung shut and the room began to literally spin, making it impossible to tell which door was which. When it stopped, I let out a sigh as I fought back more panic and fear. Now I couldn't even find my way out. The only option, I supposed, was to pick a door and go through it and hope I stumbled on someone familiar.

I deliberated a second more before choosing a door across the room and heading for it. Just as I was nearly there, a door behind me crashed open. I gasped and spun around, a spell on the tip of my tongue. But I stopped myself just in time when I saw it Harry, Hermione and Neville.

"Lilah?" Harry asked in surprise when he saw me. "What are you doing here?"

"Harry, I don't think we have time," Hermione said, slamming the door they had just come through. "They're behind us."

"Who? The Death Eaters?" I asked.

"How did you-?" Harry began.

"No time!" Hermione cried, ushering Harry and Neville forward. "Through this door, come on," she said, opening the one I had been about to go through. We clambered through it and Hermione slammed it before locking it. Not even five seconds later, there was the pounding of bodies on the other side.

"They're in here!" cried a man's voice. "I saw it closing behind them!"

"What's going on?" I cried as we backed up away from the door. "Where's my brother? He came here with you, didn't he? And Ron and Ginny? And Luna?"

"How do you _know_ that?" Harry asked in alarm. "How are _you_ here?"

"Later," I answered quickly. "_Where is my brother_?"

"We don't-we don't know!" Hermione cried as the pounding on the other side of the door intensified. "We thought he, Ron, Ginny and Luna were ahead of us! But they weren't! There are so many rooms and doors in here..."

I swallowed and sunk down the wall to the floor. "_What_ is happening?" I asked.

Hermione opened her mouth to answer, but it sounded like the Death Eaters were seconds away from breaking into the room.

"Hide," Harry instructed.

I quickly searched the room around me and took cover under a desk just as the door finally smashed open and two men came into the room, searching it for us.

"They might've gone straight through to the hall," one of them said.

"Check under the desks," said the other.

I held my breath, listening to see if their footsteps were coming towards me. It didn't sound like they were, but suddenly I heard Harry's voice.

"Stupefy!" A jet of red light came from a desk to my left, sending one of the Death Eaters into a grandfather clock, knocking it over. The second Death Eater, was now pointing his wand at Hermione, who had crawled out from under her own desk to try and aim a spell at him.

"Avada-" the Death Eater began. But before he could finish, Harry came out of nowhere and grabbed the Death Eater around his knees, knocking him over. I squeaked and crawled out from under my own desk just as Neville crawled out from under his.

"Stupefy!" Neville yelled frantically, pointing his wand at the Death Eater. It sailed right over his shoulder and hit a glass cabinet on the other side of the room. It shattered, spraying the floor with glass. I dove out of the way as the shards flew over my head.

"Sorry, Lilah, sorry," Neville said, helping me up. Over his shoulder, I saw the Death Eater rounding on us now.

"Stupefy!" I cried. The spell hit him in the chest and knocked him backwards. He fell to the floor with a thud.

"Let's get out of-" Harry began breathlessly. But before he could finish, there was a shout, a crash and a scream from a nearby room. We all looked at each other in horror before we all moved at once into the next room. Hermione made to shut and lock the door, but before she could, two more Death Eaters had forced their way inside.

"Impedimenta!" they yelled.

I felt myself being flung backwards into the opposite wall, directly into a mirror. It shattered and glass rained over my body for the second time in ten minutes as I collapsed to the floor. I could feel blood trickling down from my temple as I tried to catch my breath. I heard the sound of falling books from another area of the room and figured that someone had been flung into a bookshelf.

"We've got him!" one of the Death Eaters finally yelled. I looked up groggily to see him pinning Harry to the wall a little ways down from me. "In an office of-"

"Silencio!" Hermione cried from the other side of the room, shutting the Death Eater up before he could finish.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Harry shouted. The Death Eater's legs and arms snapped together and he fell facedown onto the floor.

"Nice job," I commented. No sooner did the words escape my mouth than the Death Eater turned to Hermione and made a sudden slashing movement with his wand. A streak of purple light came from it and hit Hermione, who crumpled to the ground, motionless.

"Hermione!" Harry yelled as I let out a gasp of horror. Neville, Harry and I all ran to Hermione's aid, but I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my skull as the Death Eater grabbed my hair on the way by and yanked me backwards.

I screamed in pain as he pulled me against him and pressed his wand to my neck, his other hand still gripping my hair tightly. He removed his wand from my neck briefly and I could tell he was pulling off his mask. Then, his wand was back on my neck.

"Dolohov," Harry muttered with a sneer.

Dolohov? He had been the one to murder Fred and George's uncles. Anger and hatred rose inside of me and I tried to twist out of his grip, but he yanked my head back by my hair roughly to keep me still.

Neville crawled out from under a desk in front of us and held up his wand, but Dolohov swung out his foot and kicked Neville directly in the nose, snapping his wand in half and also breaking his nose. Neville whimpered and clutched his now bleeding face.

"Let me go, you bastard," I breathed, struggling even more.

I saw Dolohov move his wand arm, pointing it at a round, misty looking ball that I just noticed Harry was clutching. Then, he pointed the wand at Hermione, then at me. Clearly, he meant that if Harry didn't hand over that ball, I'd be ending up the same as Hermione.

"Oh, like you won't kill us all the moment I hand it over anyway," Harry snapped.

"Don't give it to him, Harry," Neville groaned from the floor. I saw Harry swallow.

"Don't Harry," I told him. I got the sense that whatever it was he was holding was important. I didn't know what it was or what it did, but I knew that the Death Eaters probably shouldn't have it. Harry must have had a good reason to come all the way here and get it. I trusted him and we weren't going to go through all of this trouble for nothing.

Harry was quiet for a moment, but before he could do anything, there was a crash from the room behind us. Dolohov looked over his shoulder and that gave Harry his chance.

"Petrificus Totalus!" he cried. I felt Dolohov stiffen and start to fall forward, directly onto me. I fell to my knees and crawled out of the way before he could fall on top of me.

"Thanks," I whispered, getting back to my feet and looking at Harry as I reached down to help Neville up as well.

Harry nodded before we all turned back to Hermione.

"Whaddid he do to her?" Neville asked, groping for Hermione's wrist. "She has a pulse, Harry."

"She's alive?"

Neville nodded.

"We should keep moving. Find the others," Harry said, swallowing.

"I'll carry Hermione," Neville offered, picking Hermione up and gently placing her over his shoulder.

The three of us headed back into the room surrounded by doors. "Where to?" I asked Harry.

Before he could decide, one of the doors opened and Ginny, Luna and Ron stumbled through. Quite literally, too. Ginny immediately sunk down the wall to the floor, clutching her ankle, while Ron, who looked kind of out of it, was being guided by Luna and my brother. I sighed in relief as I saw him. I began searching him for injuries and felt my heart skip a beat when I saw the giant gash stretching all the way from his shoulder to his wrist.

"What happened to you?" Harry asked in alarm.

"We could ask you the same-Lilah?" Julian's eyes went wide and his eyebrows came together in confusion when he saw me. "What are you doing here?"

"We've been wondering the same thing," Harry said. "There hasn't been time for her to explain."

"I-uh-" I sighed. "What happened to Umbridge?"

"Why?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I ran into her. Lee and I were going to pull one last prank on her and I almost tripped on her on my way upstairs. She was outside her office covered in dirt and she sounded really out of it. She said a boy and a girl were supposed to take her to a weapon and then let the centaurs take her away. And then Danny found me and said he had been outside when he saw a group of people flying seemingly on absolutely nothing. He recognized Ron and Ginny's hair and he also saw my brother. So naturally I had to come see what this was all about. A portrait upstairs told me Death Eaters were here. What's this weapon? Were you really communicating with Dumbledore?"

Harry sighed and held up the round ball in his hand. "This is the weapon, allegedly."

"Ah," I said. "Not following."

"I was trying to use Umbridge's fireplace. I had a-a-type of vision, I suppose, during my last exam. Kind of like what happened when Mr. Weasley was attacked. I saw Voldemort torturing Sirius. So I wanted to use Umbridge's fire to make sure Sirius was at home. It's the only fire connected to the Floo. And when I checked Kreacher said Sirius was here. That was all the proof I needed and the others insisted on coming with me. I told them not to, but you know how it goes." He rolled his eyes. They wanted to be here for the same reason you did. Protection, backup...help. We're all in the D.A. together, that sort of thing. Anyway, we used thestrals to fly here and then I found out You-Know-Who planted the image in my head so that I would come here and get this." He held up the ball.

"And what's it do?" I asked.

"It's a prophecy," he said. "About me."

"Okay," I said slowly. "What's it say?"

"Dunno. And neither does You-Know-Who. But he wants to know and only the person who the prophecy is about can touch it. Which is why he needed me."

"Brilliant," I sighed. "But you never explained what exactly happened to Umbridge."

"She caught me using the fireplace. Had the Inquisitorial Squad hold us captive in her office while she tried to weasel information out of me about Dumbledore's whereabouts. She did think I was trying to talk to him. So we let her believe it. Hermione and I said we'd lead her to his weapon in the forest that we were trying to finish for him. There isn't one but we were just trying to get rid of her. And we did. She angered the centaurs and they carried her off."

"Merlin," I sighed. "Well, she's in the hospital wing. And quite...loopy. She kept freaking out over every noise and was convinced the centaurs were after her."

Just then, one of the doors behind us crashed open and another group of Death Eaters burst through. At the front was Bellatrix Lestrange. I recognized her immediately.

"Get them!" she shouted.

"Shit," I muttered, blasting a spell over my shoulder as we all ran through the first door we spotted, Luna helping Ginny as Julian guided Ron. Bellatrix deflected my spell as she chased us. We only managed to just close the door in her face. Hermione locked it and we could hear pounding as the Death Eaters tried to get inside.

"Okay," I panted, looking at my brother, Ron, Ginny and Luna. "Spill. What happened?"

"Bad time, don't you think?" Julian asked.

"Spill!" I demanded.

"We went into a room full of planets," Luna said. "We were all floating like we were in space."

"Hey," Ron suddenly said, tugging on Harry's sleeve. "Hey, Harry. We saw Uranus up close! Get it? Uranus!"

"Lovely," I sighed.

"One of the Death Eaters grabbed Ginny's ankle," Luna said. "And as for Ron, I don't know what they hit him with. But he's gone a bit funny. I could hardly get him along at all."

I sighed again and looked at my brother. "What about you? Your arm."

"When they were chasing us early on, back in the prophecy room, a corner of one of the shelves got me," Julian said. He stared at me. "You shouldn't have come. We're just fine on our own."

"Clearly," I snorted.

"We're not dead, are we?" Julian retaliated.

"Yet," I snapped, glaring at him.

"And as if you could prevent that?"

I shot him a look. "I can help, Jules. I'm not _completely_ useless."

"You're not-that's not what I meant," Julian sighed, his expression softening.

"Either way, we've got to move before they find their way in here," Harry said. "There are other ways in, with all these doors...Come on." He led us through a few more doors until we were in a room that contained a few tables. They were empty except for the one in the middle. That one held a tank that looked as if it were filled with brains.

"This room again," Harry muttered. Then, louder, "Come on let's seal the other doors."

There were a bunch of other doors branching off of the room and while Ginny sat to rest her ankle and Ron stared into space, Neville set Hermione down and began to help Luna, Julian Harry and I seal off the doors.

Luna and I headed for the last door at the same time. "Got it," Luna panted. "_Collopor-aaghhh!" _The door flew open and about five Death Eaters surged into the room. Luna hit a desk, slid over its surface and onto the floor on the other side, where she lay unmoving.

"No!" I cried.

"Get Potter!" Bellatrix Lestrange was yelling, running at him. He dodged her and sprinted back to the other side of the room as I ran for Luna, gently pulling her head onto my lap and checking her over.

"Hey!" said Ron, who had staggered to his feet and was now tottering drunkenly toward Harry, giggling. "Hey, Harry, there are brains in here. Ha, ha, ha. Isn't that weird, Harry?"

"Ron, get out of the way, get down!"

But Ron had already pointed his wand at the tank.

"Honest, Harry, they're brains-look-Accio Brain!"

The scene seemed momentarily frozen. We all watched, frozen and unable to cross the room in time as a brain burst out of the tank, long tentacles streaming from underneath it. It seemed to still in midair for a moment, but then it began soaring towards Ron.

"Ha, ha, ha, look at it!" Ron said. "Come and touch it, I bet it's weird."

"Ron, no!" Harry and Julian yelled. But it was too late.

The moment the tentacles touched Ron's skin, they began wrapping themselves around his arms like ropes.

"No, no, I don't like it, no, stop," Ron said, panic working his way into his voice. "Stop, stop, stop!"

The tentacles were making their way up around his chest now, tightening as they went.

"Harry, it'll suffocate him!" Ginny cried. Her voice, loud in the otherwise quiet room, seemed to shock the Death Eaters out of their daze. One of them shot a Stunning spell at Ginny. It hit her and she fell over.

I swore and jumped to my feet. Neville, Julian and I were all shooting spells at the Death Eaters now. Neville wasn't having much luck, though. His broken nose affected his speech, making the spells come out funny, crooked, badly aimed, or not at all. He was also using Hermione's wand since his had been snapped in half by the Death Eater's foot on its journey to his face.

One of the Death Eaters sent a Stunner back at Neville. It missed him by inches. In return, I shot a spell back at whatever Death Eater it was-I couldn't tell because of the mask.

I noticed Harry running out of the room just then, the prophecy held high above his head. The Death Eaters began to follow him and I knew that was his intention-to lead them away from Neville, Julian and me.

"Come on," Neville said, darting after Harry, "we're not leaving him to fight them alone!"

"Who's going to help Ron?" I asked, glancing back at him.

"The brains seemed to have stop moving," Julian observed. "I think he'll be okay for now. He still looks a bit dazed." He grabbed my sleeve. "Come on, Lie. We'll be back soon to help him and get Ginny and Luna."

"But-"

"I know. I want to help them too. But I think we should help Harry right now. That's most important for the time being. Besides, I'm not letting you stay here. I'm not letting you out of my sight and I doubt you want me out of yours."

I sent him a look. "You do have a point."

I followed him into the next room. The first thing I saw was the giant veil in the center, raised up on some sort of stone platform. On the outskirts of the room there were lots of stone steps, leading downwards into the room. Julian immediately started scurrying down the steps while I stood open mouthed where I was. Harry was standing near the veil, cornered by Lucius Malfoy, who was demanding the prophecy.

"Don't give it to them, Harry!" Neville yelled. "Don't do it!" He scrambled the rest of the way down the stairs and began running towards the middle of the room, throwing Stunning spells at the Death Eaters. Once again, they didn't work all that well. One of the Death Eaters grabbed him from behind, pinning his arms to his sides. He struggled and kicked. Several of the Death Eaters laughed.

"Leave him alone!" Julian cried, running for Neville. I chased after him, knowing he was essentially running straight into danger.

Just as I thought, one of the other Death Eaters grabbed ahold of my brother and started dragging him over towards Neville and Harry.

"Stupefy!" I cried, aiming my wand at the one holding my brother. He ducked out of the way and shot a spell over his shoulder at me. I ducked and it narrowly missed my head.

"Don't give him that prophecy Harry," I ordered as some of the other Death Eaters started closing in on me, their wands held up. Every time I tried to shoot a spell at them, they deflected it. They were too fast and also too prepared for me to try and stun them. And also there were more of them than me.

"Give it up, princess," one of them said, marching forward, grabbing my wrists and wrenching them behind my back. I winced as he pushed me forward to join the others.

Lucius Malfoy smiled-an unsettlingly serene smile-as he looked the three of us over. "Lilah and Julian Fitzgerald, yes?" he asked. "I've heard about you from Draco, of course, but Lilah was all over the papers the Christmas before last. She was quite the celebrity, wasn't she?"

"Shut up!" Julian practically roared.

Malfoy chuckled before turning to Neville. "It's Longbottom, isn't it?" He sneered. "Well, your grandmother is used to losing family members to our cause. Your death will not come as a great shock."

"Longbottom?" repeated Bellatrix as an evil smile lit up her face. "Why, I've had the pleasure of meeting your parents, boy."

"I know you have!" Neville yelled.

Bellatrix smirked. "Instead of killing him, Lucius, why don't we see how long he lasts before he cracks like his parents...Unless Potter wants to give us the prophecy."

"Don't give it to them!" Neville shouted, who was now beside himself, kicking and thrashing around as Bellatrix came closer, her wand raised.

"Crucio!" she yelled.

Neville began screaming, his legs drawn up to his chest so that the Death Eater holding him was momentarily holding him off the ground. The Death Eater dropped him and he fell to the floor, twitching and screaming in agony.

"Leave him alone! Stop it!" I screamed, angry tears coming to my eyes and sliding down my face.

"Aw, she's cwying," Bellatrix said in a baby voice as she made a mock sad face at me. She lifted the spell from Neville and pointed her wand at me. "If _watching_ someone else gets tortured makes you this upset, I can't wait to see what it'll be like for you to actually _be_ tortured." She grinned evilly. "Crucio!"

The pain was like nothing I'd ever felt before. It was like hot knives being stabbed through every inch of my body. I was shrieking and writhing around in the hold of the Death Eater behind me. He wouldn't loosen his grip and my frantic movements made it feel like my arms would either break or pop out of their sockets any moment.

Bellatrix laughed and finally lifted the spell. I could barely stand. I felt exhausted and weak. I let out a whimper and sunk to my knees. The Death Eater behind me kept a firm hold on my wrists the whole time, bending over slightly so he could hang on.

"You're insane!" I could hear Julian shouting. I'd never heard him shout like that in my entire life. "You're completely sick! How dare you-"

His words were cut off by the sound of his own screams as Bellatrix performed the curse on him. I couldn't even find the energy to protest, but anger was bubbling up inside of me like hot lava. I swear, if I got the chance I was going to make Bellatrix Lestrange regret messing with any of us.

"Now, Potter," Bellatrix finally said, once she had stopped torturing my brother. "Either give us the prophecy or watch your friends die the hard way."

"No, Harry, don't!" I said. "We came all this way..." But Harry was already holding his hand out to Malfoy, ready to pass the small misty looking ball to him.

Just then one of the doors at the top of the room burst open and a group of people sprinted into the room. Sirius, Lupin, Moody, Tonks and Kingsley. The painting upstairs had said the Order had been alerted, but it seemed as if they'd taken an awfully long time to get here.

Stunning spells started flying through the air and I was quickly released from the Death Eater's grip. I pushed myself to my feet and held my wand up, searching for anyone I could potentially Stun. But before I could do that, Harry appeared at my side and grabbed my arm. "Take Neville and Julian and go," he said. "Go back to where the others are. Get them out of here. Get them back to school."

"Are you completely out of your mind?" I shrieked. "Absolutely not!"

"The Order's here now," Harry said. "It's fine."

"No, you'll still need all the help you can get," I argued. "I'm not leaving and I'm sure Neville and Julian feel the same way."

A spell hit the floor at our feet and we both jumped out of the way and ran, unable to afford standing in one spot anymore. I saw Neville across the room, being cornered by a Death Eater that still had his mask on. "Stupefy!" I cried. The spell hit him in the back and he fell forward. Neville darted out of the way just in time.

"Thanks," he said breathlessly.

"Don't mention it." I turned and found myself face to face with another Death Eater, who instantly shot a spell at me. I dodged it and fired one back that he also expertly dodged. We went at it for a bit longer until I finally managed to Stun him. When I spun around again, I happened to see my brother dueling Dolohov.

It happened almost in slow motion. I was running before I saw his lips mouthing the words of some jinx, but it was like I didn't even hear him say them. I was too busy focusing on getting to Julian. I reached Julian and wrapped my arms around him, shielding his body as I tried to pull us both out of the way. There was a flash of bright white light. And then I felt the pain. An intense pain around the left side of my abdomen. I was bleeding. I could feel it. I was also losing consciousness. My ears were ringing. Everything sounded far away. I sunk to my knees. There were still people running everywhere, still spells going off. I was going to get hit again in the middle of all this. And then I felt someone catch me behind my shoulders and gently start dragging me backwards, out of the way, towards the stairs. They laid me on my back and I blinked heavily. I felt whoever it was start trying to stop the blood flow and cover the wound on my stomach. I had no idea how bad it was-I hadn't even seen it. But it had to have been bad. I could barely keep my eyes open anymore. I blinked slowly a few more times and tried to tilt my head back to see who was helping me. My ears were still ringing. My vision was foggy. The last thing I saw before I went unconscious was a face that looked, in my bleary vision at least, exactly like...me.


	65. Chapter 65

**FRED**

His ears were ringing. His vision was spotted. He had sunk to his knees. His stomach hurt. He wasn't injured, but he might as well have been. It might as well have been the end of the world-it certainly felt like the end of _his _world.

"Fred? Fred, come on, come to the couch."

Two pairs of arms lifted him upwards and half carried, half dragged him to the couch. He stared straight ahead, feeling both a numbness and a heaviness over his whole body.

_Lilah, battle at the Ministry, Death Eaters, You-Know-Who, spell, blood loss, critical condition, St. Mungo's. _The words that had stuck out to him the most were spinning around in his head. He had to go there. Go to St. Mungo's. But he couldn't move. His limbs felt too heavy. Too weak. If he stood up, his legs would surely shake and give out.

"I have-I have to go," he finally whispered hoarsely, gazing up at both George and his father as he blinked dazedly. "I need to see her."

"I know," his dad whispered, sitting on the coffee table across from him. "We're all going to go. Your mother's meeting us at the hospital with Bill. He's coming too."

"What about Ron and Ginny?" George asked.

"They're back at school. They were sent back after the battle since their injuries weren't this...serious. Madame Pomfrey put them right, but your mother thinks they should stay put."

"Can't they come?" George asked. "They must want to. Besides, school's over for the most part. Exams are over. The train would be leaving in two days anyway."

"I don't know if we'll even be allowed to _see_ Lilah," Mr. Weasley continued. "She lost a lot of blood and still was losing blood when I was notified about the whole thing. From what I understand, someone took off her jacket and used it to try to cover up the wound and staunch the blood, but no one knows who. Everyone who was there denies it. But whoever did it-it's possible that it helped. They could have saved her life. But we won't know until later. As of right now, she's headed into the intensive care ward at St. Mungo's. They're going to have to do some damage control obviously. We might not be able to see her for a while, if at all."

"Like hell," Fred suddenly growled, furiously getting to his feet, his strength returning full force. "I'm seeing her if I have to break down those damn doors." His flat suddenly felt uncomfortable for the first time since he'd moved in. It felt too small and too cramped, as if the walls were closing in on him. He needed to get out. Now.

"Fred, calm down," his dad ordered, standing up.

"Are we going to leave now or what?" Fred practically snapped. "Because I can't sit here and waste time while Lilah might be dying. I need to do _something._"

His dad and George shared a look before his dad swallowed and looked back at him. "Yes, alright, let's go."

"Do you want to Apparate together?" George asked quietly, reaching out for Fred's wrist. "I know how upset you must be and-"

"I'm fine, I can do it," Fred answered quickly, shaking his brother off and gripping his wand tighter. He took a slow, deep breath and closed his eyes before Apparating to the alley near the hospital. He was already halfway to the fake shop window that served as the hospital's entrance before he heard George and his father Apparate into the alley.

He urgently demanded entrance to the hospital, pressing his face and hands against the decoy shop window, not caring how loud he was, not caring if people heard and thought he was insane. Let them. The second he was able to, he charged into the hospital's lobby and made a beeline for the lift, ignoring the receptionist completely. He already knew where Lilah was, so what was the use in asking?

He repeatedly jammed his finger into the call button for the lift and when it came, he squeezed his way in before the doors could even open properly and began furiously pressing the button for the correct floor. His dad and George caught up to him just as the lift doors were closing again.

"Merlin, you can move fast when you want to," George said breathlessly.

Fred shot him a glare and George fell silent.

"I'm scared, too, Fred," he whispered. "Trust me. I'm just...trying to stay calm. Because I know you're not."

Fred looked at his brother and nodded once before setting his jaw and staring upwards as the lift dinged while it passed each floor. One more floor to go. When the lift opened, Fred pushed his way out and into the hallway.

"Fred, wait," his dad pleaded, cutting him off and grabbing his arm.

"Let go," Fred ordered.

"I just want you to be prepared," his dad said softly. "I don't know much about what happened. There's a lot of factors that could come into play when trying to assess whether Lilah will live or die and I don't know what's going on. I don't know all the details. If she makes it through, she's going to need lots of rest and-"

"When she makes it through," Fred interrupted fiercely. "Not _if_." He stared at his father hotly, his jaw set. His dad looked back at him wearily. He looked exhausted.

"Fred, do you even know what the spell was that Lilah was hit with?" he sighed.

"No and I don't particularly care. I just need to try and see her. Come on, let me go." He tried to pull away, but his dad wouldn't let him.

"It was one that the Death Eaters used to use quite often many years ago, during the first wizarding war. It mimics a wound somewhere in between a Muggle knife wound and a gunshot wound. Not as bad as a gunshot, but a bit worse than a knife."

"What's the point of that?" George asked, his eyebrows coming together in confusion as he crossed his arms. "We have the killing curse that's designed to kill instantly every time. Well, except for Harry's case. Why use a spell that can cause a slow death and not every time? If they missed a vital organ there's a chance the victim could live."

"Well, in the chance that they didn't miss, they would get some kind of sick pleasure from watching the slow, painful death. But the good news-at least pertaining to Lilah's case-is that those victims usually didn't have people-including Order members-right nearby. That's usually why they died. They weren't rushed to the hospital right away. Usually, they just lost a lot of blood. Some took injuries to the head or heart, sure, but others simply bled to death. If Dumbledore hadn't sent Lilah off to St. Mungo's the second he walked in that door and saw it happen, her chances would've been worse. And if someone hadn't wrapped her jacket around her to try and stop the blood, she would've been a lot worse as well. No vital organs were hit. It helps that there wasn't an actual bullet. But her heart wasn't damaged or her brain. That we know for sure. I personally think she'll pull through, but I'm no Healer, and like I said, I don't know _all_ the details, which is why I'm trying to prepare you."

Fred swallowed and crossed his own arms so no one would see how his hands were shaking. "She's going to make it," he said. And with that, he pulled away and marched down the hallway. He took a left and headed for the end of that hallway, where there were open double doors to a waiting room. Beyond the waiting room was the intensive care ward and operating rooms. As a kid, he had always wondered why a magical hospital needed operating rooms. The Healers could just wave their wands and it was all better, right? Wrong. They were needed for cases like this, when Lilah's insides needed to be checked and assessed and fixed before the essential hole in her abdomen could be closed. The good news, like his dad had said was that she was discovered and sent here quickly, in time for them to work on her. The bad news was that Fred didn't know how serious the injury was or how much blood she had lost despite the help she had received. With every step towards that waiting room at the end of the hall, he seemed to move faster and faster until he wasn't walking but running, and then not running, but almost flying. He breezed into the waiting room without a glance around. He was determined and his mind was set on getting to Lilah. That's all he wanted

"Fred!"

He skidded to a halt at his mother's shrill voice, his hand poised above the handle to the intensive care door. He turned to see his mother standing in front of one of the waiting room couches. An ugly peachy color. He never knew how much he could hate peach. He'd certainly hate it for the rest of his life now. Bill was still sitting on that ugly peach couch, next to the spot Mrs. Weasley had vacated by standing up.

Fred met his mother's eyes, expecting her to berate him for trying to barge into the intensive care ward. But instead, she was looking at him with such a soft, sad look that Fred felt tired, numb and weak all over again.

He felt like a child again. A child that needed consolation. He had spent so long trying to prepare himself for adulthood. He and George had bought their own place. They lived on their own now and worked like real adults. They were proud. They were doing extraordinarily well. Their Mum had expressed a shocked kind of pride when the successful opening day of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes was featured in the newspaper. She hadn't come to see the shop yet, but she was proud and very surprised. It felt good. He and George had spent so long trying to prove to her they could be on their own and that she was wrong about them and now here he was wanting to run back to her for comfort.

"Mum," he croaked as his dad and George finally caught up to him, jogging into the waiting room breathlessly. "Mum..." He didn't know what to say. He didn't know how to put what he was feeling into words. Fear, anger, panic, and confusion were the best he could do and even they didn't seem to do his emotions justice. But maybe his facial expression said it all because his mother's eyes filled with tears.

"Oh, Fred," she sighed. "Come here." He crossed the room to her in a few long strides and wrapped her in a bone-crushing hug. "I know you must be terrified. I am too. We all are."

Fred nodded against her shoulder. His throat was constricted and his chest ached. He felt like he needed to cry, but no tears were coming. He still felt too in shock for that, perhaps. Everything had been a blur since his father had stopped by earlier. Nothing had really settled in yet except for the complete and utter panic and fear.

"I need to see her," he said as he pulled away.

"We can't go in," his mother answered, placing a hand on his cheek. "They're working on her right now. Checking all her abdominal organs for damage and then fixing her all up if she's all clear."

"When she's all clear," Fred corrected.

His mother gave him a weak smile. "When," she amended.

"But I don't care," Fred said, trying to pull away and head for the doors. "I just-I need to see her. Please."

"No, Fred, you can't!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed. "You have to stay here. Besides, her family has every right to see her first."

"Well I don't see their stupid arses here waiting!" Fred practically roared, anger suddenly flashing through him out of nowhere, like lightning. "You've been the ones sitting here waiting and now the rest of us are here! Typical! We're always here when they aren't! And what do we get? Shoved to the side, unable to see her first."

"Joanna and Chris went to Hogwarts to pick up Julian!" Bill exclaimed. "He was sent back there with the others once Dumbledore had sorted everything else out. Merlin, Fred, what'd you think, they wouldn't come see their own daughter? They'll be here."

"You know her father and brother would be here at the very least, Fred," George said. "Don't put them all in one category."

"Lilah's mother-she doesn't care-how dare she-she kicked her out," Fred said. "How can she even come here after all that? She practically disowned her! And after all the awful things she's said and done!"

"Lilah is still her daughter, Fred," Mr. Weasley told him. "Have some compassion."

"Not for her," Fred scowled. "I don't have any compassion for that-"

He was cut off by the waiting room doors banging open. Lilah's parents burst through with Julian hot on their heels. And behind him were Ron and Ginny.

"Ron! Ginny!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed. "What are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay at school."

"We had to come, Mum," Ginny said tearfully. "We'd be going home in two days anyway. We're fine now that Madame Pomfrey fixed us up and we had to come see Lilah. So we begged her parents to take us with them. We weren't going to sit around on our behinds."

"Where is she?" Lilah's mother asked. Her tone was clipped, but her eyes were frantic and bloodshot. "What's going on?" She began walking straight for the second set of double doors, but Lilah's dad grabbed her and held her back.

"Let the Healers do their thing, Joanna," he said stiffly. He looked around. "I'm assuming they'll come let us know when they're done?"

Mrs. Weasley nodded. "Healer Wood is in their now. Adam Wood, he said his name was."

"Wood?" Fred asked, his head snapping around to look at his mother. "Adam Wood. _Oliver's _dad?"

"I suppose," Mrs. Weasley said with a shrug.

Fred sank down into a chair and buried his head in his hands, resting his elbows on his knees as he fought the urge to vomit. He could barely process any of this. All he knew was that his girlfriend had someone ended up in the Department of Mysteries with a bunch of other classmates including his brother, his sister, and her own brother. Julian had almost been hit by a curse sent by a Death Eater, Lilah had shoved him out of the way and the spell had hit her instead. Her abdomen was injured at the very least, she had lost a lot of blood and she might not even make it.

"Who did it?" he suddenly asked, looking up menacingly. He looked at Julian, Ron and Ginny, waiting for an answer. "You were there. Who did it? Which one of them?"

Julian cleared his throat. "Dolohov."

Fred felt his expression darken as his mother gasped. The same Death Eater that had killed his uncles had done this to Lilah. He was going to rip that bastard's head off if he ever saw him. He balled his hands into fists so hard that his knuckles turned white.

"She saved me," Julian said, his voice thick. "As usual. She shouldn't have even been there, but she came because of me. It's all my fault." He swore under his breath and buried his own head in his hands.

"Language," his mother quipped. Fred shot her a glare. He could've hexed her. Her son was clearly in pain and feeling guilty and all she had to say was berate him for his language? Fred watched as Lilah's mother looked around impatiently. "I don't believe this," she said. "I'm expected to wait here with no news for however long it takes for them to finish in there? I'm her mother for Merlin's sake." She began marching for the door that led back to the hallway. "I need to find someone to speak to. I need answers."

"No one can do anything, Joanna," Lilah's dad sighed in annoyance. He was ghostly white as he sat heavily down in a chair. "They can't rush what they're doing and they can't give you answers about what happened in the Ministry. They weren't there."

"You don't know?" Fred asked. "They didn't fill you in?" he pointed at Ron, Ginny and Julian.

"No, we've been more concerned with getting here to try to see my possibly _dying_ daughter," Lilah's mother snapped, rounding on Fred. "Or do you not care?"

"Of course I care!" Fred roared, standing up.

"Woah, woah, woah," Mr. Weasley said as George got to his feet as well. Mr. Weasley pushed them back before turning to Lilah's mother. "My son loves your daughter very much. He's obviously quite distraught and high-strung, just like the rest of us. We all love Lilah. We're just trying to piece together exactly how this happened and the only three here now that were there at the Ministry were Ginny, Ron and Julian." He turned to look at the three of them. "So, if you'd care to explain more about what went down..."

The three of them looked at each other. "Harry...was under the impression that Sirius was being held captive in the Department of Mysteries," Ron said.

"Why would he think that?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"Not important," Ginny said briskly. "The point is that Harry was desperate to save him so the rest of us-me, Julian, Ron, Hermione, Luna and Neville, I mean-went with him. He couldn't very well go alone, could he? That would be insane! And there was no talking him down from it either, which I understand. Sirius is one of the few people left that Harry considers family."

Ginny, Ron and Julian took turns explaining the whole story. How they had tried to use the fireplace in Umbridge's office to check on Sirius at Grimmauld place, but they had been caught. How they had lured Umbridge to the forest and how she had been carried off by centaurs. How they flew to London on thestrals. How they found out You-Know-Who had planted a fake image in Harry's mind to lure him there to get some prophecy he wanted. How they had run into the Death Eaters and tried to escape. How they'd run into Lilah and how there had been a big battle in one of the rooms. How the Order had shown up and a few moments later, Lilah had been hit.

Julian shook his head. "She just had to show up," he said. "If she had just stayed behind, we wouldn't be in this mess."

"She's your sister, Jules," Fred chimed in with a heavy sigh. While he wished that Lilah had never gone to the Ministry as well, he knew why she had done it. "What if you had been the one to be hit with this curse? Or what if you had died? She'd never forgive herself. And what if the roles were reversed? You'd follow _her_ there in a heartbeat."

"Is it true You-Know-Who showed up?" Lilah's dad asked.

Julian nodded. "At the very end. He was in the Atrium. Dumbledore was dueling him and then the Minister showed up with some of his workers and some Aurors." He paused. "Percy was there."

"Oh, he was?" Mrs. Weasley asked breathlessly.

Fred rolled his eyes at his mother's excitement.

"How does he seem? Healthy?" she asked.

"Normal, I suppose," Julian shrugged.

"Maybe now that he's seen You-Know-Who for himself, he'll come home," Ginny said.

"Don't get your hopes up, Gin," George sighed. "He's got a horrible amount of pride, the stupid git."

"In any case," Julian said, "Fudge saw You-Know-Who. He can't deny his return any more. It was right in front of his face."

"What happened to everyone else?" Fred asked. "They alright?"

"Yeah, everyone else had minor injuries except Lilah," Ginny said. "And...Sirius."

"What happened to Sirius?" Bill asked.

Julian cleared his throat and looked down sadly. "He's dead."

Everyone began talking at once.

"What?"

"Why didn't you say so sooner?"

"What happened?"

"How?"

"I swear, no one tells us anything," Lilah's mother huffed. "Dumbledore should've told us the whole story in his office. He owes us that much."

"You were in a rush, Joanna. You couldn't be bothered," Lilah's dad argued.

"Bellatrix got him," Julian explained. "Almost right after Lilah was hit. And right after _that_, Dumbledore arrived. He sent Lilah straight here and then dealt with the rest of us."

"It took forever to get Julian to leave Lilah's side," Ginny said. "He just sat beside her, with her head in his lap, yelling her name and telling her to wake up—well begging her really." She shrugged when Julian rolled his eyes slightly. "When we got back to school, Madame Pomfrey had to give him a Calming Draught. He was about ready to trash the place."

"Dad said someone had wrapped Lilah's jacket around the wound?" Fred asked. "Is that true?"

"Yeah, it was like that when I got to her side," Julian said. "There was a lot of commotion, but someone also dragged her out of the chaos. Away from me. I didn't see who. There was too much dust and smoke and too many people. And I was a wreck. I couldn't pay attention to much else besides Lilah."

"But they moved her to the very bottom of the stairs," Ginny said. "The stairs that led up to the door where Dumbledore came in. So, while everything else was still in chaos, she was still the first thing he saw. It almost...saved some time. Julian wasn't capable of transporting her straight to the hospital magically. It requires magic beyond our years anyway, but he was distraught. We needed Dumbledore actually."

"Odd," Mr. Weasley said. "I wonder who it was."

"Do you think Lilah saw them?" Ron asked.

"Why don't you just waltz right in and ask her, Ron?" Fred snapped.

"I was just wondering," Ron snapped back. "And one of us _can _ask her when she's able to talk."

Fred blinked at his brother. His use of the word _when_ had surprised him, but he was grateful for it. Everyone else had been saying _if_ all night. He didn't care if it was unrealistic, he didn't want to hear any _if_s. He wanted to be positive and confident. That's how he was normally, so why should now be any different? If anything, tonight was when he needed confidence the most.

After that, everyone fell silent. They waited there for two and a half more hours. The chairs grew more and more uncomfortable with every passing minute. Fred was more fidgety than ever. He couldn't get comfortable and kept shifting.

"Can't you stay still?" Lilah's mother finally snapped.

Fred opened his mouth, but George touched his arm. "We're all high strung right now, Fred. Let it go."

"Fine, but that was strike number two. One more and I explode," Fred muttered back through gritted teeth. He purposely shifted noisily in his chair, stonily meeting Lilah's mother's eyes as he did so. She practically shot daggers at him.

A few times his mother suggested they go in shifts to get something to eat. But no one would answer her or volunteer and no one would budge. No one got up. No one moved. No one spoke. It was two and a half hours of pure agony. Fred began to think of all the things he'd rather sit through for two and a half hours. History of Magic classes. _Any_ classes. A lecture from his mother. Ron's snores. Even the Cruciatus Curse. Anything but what he was sitting through now.

Finally after what felt like a lifetime, the door to the ward opened, sounding extremely loud in the silence. Everyone was on their feet at once. Fred roughly nudged George, who was falling asleep with his head lolling back over the side of the chair.

A man stepped out of the room looking as if he'd lived a thousand years in the past few hours. He had on gloves and was holding his wand. His white coat was stained with blood, Fred noticed with a sickening feeling in his stomach. Lilah's blood. Fred wanted to vomit.

"How is she?" Lilah's mother asked as the whole group of them surged forward at once. "Please tell me she's alive." Her voice actually cracked. "Please."

Fred's heart was in his throat. This was it. The moment he'd been waiting for since he'd gotten the news. But now that it was here, he wasn't sure if he wanted to hear it. What if it _wasn't _what he wanted to hear?

The Healer stared at them for a moment before smiling grimly. "She's alive," he said, "and she's going to be okay in time."

A wave of immense relief passed over Fred. It was so strong, he almost felt like he needed to sit down again. Lilah's mother immediately covered her face with her hands for a moment. When she raised her head, she had tears in her eyes.

"Thank you," she whispered. "Thank you."

Fred looked at his twin and gave him a tiny smirk. "She has a heart. Who knew?" he whispered as George smiled.

"So...what's happened?" Lilah's dad asked.

"Why don't we all take a seat," the Healer said, ushering everyone back towards the chairs and couch. Everyone sat while he stood in front of them. "I'm Healer Wood by the way." He looked at Lilah's Dad and Julian before smiling. "I've already had the pleasure of meeting you two," he said before turning his gaze to Lilah's mother. "And I'm assuming you're Lilah's mother?"

"Joanna," she nodded.

"Lovely to meet you," he said with a smile. He cleared his throat.

Fred stared at him, waiting for him to speak. So this was Oliver's dad. He suddenly realized that Oliver Wood's dad had saved Lilah's life. It was mental, but Fred couldn't have felt more grateful or indebted to him.

"As I think all of you know," Healer Wood began, "Lilah was hit with a spell we haven't seen for many, many years. It hit her in the abdomen and damaged her stomach, one of her kidneys and her spleen, believe it or not. It also caused her left lung to collapse. She was losing a lot of blood, but we got her right on time. Also, the damage to her stomach could have been fatal had she not been found in enough time. You see, the stomach acid could've gotten into her bloodstream. Essentially, all the damage done to her was able to be mended without being life threatening as long as they were found and fixed within enough time, which, luckily for Lilah, they were. Time was of the essence and tonight, it was on her side. She's very lucky and so are all of you."

Mrs. Weasley was crying now. Lilah's parents just looked completely shell shocked. And everyone else was silent as they processed the information.

"We've repaired all of the damaged organs and closed the wound back up," Mr. Wood went on. "She's still unconscious at the moment and we're going to keep her in the intensive care ward for at least tonight to keep an eye on her. We're expecting her to wake up by tomorrow. Since she's unconscious, we're also giving her a blood replenishing potion through an IV. And she's on a ventilator for now, but we'll be able to remove that tomorrow sometime, once she's awake. We had to give her a potion to make sure she didn't wake up while we were working on her-it works much like what Muggles call anesthesia and typically ventilators are needed while the breathing patterns are still abnormal. So once she wakes up tomorrow, we'll get rid of that. She's going to make it. She's going to need plenty of rest and some medication afterwards and she's going to be sore, but other than that, she'll be fine." He paused. "If she were a Muggle, it would've been a lot worse. Their methods are obviously slower and they don't have the use of potions or magic. She's very lucky." He looked at Lilah's parents and smiled. "And speaking on a personal level...you have a lovely daughter. Seeing her when she was brought in was a terrible, terrible moment. Horrific. Moments like that are the worst part of the job." He smiled wider. "But seeing patients pull through are the best part."

"You saved her life," Lilah's dad croaked. "How can we thank you enough?"

"Thank Dumbledore for getting her here on time. And thank whoever attempted to stop the bleeding. It was the right thing to do. And it helped."

"When can we see her?" Fred asked quickly. Now that he knew Lilah was okay, all he cared about was seeing her.

Healer Wood hesitated. "I'm afraid it's going to be family only for tonight." He looked at Fred sympathetically. "I'm sorry. Rules are rules."

"It's no use telling him that," Mrs. Weasley groaned. "You might as well speak gibberish."

Healer Wood continued to look at Fred. "You'll get in to see her," he said. "Don't worry. She's not going anywhere, luckily." He half smiled and looked at Lilah's parents and Julian. "I'm going to go make sure she's settled in her room and then I'll send for you." And with that he walked away.

"It's not fair," Fred said dully, staring after Healer Wood in anger. His jaw was set. "It's not fair!" He yelled it out this time as he pounded a fist on the arm of the chair.

"Of course it's fair!" Lilah's mother laughed. The sound was loud and shrill in the quiet room. "We're her family! It's only right we be allowed in first."

Fred stood up and glared at her, his fists clenched. "You kicked her out of your house," he said menacingly. "You forced her to leave." His voice started rising, little by little. "You forced her away from her own brother. You tried to convince her spending time with my family was _dangerous_. You told her you wouldn't associate with her if she associated with us! You sided with that bastard of an ex-boyfriend of yours when Lilah tried to tell you she didn't trust him. You sided with him when that nasty article was written! You hardly spend time with your own damn kids because all you care about is your job and your image! And you still get to be one of the first people to see Lilah. If she opens her eyes tonight, you'll be one of the first people she sees. What an absolute waste!"

"Fred!" his mother gasped. "How dare you-how could you-apologize right this instant!"

Fred ignored her. Instead, he kept talking to Lilah's mother. "I love your daughter," he said, his tone low again. "She has been there for me through absolutely everything. You don't meet people like her every day. She's patient and understanding and kind and she has a huge heart. I've known for years that losing her was something I could not and cannot do. Not then, not now and not ever. But you still haven't appeared to have caught on yet since you're so keen on wasting every single second you have with her, but come crawling back _now_."

"How dare you!" Lilah's mother screeched, swiftly getting to her feet. "I want you out! Now!" She pointed at the door. "You have three seconds to get out. And don't bother coming back. I don't want filth like you anywhere _near_ my daughter! I only _advised _Lilah to stay away from you, but now I can see I should've put my foot down. You're nothing but absolute trouble and disrespect! I advised her to stay away when I could've easily forced her to. I was kind enough to have your family over for dinner because Lilah wanted it. That was a mistake, but I still allowed her to not only continue her friendship with your family, but a relationship with you!" She shook her head. "You're to stay away from her," she whispered. "You're through." There was a pause as she sent him a nasty smirk. "It wouldn't have lasted anyway. Lilah would've left you the second she became tired of your jokes."

"Just because that's the sorry way _you _turned out, doesn't mean it'll be Lilah," Fred answered.

"Frederick Gideon Weasley!" his mother shouted. She was giving him the look that would've normally made even him and George cower in a corner, but he didn't care. He was too angry to care.

"What is going on in here?" Three more Healers had come in from the hallway at the sound of the yelling.

"I want this boy removed from this area immediately!" Lilah's mother said, pointing at Fred.

"Of course you do," Fred snapped. "But mark my words, I'm getting in there to see Lilah whether you like it or not."

Somehow, a couple of security guards had appeared. How they got there so quickly, Fred didn't know. One of them grabbed his wrists and wrenched them behind his back as the other put a hand on his shoulder as they guided him from the room.

Fred's chest was heaving the whole way down to the lobby. His face was red and he could only imagine what his expression looked like. It could probably melt steel. The guards deposited him roughly in the hospital lobby before turning and walking away. Fred flung himself down in to a chair and put his head in his hands as the heavy feeling returned to his chest for the second time that night. He had just potentially ruined everything for himself because at the moment he had no idea how he was going to sneak up to see Lilah. Nothing. He couldn't even get his brain to work on thinking up something. His thoughts were entirely too scattered.

Just then, he felt someone's presence beside him. He glanced past the side of his hand to see George sitting there.

"You were pretty insane back there," he said.

"Couldn't help it," Fred said. "It just all...came out. It's been pent up too long and tonight was the breaking point. Maybe I shouldn't have done it. Maybe it cost me. And maybe it didn't get through to her. But I don't regret it."

"I'm glad you did it," George said. "I loved hearing you tell her off. Someone needed to."

Fred let out a dry chuckle. "I'm glad someone enjoyed it." He paused as he removed his hands from his face and fully looked at his brother. "Did Mum die on the spot after I was escorted out?"

George smiled. "No, but I think she came close. She was apologizing profusely to Lilah's mother, who kind of just sat down and stared straight ahead. And then she, Julian and Mr. Fitzgerald were called in to see Lilah. Mum and the others are going to wait for more updates."

"She really doesn't deserve to go in there, Georgie," Fred sighed. "Lilah's mother, I mean. Julian and Mr. Fitzgerald, sure, but not her. After all that she's done?"

"I know," George said slowly. "I know what you mean. But...she's still Lilah's mother."

"Biologically and by typical definition of the word _mother_." Fred shrugged. "But I bet if you ask Lilah, our mother is the one who's _felt_ like a mother all these years." He hesitated. "Lilah may have that woman's DNA, but she couldn't be more different. And DNA isn't what always has to necessarily make up a family. Not _really_. It's all the other stuff. It's-it's love, isn't it?"

"Scientifically-" George began, but broke off when Fred gave him a look of exasperation.

"Who _are_ you...Percy?"

George laughed. "No, I suppose you're right," he said. "Harry's never felt at home with the Dursley's either and his aunt and his mother were sisters."

Fred nodded. "Exactly."

"So, what's the plan?" George asked. "Any ideas on how to get yourself upstairs and in Lilah's room at some point?"

Fred sighed and leaned back in his chair, resting his head against the wall. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Even if I did have an idea for a product we could use-it doesn't feel right. I'm not going to use a prank item at a time like this."

"Never thought I'd hear you say that," George yawned, leaning his own head against the wall.

"Me neither, Georgie," Fred sighed. "But I will say one thing. I'm not leaving this hospital until I get to see her."

"That's what I like to hear," George agreed with a smile, clapping Fred on the shoulder.

Another hour went by before anything interesting happened. George had fallen asleep, his head against the wall and his mouth agape, but Fred was wide awake. He was staring at the ceiling, his chest now empty. His mind was empty too. He was exhausted. Couldn't think. Couldn't feel. Couldn't sleep. How George could was beyond him, but then again, George was always the best at falling asleep anywhere at any time. On the floor, in a chair, at the table, even standing up once. He could sleep during a crisis, a fire, probably an avalanche. It was astounding.

Fred suddenly turned his head as a familiar voice came from the receptionist's desk.

"I need another blanket for a patient in the intensive care ward. Please."

It was Lilah's mother. She was anxiously standing at the desk, looking and sounding exhausted. Her voice was actually quiet and held none of its usual formalness. She sounded tired. She sounded _sad_. Very sad. Helpless. Almost like a beggar asking for food.

"What room?" the receptionist asked.

"Seven hundred twenty-three," Lilah's mother answered. "I've been asking for ages. Ringing Healers from the room, asking everyone. And no one's brought one."

"I'm very sorry about that," the receptionist said as Fred stood up from his chair and slowly crossed the room. He stood leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, watching the exchange. "But we're very busy. It's easy to forget-"

"It's easy to just forget about patients?" Lilah's mother asked shrilly.

"No, of course not, but I have here the patient in room 723 is doing fairly well. She's stable, yes? And she does have blankets. Sometimes things like that may fall by the wayside to more pressing matters."

"What if she's cold?" Lilah's mother asked, her voice cracking. "She's unconscious. And she has a tube coming out of her mouth. She's lost so much blood tonight. I'm quite sure she's chilly."

Fred bit his lip. It was the most vulnerable he'd ever seen Joanna Matthews. It was the most love he'd ever seen her show her daughter. The heaviness in his chest was suddenly back along with a lump that was suddenly lodged in his throat. He swallowed it. "You could always break into a storage closet," he suggested.

Lilah's mother whirled around. She stared at him expressionless for a bit. "Why would I when I'm sure you will," she answered briskly, turning and heading back towards the lift.

"Please, listen to me," Fred begged, jogging after her. "Just for a moment."

Lilah's mother ignored him and stepped into the lift. Fred caught the door as it was closing and got inside after her.

"I thought I told you to leave," she said, looking straight ahead.

"I did. You told me to leave the room, not the hospital," Fred said. "I'm not leaving this building until I see Lilah." The lift was rising upwards now and Fred was staring at the woman across from him. At this angle, he could see Lilah in her. She didn't look as put together and pristine currently and it made it easier. Not that Lilah was ever a slob, but she was never like her mother. But now, as this woman's hair fell out of its fancy up do and framed her face and as her tired dark eyes, the same large shape as Lilah's, glanced over at him, and as she brushed at her tiny button nose, he could see Lilah.

"What do you want?" she whispered. "Go on, talk."

Fred swallowed. "I know what you think of me," he said. "You think I'm immature. You think I'm a lowly, poor, unintelligent, reckless kid. You think I'm a bad influence. You think that if Lilah's with me, it'll be a repeat of you and your husband. But you can't say that for sure. You don't know that. And you don't know me because you never tried to. If you did, you would've seen how much I _love_ your daughter. I don't know how many times I can say it. But maybe that's not enough. Maybe I have to point out the ways I've shown it, starting with the fact that I've been here at this hospital since I heard the news. I haven't left and I don't plan on leaving. I have a business to run, but that's on the backburner until I see Lilah and she's awake and talking to me."

Lilah's mother swallowed, but didn't speak, so Fred went on.

"I've been there for Lilah every time she was sad or scared or hurt or confused. When that article was written, I stood by her. I comforted her. I did the same when she broke up with Oliver. When Sam blackmailed her, I comforted her. I've held her when she's cried. I've wiped her tears away. I've made her laugh. Which is more than I can say for you. Don't yell at me because it's the truth. It's harsh, but it's the truth." He swallowed. "And most of all, I'm not going to let her and I end up like you and your husband. I'm not. Because one of my two consistent fears that have _not changed_ since I was fifteen is losing Lilah, so I will do whatever it takes to not let that happen. I will do whatever it takes to hold on to her. As I've said, she's a special person. One that you don't get to see every day. And maybe back then I didn't realize why I was so afraid...But now-" he paused. "I need her," he said. "She worries incessantly, she thinks she has to protect everyone and she can be a downright pain in the ass. But she always knocks some sense into me when I need it the most. And she's not cherished enough. Not even by herself. She's never seen what so many other people see in her."

"You think this speech is going to charm me into liking you and being your biggest fan?" The lift had stopped at their floor now and the two of them stepped out and stood in the hallway.

Fred sighed. "No, of course not. That'd take a miracle."

"I know how people like you operate," Lilah's mother said. "You know how to charm people to get what you want. What's more...you're, what, eighteen years old? You're a child. You may think you know what you want, but you don't. You may think you can make things go your way eventually, but that's not always how it works. Not everything is going to go your way. You can't just stop a divorce from happening. You're naive to think so. You don't understand. And you may think you can't live without Lilah, but here's the thing-you can. People move on. I have. My husband has. We were in love once too and now here we are. Sometimes love just isn't enough."

"You're wrong," Fred insisted.

"You're not right for my daughter," Lilah's mother said. "You're blunt and rude and impulsive. It's all fun and games for you. She doesn't need that in her life. She needs to focus on her future. She needs to work on bettering herself and-"

"What's there to better?" Fred asked, shaking his head. "She's already damn near perfect in my eyes."

"There are many areas in which she could-"

"Oh, who the hell cares?" Fred scoffed. "She's a human being! We all have flaws. But it's funny. You're her mother. You should be the one looking at her-your child-and being in total awe of her. You should be the one wanting to figure out what makes her tick. She's part of you, but her own person all at the same time. And yet, all you do is find her faults and magnify them while _I'm _the one sitting here amazed by her strength and compassion and bravery and kindness and intelligence and sense of humor every day. But maybe that really does make what I just told my brother true. Love makes a family way more than DNA ever could. I love Lilah. And okay, maybe I can't predict the future, but right now, I can tell you I _love _her. It might be the only thing you and I have in common, but we're so different that we don't even show it in the same way." He was quiet for a moment. "I'll be down in the lobby. I'd appreciate it if someone can come get me when I'm allowed to see my girlfriend." He turned and stuck his hands in his pockets as he walked back towards the lift.

"Wait."

With a slight smirk, he glanced over his shoulder at Lilah's mother, who was looking at him, expressionless. "Yes?"

Mrs. Matthews pursed her lips. "Come back to the waiting room. Perhaps you can be allowed a short visit. And I do mean short. You are not to take this for granted. You are to behave. And you are not to assume that this means I suddenly approve of you. Life isn't a fairy tale, you know."

Fred actually laughed. "I'm aware. If it were, tonight's events wouldn't have even happened."

Mrs. Matthew's gave a curt nod before turning and walking back towards the intensive care ward without even waiting for Fred to follow.

* * *

"You have five minutes."

"Five minutes, Joanna?" Lilah's dad raised his eyebrows. "_Five minutes_?"

"Not as if he needs a lot of time. Not as if he's going to be talking to her."

"Joanna, I swear, I'm not in the mood for this."

"Fine, Chris." She turned back to Fred. "Ten minutes."

Fred nodded. He wanted way more time than that, but he supposed he should take what he got for now. He was lucky to be allowed in at all. The Healers had still kept trying to insist on family only, but Lilah's mother had said it was okay. Granted, it looked like she had swallowed a lemon before doing it, but she had. Lilah's dad and Julian, however, had really backed Fred up and they had done it sincerely. It was probably them that had finally swayed the Healers.

Swallowing, Fred reached for the doorknob to Lilah's room. His heart was in his throat again and now that he was here, he was actually afraid to go in. He knew the reality of it. She was unconscious. She was going to look beat up. She was going to have a tube coming out of her to help her breathe. That scared him. It made him think she'd still somehow die. But the Healers had said she was okay.

"Go," Lilah's dad whispered, giving him a gentle pat on the back. "She doesn't look that bad. And they always say unconscious patients can hear you when you talk to them, right? Go on and give it a go."

Fred nodded and swallowed thickly before turning the handle and pushing the door open. The room was dim and when his eyes finally adjusted, he saw her. Lying in the bed, her eyes closed. Her skin was deathly pale, made to look even worse in the moonlight coming through the window. Her hair was stringy and fanned out on the pillow. An IV was attached to her left hand. The hand with all the scars from Umbridge's quill. The IV was steadily dripping blood replenishing potion into her body.

And then there was the breathing tube and the heart monitor. The heart monitor was beeping steadily, a comforting sound. And the breathing tube was just as awful as he'd imagined. It looked uncomfortable, too. Fred wanted to rip it right out. It made her look on the verge of death.

She was covered in the standard hospital sheets and blanket, but there was another extra blanket on top of those-it looked as if her mother had finally got her request fulfilled. Fred wondered if she had been right. _Could_ Lilah be cold? He took in a deep breath and glanced up at the chair on the opposite side of the bed. Julian was curled up in it, fast asleep and snoring lightly. Fred smiled softly before dragging over another chair to the opposite side of Lilah's bed and sinking down into it. "Hey, pretty girl," he whispered, reaching up to place a hand on her forehead.

He suddenly didn't know what else to do. Lilah continued to lay motionless in front of him. Her skin looked even paler up close and when he had placed his hand on her forehead, it _had_ indeed felt kind of cold. He stared at the breathing tube and suddenly felt unable to breathe himself. His stomach churned at the thought that this tube was helping to pump air into Lilah's lungs-a task that everyone took for granted every single day, including Fred. Lilah was at the point where she needed help to do something as simple as take in a breath. Granted, it wasn't forever, but it shouldn't have been necessary at all. He wanted her to wake up so the Healers could check her over and remove the tube. He wanted her to wake up so he'd know for sure she was okay. He wanted to see her eyes. He wanted to hear her voice. He longed for her to tell him not to be so dramatic. He longed for her to tell him she hated redheads. He longed for her to tell him he was unbelievable. He longed to say it back to her in return.

Swallowing the lump in his throat the best he could, he reached for her hand, even though his own were trembling madly. Her hand was even colder than her forehead. He held it between both of them, careful of the IV tube poking out, and brought her knuckles to his lips as he closed his eyes. The heaviness was back in his chest and so was the lump in his throat. He lowered his head, brushing his nose along Lilah's hand and stopping when her skin was pressed against his forehead. He squeezed his eyes shut as silent sobs shook his shoulders, cracking the tightness in his chest and making it all break apart and dislodge, like an avalanche. He finally composed himself and took in a shaky, watery, stuffy-nosed breath as he tilted his head up and looked at the ceiling. If he had turned in his seat, however, he would've seen Joanna Matthews, hesitating at the small, built in window at the door, watching him and looking oddly conflicted.


	66. Chapter 66

I wasn't sure if I had ever experienced discomfort like this before. I had come to my senses to immediately feel something plastic-y stuck in my mouth. I felt achy all over, but especially in my midsection. In fact, that didn't _ache_, it downright hurt. If I moved even a smidge, it was painful. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't because of the damn tube in my mouth. Merlin, did I want that out. My chest also ached too, I noticed. It was all on my left side, starting at the bottom of my ribcage.

I tried to let out a groan, but found that I couldn't because of the stupid obtrusion stuck in my face. Without being totally sure of what I was thinking, I began struggling to push myself to a sitting position while tugging at whatever was in my mouth.

There was a sudden, quick rustling sound to my left before I felt the side of whatever I was laying on-a bed, I assumed-sag a little as a face appeared in my vision. A familiar face. My dad.

"Lilah, leave that in, honey," he whispered. "Don't touch it." He put his hand over mine and removed it from my mouth, slowly and carefully. He looked exhausted. He was pale and had bags under his eyes. His hair was disheveled and so were his clothes. And his expression looked somewhere between laughter and tears. "You're awake," he whispered hoarsely. "Oh Merlin, you're awake." He let out a watery laugh as he put a hand on my forehead.

I shot him a look of annoyance as I gestured to the tube in my mouth, wishing I could tell him that being awake was no good without being able to communicate. That got him to laugh.

"I know, it must be terrible having that in, but Healer Wood said he's going to take it out today. Once you woke up, actually. I've already called for someone to come check up on you and see if we're clear to remove it. I saw you starting to wake up and thought it would be best if you were checked out."

I blinked at him. Healer Wood? Oliver's dad? My brain struggled to piece together what had happened. Healers. Oliver's Dad. That meant I was in St. Mungo's.

"Yeah," Dad chuckled, accurately reading my expression. "Oliver's dad saved your life last night." He paused. "Do you...remember what happened?"

I hesitated. What _had_ happened? I shifted slightly and pain shot through my stomach again. I winced, but then it all started coming back to me. Finding Umbridge sitting on the hallway floor, running into Danny, heading to the Ministry of Magic, into the Department of Mysteries. The Death Eaters. Bellatrix Lestrange. Dolohov. And that curse he had aimed at my brother that I had apparently took instead. What kind of curse had it been? What had happened to me? And where was Julian?

I looked at my dad in wide eyed panic, wishing I was able to speak right now. I tried to tug out the tube again, but he stopped me. I flopped my head back onto my pillow in total frustration as I rolled my eyes. Luckily, though, Dad seemed to read my mind.

"Look to your right," Dad said.

I slowly turned my head and saw the row of windows, nearly taking up the whole wall of the room. And in front of them was a chair. And in the chair sat my brother. Curled up and asleep, his chest slowly rising and falling with every breath. He was alive and looked essentially unharmed. I felt tears come to my eyes and I brushed them away hastily.

Suddenly, the door opened and in walked Oliver's dad. "Well, look who it is," he said with a grin. "I always knew you were a fighter."

I tried to smile, but it turned into a grimace. I tugged at the tube again and my dad sighed and stopped me as Oliver's dad laughed.

"Point taken," he said, setting his clipboard down and walking over to me. He stood on my right side, closest to the windows and flipped a switch on one of the machines that were there. I hadn't even noticed them until now, oddly. One of them, the one he had flipped a switch on, was connected to the tube in my mouth. The other was beeping steadily. Oliver's dad saw me looking and smiled. "Heart monitor," he said, pointing to the beeping one. Then, he pointed to the second machine. "And we had to put you on a ventilator last night in order to check your injuries and fix them up. And I kept you on it through the night just to be safe. But now that you're awake we can see how you do. Your breathing should be back to normal but I just turned the machine off to test it. It's not on right now, but I can turn it back on if I need to. How do you feel? Breathing okay?"

I waited a beat as I took in a few normal breaths. It felt painful on my left side every time I breathed in, but I figured that was mostly due to movement, not a breathing issue. I looked back up at Oliver's dad and nodded, giving him a thumbs up. He smiled before busying himself with removing the tube from my mouth, using his wand for assistance when he needed to-I suppose to ensure that he was being extra gentle and not cause me any more discomfort than he had to.

The tube had barely left my lips when I wrinkled my nose. "Ugh, I never want that thing anywhere near me again!"

"Let's hope you won't come to that point again," Oliver's dad laughed.

"Yeah, maybe if you stop chasing after Death Eaters," Dad snorted.

"I went because Julian was there!" I cried. "Would you rather this be him lying here, because I wouldn't!"

"Shh, Lilah, please," Dad said urgently. "Calm down. You need your rest. You can't afford to get yourself all worked up right now."

I looked away as I bit my lip and Oliver's dad spoke up again. "You remember everything that happened last night?" he asked casually.

I nodded. "Pretty much. It's a little foggy in some spots, but I do remember how I got hurt. Don't know what the spell was, though. Or what exactly it did to me."

"Basically just caused something similar to a knife wound," Oliver's dad said. "A little bit worse than a knife, actually. It's an old spell and that's how it was designed. Hasn't been used in years, though."

"Let me guess, it was used back during the first war by Death Eaters?" I sighed.

Oliver's dad nodded. "You got it. You also lost a lot of blood. We've got a blood replenishing potion getting in you through that IV, although soon I can take that out too and give you the potion by mouth now that you're awake. Anyway, you had a collapsed lung and your stomach, spleen and liver were damaged, so we had to repair those last night and then close you back up. Unfortunately, it's going to leave a bit of a scar. It's not big, but it is there..."

"But you're alive, Lie, and that's all that matters," Dad said, beaming at me.

I looked up at Oliver's dad. "Thank you," I said. "For doing all that."

"It's my job, so I'd have to do it whether I liked you or not," he teased with a half-smile. "But you should thank Dumbledore. He's the one who sent you over right away. And someone tried to stop the blood flow with your jacket." He paused. "Do you have any idea who that was?"

I swallowed as a memory came jolting back to me. I could have sworn that I had seen my own face staring back at me last night. But that was impossible. I had to have been out of my mind. The blood loss had been taking effect alright. Unless...had my odd sort of double had made an appearance last night? And to _me_? I had no idea. I could have been going crazy and imagining myself, or I had experienced the same thing everyone else had seemed to experience. Seeing me help then when I couldn't have done a thing.

"Lie?" Dad asked, peering at me. "You okay?"

I looked up and swallowed again. "No, I don't remember who it was. I remember someone being there, but I was already losing consciousness and I don't really remember a face."

Oliver's dad stared at me a moment before nodding. "All right, then, I'll let you get some rest. You're going to need a lot of it in the next couple of months. Take it easy. No heavy lifting for sure. Try not to lift much at all if you can."

I sighed heavily in frustration. "In other words, I'm going to be helpless and useless, aren't I?" I asked with a smile.

"Come on, it's only for a few months," Oliver's dad chuckled. His face then became serious. "If you had been at a Muggle hospital, the healing time would have been a lot longer and had a lot more restrictions...if you even made it to recovery." He shrugged. "Muggles have come a long way with medicine and they do manage to save an impressive amount of lives, but even still, our use of magic _does_ give us many advantages."

"But I still could've died," I whispered.

"If you hadn't been brought to us in time, yes," Oliver's dad said. "But as I said to everyone last night...time was on your side. You're very fortunate, Lilah."

I nodded as I stared down at my hands for a moment before then looking back up at him. "Well...thank you. Again. I appreciate this more than you know. I never would've thought it would've been you of all people." I smiled.

Oliver's dad laughed. "You were very good to my son, Lilah. He loved you. Still cares for you very much, actually."

"I'm sorry I hurt his feelings," I said quietly.

Oliver's dad shook his head. "Don't feel bad," he said. "You were at perfect liberty to do what you did. You were never mean or rude. You never treated Oliver badly. You were never unfaithful, despite what the papers say."

"So you don't trust Rita Skeeter either?" I asked with a smile.

"I trust _you_," Oliver's dad said. "And I trust Oliver." He smiled and patted my shoulder. "Anyway, you have quite the entourage outside. Most of them have been here all night. Refuse to leave. I'll let you have visiting time with them, but not for long, okay? As I've said, you need rest." He reached the door and turned to face me as he pointed a finger in my direction. "Promise?"

I giggled and nodded. "Promise."

"Okay, I'll let you start with your dad. Does that sound good?"

I nodded eagerly. "Perfect."

Oliver's dad smiled. And then he closed the door with a quiet click.

"So," I asked my dad, "who may I ask is a part of my entourage?"

"Well, Jesse and Tess got here about an hour ago-"

"Sorry, but what time is it now?"

"About ten in the morning," Dad said. "We've been here since around eleven last night."

I sighed. "Wow."

Dad nodded. "Anyway...all the Weasleys are out there too. Well, not _all_, but Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Ron, Ginny and obviously the twins. They were here before us, actually and they haven't left. You see, we had to go get Jules from school. Dumbledore sent him and the others back there after he had sorted everything out at the Ministry. But when we came here, the Weasleys were already waiting." He smiled. "They seem to like you for some strange reason."

I rolled my eyes. "Thanks, Dad," I laughed. I suddenly ached to see them all, especially Fred. But there was something else I was wondering. "I suppose Mum never showed up?"

Dad let out a heavy sigh and rubbed a hand over his eyes. "Of course she did, Lilah," he said. "She and I went to get Julian and came here together. She was very upset."

"No, she wasn't," I laughed.

"She was," Dad insisted. "How can you say she wasn't?"

"She kicked me out!"

"Shh," my dad whispered soothingly as he slowly started rubbing a hand over my forehead. "She was upset, trust me. Sat right here in the chair I'm sitting in now for about an hour, holding your hand."

"Only an hour?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "I'm touched."

Dad shot me a look. "After an hour, she started calling Healers asking for an extra blanket to cover you with. She kept pestering but they apparently weren't moving fast enough. She even went down to the front desk. She said you looked cold. They finally brought one and eventually she sat back down for another three hours. Didn't sleep, didn't eat. None of us did, but she wouldn't even move a muscle. She might not even have blinked. She just stared at you for any sign of movement. And when she wasn't looking at you, she was looking at the heart monitor."

I swallowed. "Really?" I whispered.

"Your mother _does_ love you, Lilah," dad said. "I know how hard she can be to get along with and I know things aren't going well for you right now, but I want you to be aware of all the facts so that you can make an accurate decision about her. Maybe one day, you'll grow closer and maybe you won't. But you can't go through life thinking she despises you when she doesn't in the least. You're her daughter first and foremost."

"She wouldn't have kicked me out, then," I argued.

"In her mind, that's her protecting you."

"Protecting herself."

"She probably thought you'd come around," Dad said. "She probably thought you'd never leave without a fight or without coming around and agreeing with her."

"But why should I?" I asked furiously, pushing myself up on my elbows.

"Lilah, please," Dad begged, gently pushing me back down. "You need rest."

"Where is she now?" I finally asked bitterly. "Why isn't she here?"

"She went to work to sort things out," Dad said. "She's working it out so that she can take some time off to be here."

"_Some_ time," I repeated.

Dad shrugged. "She still has to work," he said. "And you know how she is. Whenever she's stressed, she throws herself into her job. Honestly, that part of her probably wants to bury herself in mounds of paperwork," he said. "But she's here."

"Oh, because that deserves such a clap on the back," I retaliated. "Being with your own daughter in the hospital."

Dad closed his eyes and let his head fall back as he rubbed his hands over his face and let out an exhausted, heavy sigh.

"I don't know why you defend her," I went on. "It's not like you love her anymore."

"Lilah, enough," he said, raising his head to look at me.

"Is it too much to ask?" I whispered. "To just have her just stay put for more than the blink of an eye? To have her give me all of her attention instead of just a few hours here and there, interrupted by work. I almost died and she couldn't even stay. She couldn't have simply sent an owl to work to do what she needs to do. It's just like...every time I need a mother, she falls short or doesn't deliver at all."

Dad looked away as he thought that over for a moment. "I'm sorry, Lilah. I wish things were different, I really do." He smiled as he looked back over at me. "Fred gave her a piece of his mind last night."

My mouth dropped open. "What? What'd he do?"

"I'll let him explain when he comes in to see you." Dad smiled. "He's been itching to get back in here. It was supposed to be family only last night, but he managed to get himself in for ten minutes while you were unconscious."

"Mum must've loved that," I snorted.

"Initially, no," Dad said, standing up and stretching. "But in the end, it was her that asked the Healers to be able to let him in."

"What?" I asked in surprise as my eyebrows shot up. That was odd. I couldn't picture my mother ever swaying to give anyone what they wanted once she had put her foot down. How had Fred convinced her otherwise?

"I'll go let the others know you're awake," Dad said with a smile. He paused. "Should we start your slew of visitors off with Jules?" He pointed to my still-sleeping brother in the chair by the window.

I nodded eagerly. "I'd love that."

Dad smiled wider before crossing to the other side of the room and gently nudging Julian awake. "Hey, Jules," he whispered. "Come on, look who's awake."

Julian mumbled something incoherent and rubbed the back of his hand across his face before snuggling his face deeper into the crook of his arm. Dad chuckled and nudged him again. "Come on, it's worth getting up for. If you don't wake up, I'll give Lilah permission to fling her lunch at you later." He looked at me. "What are you thinking, Lilah? There'll probably be lots of squishy, messy foods."

I laughed at Dad's comment and also at the fact that at the mention of my name, Julian's head snapped up. He was wide awake now.

"Lilah!" he cried, getting to his feet and crossing the room to me in two steps. He made to sit down on the bed, but Dad stopped him.

"Easy, Jules," he said. "She's still in pain. You don't want to hurt her."

Julian stopped and backed up a step or two. I smiled. "No, it's alright. Come here." I held out my hand.

With a grin, Julian took it and I gave his fingers a squeeze. "Can I sit down?" he asked.

"Of course," I said.

Julian gingerly sat on the edge of my bed and peered down at me for a moment, not saying anything. "I thought-I thought you were going to die," he suddenly whispered, his voice cracking. "And it would've been all my fault."

"Oh, Jules, no," I said earnestly, squeezing his hand tighter as he looked away and brushed at his face with his other hand. "Come here." I tugged on his hand and he leaned forward until he was lying down next to me, squished in the tiny bit of extra room the hospital bed allowed. He rested his head on my collarbone and closed his eyes as I rubbed his back.

"Pinch me if I'm hurting you," he whispered.

I giggled. "Will do," I agreed. "But right now everything kind of hurts on its own anyway."

"I'll leave you two alone and go tell everyone else Lilah's awake," Dad said with a grin. "When you're done, Jules, come outside and we'll send some of the others in."

Julian nodded as Dad quietly slipped out of the room.

"So...are you okay?" I asked quietly. "You didn't get hurt after I did, did you?"

"No," Julian answered. "All that happened to me was that scratch on my arm that Madame Pomfrey mended in a second. What happened to you was so much worse. And it was a curse that was aimed at me."

"I wasn't going to let you get hit with it, Jules," I said. "I don't regret what I did for a minute."

"You should've," he muttered. "Let me get hit, I mean. I'd much rather it have been me instead of you."

"And _I'd_ rather it be _me_," I argued.

Julian was quiet for a moment. "Lilah?" he finally asked.

"Yeah?" I whispered.

"You're the best sister anyone could've asked for. You know that right?"

I closed my eyes and smiled as I pressed a kiss to the top of his head. "Thanks, Jules. I think you're the best brother anyone could ask for."

Julian laughed.

"So...what's this I hear about Fred telling Mum off?" I asked.

Julian laughed again. "Oh, well, he didn't think she deserved to be one of the people to go see you first. Because they were only allowing family in. So he kind of got upset about that and she was kind of annoying him all night...so when Oliver's dad said family would come in first, he kind of lost it and yelled at her. And then she kicked him out but he waited in the lobby with George. And then when Mum went down there to get you another blanket, he confronted her again. Don't know what they talked about, but they came back together and she asked if he could come sit with you for a little while."

"Wow," I whispered. So what my dad said had been true. "I don't even know what to think about that."

"Do you think she might have changed her opinion on him now?" Julian asked.

I shrugged. "Doubt it," I said. "I don't think it's that simple. She's stubborn and so is Fred. They might just hate each other until the end of the world."

Julian laughed. "And you'll be caught in the middle."

"Wonderful, can't wait," I sighed.

We were quiet for a moment until Julian spoke again. "Do you need anything?"

"No," I answered. "I really just want to see everyone. I know Oliver's dad said I need a lot of rest, but not yet."

Julian sat up and looked down at me. "I can go send Fred in if you'd like."

"Okay," I answered as he stood up. "Wait...Jules?"

"Yeah?" he asked, turning around.

I bit my lip. "Remember the day Fred and George left and you, Ron and Hermione swore you saw me across the entrance hall, but I told you I was in the common room?"

"Yeah, it was that weird thing that happened with Danny in the lake and the twins in their secret hideout, right?" Julian asked. "Did you figure out how that was happening? I know none of us had any ideas. Did you go to McGonagall?"

I shook my head before hesitating a moment. "No, but it happened again last night."

"What?" Julian asked, sitting back down on the end of my bed. "With who?"

"Me," I answered, letting out a puff of air through my mouth. "After I got hit with that spell, I could feel someone dragging me off to the side. And they were trying to stop the blood flow. When I tried to see who it was, I could've sworn it was...me. Granted, I was half out of it, but that's what it looked like. I would've just played the whole thing off as me being half conscious, but once I remembered that other people had seen me do stuff that I knew I didn't do, I couldn't help but think that maybe..." I trailed off and shrugged. Merlin, I sounded insane.

"Maybe you saved your own life?" Julian asked with a raised eyebrow. He was quiet for a second. "But how, Lilah?"

"I don't know," I shrugged. "Did you or the others see anything?"

Julian shook his head. "There was too much commotion. I tried to get to you immediately after it happened and I knew _someone_ had dragged you away. And when Dumbledore got here you were lying at the bottom of the steps with your jacket already around you. No one was beside you but me. He didn't see anyone and neither did anyone else."

I sighed. "Maybe I should've said something to McGonagall. Swallowed my pride, you know? But I thought maybe it had stopped happening."

"I don't know, Lie," Julian whispered. "But maybe it's not necessarily a bad thing, you know? Maybe you should just...not worry about it. Whatever's been going on, it's been saving people's lives. Not like it's been doing the opposite."

I groaned. "Thank goodness."

Julian gave me a tiny smile. "I'll go get Fred," he said quietly, heading for the door and slipping outside. I averted my gaze back to the large windows and gazed out of them as I thought about what Julian had said. He did have a point. Whatever was happening was kind of a good thing. It had saved Danny from drowning, saved Fred and George from a detention and helped to save my life. I just wish I had answers. I wish I knew _exactly_ what was going on. Was someone posing as me? Was I doing some odd sort of magic without realizing it? I had no clue and it just baffled me.

Suddenly, I heard the door open. I turned to see Fred standing there, gently pushing the door closed again as he stared at me. He looked just as bad as my father had, if not worse. His flaming red hair was sticking up all over place like he had slept on it funny or had been running his hands through it. Or maybe, perhaps, both. His skin was pale and his freckles were practically jumping out at me because of it. His eyes were tired and red and his whole body looked exhausted, like it was visibly sagging. It wasn't a good look for him.

"Why do I get the feeling you look worse than me?" I asked quietly with a small smile. "That's not right. I'm the one who almost died."

"Don't, Lilah," Fred sighed, crossing the room and sinking into the chair my dad had been sitting in earlier.

"You were supposed to laugh and make a joke back," I told him, raising an eyebrow.

"How can you possibly expect me to joke at a time like this?" Fred looked at me in exasperation as he shook his head.

"Because that's what you do. To make yourself and everyone else feel better," I said.

"Not now," he answered. "This isn't funny in the least."

I shot him a look. "Don't be dramatic," I told him.

"You could have died," he snapped. "Do you understand that? Because I'm not sure you do."

I blinked at him in surprise for a moment. "Of course," I finally whispered, averting my eyes. "I'm sorry."

Fred was quiet for a second. "Sirius died last night. Did you know that?"

My head snapped up and I gaped at him. "_What_? No one told me!" I felt as if I had been punched in the gut. And oddly, this hurt way more than the actual injury I had in the same region.

"Bellatrix got him not long after Dolohov got you. Harry's distraught. Believes it's his fault. And as for the rest of us, it doesn't feel real. It was almost unbearable to deal with that on top of wondering what was going to happen to you."

I groaned and buried my head in my hands. "I don't know what to say. That's horrible."

"These Death Eaters are not playing around, Lilah. You mess with them and they aim to kill. They'll do anything to get what they want. So, no, I'm not about to be joking around with you like everything's fine and dandy after enduring possibly the worst twelve hours of my life."

I looked up at him tearfully. "I'm sorry," I whispered. "I didn't mean to scare you. I didn't do it on purpose. I just saw Julian in trouble and acted. You would've done the same for any of us. Me, Jules, one of your own siblings…."

Fred smiled feebly. "You're right. I know why you did it, I just wish it hadn't happened at all." He hesitated. "How are you feeling?"

I shrugged. "Pretty much how you'd expect me to feel."

Fred nodded and rubbed a hand over his jaw as he looked away.

"You do think I'm stupid for going there," I said. "You think I made a mistake."

Fred didn't answer right away. "No," he finally said. "I mean, of course in a way, I wish you hadn't gone, but I'm glad you did. All at once. You saved Julian's life by going and that's no mistake. But you ended up like this in the process. But then again, you're going to live, so..." He cleared his throat and looked down at his knees for a second. And then he buried his head in his hands and I saw his shoulders start shaking.

I widened my eyes in alarm. I didn't think I'd ever really seen Fred cry before. I didn't know what to do. "Fred?" I asked quietly. "Come on." I tried to sit up, but couldn't, flopping back onto my pillow again. "Fred…."

He took in a shaky breath and dug the heels of his hands into his eyes before looking up at me. "Do you _enjoy_ putting me through hell?" he finally asked with the smallest of smiles.

I let out a quiet laugh. "No, I just told you I didn't mean for this to happen."

Fred continued to just stare at me, his eyes wandering over my face.

"What?" I asked.

Fred shook his head. "Nothing. You look like crap, though."

I laughed, then winced as the motion sent a wave of pain through my stomach. "It hurts to laugh," I groaned.

Fred bit his lip as his expression darkened again. "If I ever see Dolohov again, I'm going to kill him," he said.

I didn't answer for a bit. Finally, I reached out for Fred's hand again, lying inches away from mine on the bed. "Fred?"

He looked up at me. "What?"

"I love you," I whispered.

Fred smiled and stood up. "I love you too. I'll go let someone else get some time with you now. As much as I don't want to leave, I think I have to or else they'll start breaking down the door."

"Wait, I'm not done talking to you," I said. I wanted to ask him what went down with my mother and I wanted to tell him about possibly seeing my double.

"We can talk later," he said. "You need to rest, so we can't be taking up too much time with our visits."

"I don't care about rest," I argued.

"Well, you need it," Fred chuckled. He squeezed my hand before leaning down and kissing my forehead gently. "I'll see you later," he said.

I swallowed, wishing he didn't have to go, but also desperately wanting to see everyone else.

After Fred left, George came in, then Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, then Ron and Ginny, then Tess and Uncle Jesse. Tess had brought me daisies, which I loved. And then, a few minutes after they had left, I was actually beginning to drift off to sleep when there was a knock on the door. I opened my eyes to see Oliver's dad standing there. "Are you up for one more visitor?" he asked with an apologetic smile. "If not, I can tell him to bugger off."

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "You can tell worried friends and family members of sickly patients to bugger off?"

"I can with this one because it happens to be my son," he answered with a smile.

"Oliver?" I asked in surprise. "Uh, yeah...sure, he can come in."

Healer Wood smiled and retreated from the room. A second later, Oliver pushed the door open and just stood there, staring at me. "I just heard," he said. "I had practice this morning, so I didn't see my mother's note until after I got back to my flat."

"She wrote you?" I asked.

"Yeah, her shift ended early this morning," he said. "Around eight. She wrote me right afterwards, but I had an eight-thirty practice."

"What about your dad?" I asked. "How long is his shift? I feel like he's been here forever."

"It'll be over soon," Oliver said. "Healers are used to working long shifts, trust me."

"Sounds exhausting," I sighed.

"But worth it," Oliver smiled, nodding towards me. "Clearly." He hesitated and I saw him swallow. "How are you?"

I shrugged. "Okay," I said. "As good as I can be given the circumstances."

Oliver nodded.

"You can come sit down, you know," I said, nodding towards the chair. "You don't have to stand in the doorway."

Oliver hesitated, then made his way towards the chair and sat down, looking me over. "So, how'd my dad do?" he asked with a smile. "Good?"

"I'm alive, aren't I?" I asked with a snort.

"True," Oliver laughed. "But he put you back together alright? Your organs aren't going to fall apart again, are they?"

"Well I won't know until the event that they actually do fall apart," I told him. "But I'm sure he did wonderfully. Give him some credit." I paused. "Honestly, I can't thank him enough. He saved my life."

Oliver nodded, but didn't answer.

"So what about you?" I asked. "Work's good? You're doing okay?"

Oliver nodded again as a smile lit up his face. "We didn't make it to the World Cup but we came close. Maybe next year, right?"

"I never thought I'd hear you say that," I said, shaking my head in awe. "I never thought I'd hear you be so okay with not going to the _Quidditch World Cup_. Maybe next year?" I let out a breath of laughter. "Wow, Olls."

Oliver laughed. "Well, I've come to realize since I've been in school that there are way more important things than Quidditch. Plus, I have a lot of time to make it to the World Cup. Way more years than I had to try to win the house cup at school."

"I hope you do make it, Olls," I whispered. There was a pause. "If you do make it, can I come?"

"Of course," Oliver answered. "I'll make sure you have the best seats."

"I may have to magically alter that shirt you got me before, though," I said. "Am I allowed to put my _friend_ is a Keeper?"

Oliver half-smiled. "I don't see why not."

"So we're friends?" I asked. "I know you said you didn't know if you could handle that right away..."

"Of course we're friends, Lie," Oliver said. "I was just upset. I needed time."

I nodded. "I know. I was upset too, believe me. If you had any idea how hard that was for me to do…."

"I know," Oliver answered. "But it worked out. You're happy now with Fred and..." He smiled shyly. "I actually have a date next weekend."

"You _what_?" I cried, widening my eyes and trying to sit up. A shooting pain shot through my stomach and I yelped before flopping back down.

"Hey, easy," Oliver said in alarm. He chuckled at the look on my face and shook his head.

I was quiet as I waited for Oliver to say something else. To elaborate on what he had just said. When he didn't, I shot him an expectant look. "Well? What's her name? Where'd you meet her?"

"Kristen," he said. He smiled sheepishly. "And-well, you remember Matt, right? My teammate?"

"One of the Chasers?" I asked.

"Yeah...well, Kristen's his younger sister. She's my age."

"Oh, he must _love_ that you're going on a date with her," I laughed, wincing as my stomach hurt again.

"He's been a bit...shell-shocked," Oliver said. "But he'll get over it."

"Did she go to Hogwarts?" I asked.

Oliver shook his head. "Their parents are divorced. Kristen was only ten and moved with her mother to France and went to Beauxbatons. Matt was fifteen and was almost done at Hogwarts so he stayed here with his dad. He and Kristen kept in touch, though. Visited frequently. They're close. And once Kristen was done with school, she moved back here. She's been back for about two years now."

"That must have been rough to be separated," I said. "I wouldn't have been able to do that with Jules." I paused. "Did she know Fleur and-and...Gabrielle?"

"She might have known _of_ them, but she's a bit older than Fleur, I think. By a year or two."

"She's apparently been seeing Bill this past year," I said. "Fleur, I mean. I haven't seen her, but Fred's told me she and Bill go to the Burrow for dinner sometimes. It's gotten quite serious from what he's said."

"That's good, isn't it?" Oliver asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, I think so." It was quiet between us for a bit until I spoke again. "I'm happy for you, Olls, I really am."

"Thanks." He smiled at me and reached out to squeeze my hand. "I'd better get going. You need some rest."

"Everyone keeps telling me that," I said with a smile.

"You must be tired," Oliver chuckled, getting to his feet.

"Actually, yes, but I'd much rather talk to all my visitors. Just...Oliver?"

"Yeah?"

"You don't have to wait for me to end up in the hospital to see me again, you know." I smiled wryly. "I mean it. If you're okay with being friends, well...I'd really like it if we, you know...kept in contact. If you'd like to, that is." I bit my lip nervously.

"I'd like that, too," Oliver said. "What about Fred? Will he hate it?"

"He doesn't have a choice in the matter," I told him matter-of-factly. "He's still friends with Angelina, so he can't complain. Besides, he can't tell me what to do. I'm a grown up lady." I stuck my nose in the air and put on the most dignified expression I could manage.

Oliver laughed. "Alright, grown up lady, let's try and stay out of trouble then, shall we?"

I rolled my eyes. "I'll do my best, but I can't make any promises."

Oliver smiled. "Bye, Liles, I'm really glad you're okay."

"Me too," I answered.

I watched as Oliver quietly slipped out of the room, leaving me alone. It was the first time I'd been alone since I'd woken up earlier, and now the quiet felt odd. I felt lonely all of a sudden. As tired as I felt, I had liked having people in the room. It distracted me from what was going on. It made me forget I was in the hospital and that I had had a close call last night. And now, I was alone with my thoughts. Alone with the knowledge that I still might have some mysterious double that had saved my life last night and I didn't know what to do about it. I hadn't told anyone except my brother the truth about what had happened and I had no idea if it was the right choice or not. Was it a mistake to keep such a big secret to myself?


	67. Chapter 67

I must have fallen asleep sometime after Oliver left, because I woke up later without really remembering when I had fallen asleep. I slowly slid my eyes open and let out a groan as I turned my head towards the door. I smiled when I saw Fred sitting beside my bed again, sitting sideways in his chair, his legs draped over the side as he flipped absentmindedly through a magazine.

"Reading about the latest summer trends?" I asked hoarsely.

Fred looked up and smiled before quickly shutting the magazine and sitting up in the chair. He tossed the magazine onto my bedside table. "You'd think there'd be more of a variety of reading material out in that waiting room," he said.

"I'm surprised you were reading at all," I said.

"Well, firstly, I was bored out of my mind," Fred answered. "Secondly, magazines don't require much reading. Honestly, I was just looking at photos of all the pretty witches." He winked as his mouth turned up in a smirk.

"Great, thanks," I answered sarcastically.

"Feeling okay?" Fred asked, his pale blue eyes scanning my face.

I sighed and nodded. "Still sore," I said. I glanced down at my hand. "The IV is finally out," I commented.

"Yeah, one of the Healers said you needed to take some blood replenishing potion by mouth when you woke up," Fred said. "She's supposed to come back soon. Oliver's dad's shift ended, but he said he'd probably see you tomorrow."

"Have you heard anything about when I'm getting out of here?" I asked, picking at a thread on my blanket.

Fred shrugged. "No, but you're going to be here until at least tomorrow, Lie. What'd you expect? That you'd have your organs practically ripped out and almost bleed to death and then be up and about in a day? Magic isn't _that_ good."

"No, of course I didn't think that," I said. "But I'm tired of being in this bed."

"I know," Fred said sympathetically, reaching over to take my hand. He rested his elbows on my bed and brought my hand up to his lips, pressing a kiss to my knuckles.

"I have to tell you something," I said, staring at my hand in his grasp.

"Yeah?" Fred asked, trailing slow kisses down the side of my hand to the side of my wrist.

I nodded. "After I got hit, I-well...I assume you heard that someone dragged me to the bottom of the stairs at the Ministry," I said. "And that someone wrapped my jacket around the injury."

"Yeah," Fred said slowly, pulling back so that his mouth wasn't obstructed by my wrist anymore. "Whoever it was helped save your life."

"I think it might've been me," I said quickly, looking down at my blankets in confusion. I still wasn't sure what to think about all this. It sounded insane even to my own ears and I had been the one to witness it this time.

There was a pause after I spoke that lasted for a few seconds. "Come again?" Fred asked, blinking at me.

I shook my head. "I saw-I saw someone above me before I passed out," I said. "And whoever it was looked a lot like me. And I mean _a lot_. There was no one else there who's that similar to me. No one I could've mistaken..."

"You were half conscious and losing blood fast," Fred said.

"I know," I answered. "But the point is that _someone_ moved me and someone tied my jacket around me. Someone was definitely there and whoever it was looked a lot like me."

"I'm not saying no one was there," Fred said. "Obviously someone was there. But maybe you didn't see them right since you were so out of it."

"I don't know, Fred," I said. "I'd brush it off as something like that too if things like this hadn't happened already. It happened to Danny. It happened to _you_. And it happened to my brother, Ron, and Hermione. All of us have seen..._me_ doing things on all these different occasions when I didn't or couldn't have done what they're claiming. None of us were half-conscious those other times. Except maybe Danny who had nearly drowned..."

"You should've gone to talk to McGonagall," Fred muttered.

"I thought this had stopped!"

"Well, clearly it hasn't," Fred said.

I swallowed. "Maybe it's a good thing," I said, voicing my thoughts from before. "I mean, it's not hurting anyone. In fact, whatever's going on is doing quite the opposite. Maybe I should just learn to embrace whatever's happening."

"Without getting any answers?" Fred asked. "Don't you want to know what this is?"

"Sure, but...maybe there is no actual answer," I said. "We couldn't seem to figure it out ourselves," I said. "I mean...maybe I'm not doing any actual magic. Maybe it's not me having some weird ability, but someone else-"

"Posing as you?" Fred asked. "I know we wondered that originally, but now...it seems kind of insane. I mean, why would this person pose as you, follow you all the way to the Ministry, save your life and leave? Where would they have hidden the whole time you were there up until you got hit? Unless they knew their way around _really_ well."

"So you think I'm doing all this somehow?"

Fred shrugged as he inhaled and let out a long, slow breath. "Either that or we're all going absolutely bonkers."

"You hit that point ages ago, Freddie," I said, smiling up at him affectionately.

"Gee, thanks," he snorted.

I smiled wider. "There's another thing," I whispered. "I-" But before I could go any further, there was a knock on the door. It opened a crack and a Healer stuck her head in. She was smiling. "Ah, Miss Fitzgerald, you're awake. I have a rather eager young visitor for you, if you're okay with that."

"Who?" I asked in confusion. A _young_ visitor? I didn't know anyone under the age of fifteen who could possibly want to come visit me. Unless it was Danny.

The Healer opened the door a bit wider to reveal not Danny, but a young girl dressed in pink pajamas and holding a book.

"Grace!" I said with a smile. "This is a surprise."

"She found out you were here," the Healer said. "And she begged to come see you."

"I want to read to _you_ now, Lilah!" Grace said proudly. "You're sick and I think I ought to return the favor you were doing for me."

I smiled wider and tilted my head, gesturing for her to come in. "Well, get on over here." I patted my bed. "Climb in."

"Careful, dear," the Healer said, following Grace over and gently guiding her into the bed beside me.

Fred stood up and stretched. "I think I'll leave you both to it," he said with a grin.

"You don't want to stay and hear the story?" I asked. I leaned over to peer at the book Grace was holding. "You're not interested in hearing the Tales of Beedle the Bard?"

"I can recite that book by heart," Fred said.

"So can I," I hissed, "but let's not spoil a good deed, shall we?"

Fred rolled his eyes. "Too late on my part, but your secret is safe." He looked down at Grace. "Have fun. Take care of my girlfriend, okay?"

"As long as _you_ take care of my _friend_," Grace said.

"Deal," Fred answered, grinning as he reached out to shake Grace's small hand.

I giggled as Fred left the room, mouthing that he'd see me later.

"I'll be here," I said. "Can't really go anywhere even if I wanted to."

Fred rolled his eyes and slipped out of the room while I turned to Grace. "You didn't have to come all the way here," I said.

"Oh, yes, because one floor up, a left, a right and another left is such a long journey," Grace said, her voice heavy with sarcasm as she rolled her eyes.

I laughed and raised my eyebrows. "It is for a sick person." Grace hesitated and I felt my stomach clench. "Uh-oh. What?" Had her condition gotten worse?

She looked up at me. Finally, she broke into a grin. "I'm not sick anymore. The tumor's gone. I'm going home in two days."

"What? Gracie, that's amazing," I cried. I clenched my teeth as I ignored the pain in my stomach to give her a tight hug. "Oh, I'm so happy for you! Your parents must be thrilled!"

"Mum burst into tears the second the Healers broke the news," Grace smiled. "It was so mushy and awkward."

I giggled, but then became serious as a sense of sadness filled me. "So, I guess this is our last time reading together, then, isn't it?"

"Doesn't have to be," Grace said simply. "You can always come to my house and read to me. You can be my babysitter."

"You sure you need one?" I teased. "You are ten now after all. So grown up."

"I wouldn't mind a babysitter if it happened to be you," Grace said. "I won't be eleven until January and won't start Hogwarts until next September, so I've got a long time at home still. Mum's trying to catch me up on all that pre-Hogwarts material I'm supposed to know. I'm sure you're a good teacher. You could help me!"

I hesitated. "Actually, my plan was to get a job as a tutor," I told her. "For now, at least, so it's funny that you say that."

"Tutor me!" Grace said. "Mummy and Daddy will definitely pay you!"

I laughed. "We'll see, okay? Maybe we can talk about it. But I'd definitely love to do it. You know I love spending time with you."

Grace nodded. "I'll tell Mummy and Daddy tonight."

"Okay," I answered, resting my cheek on her head. "Now, let's get started on this book, shall we? I can't wait to hear it."

"I heard you tell your boyfriend you know it by heart," Grace snorted. "You're not fooling anyone."

"Well, just for today, I have conveniently forgotten everything that happens in these stories," I said with a shrug. "I need your help to remember."

"Okay," Grace laughed. "If you say so, Lilah." She rolled her eyes again before opening the book to the first page and beginning to read.

* * *

The next day, I was flipping through the magazine Fred had left in my room, bored out of my mind, when the door suddenly opened. I looked up to see Hermione sticking her head in. "Can I come in?" she asked tentatively as if she thought she was being a nuisance.

"Hermione! Hi!" I said in surprise. "Yeah, come on in. I'd love some company. Contrary to what you might think, it's no fun at all to be left alone in a room, confined to a bed."

Hermione smiled and slipped into the room, shutting the door behind her. She made her way over to me and sunk down into the chair next to my bed. "How are you?"

"Alive," I said with a shrug. "What about you? The last time I saw you, you were unconscious."

"Nothing Madame Pomfrey couldn't fix," she shrugged. "Where is everyone?"

"Fred's getting something to eat, George went back to the shop, my dad and Julian went home to get some shut eye and change clothes before coming back and my mother's around here somewhere. She popped in earlier to see me now that I'm awake." I shrugged.

Hermione nodded and shifted in her seat. "I have some news for you," she said.

"Uh-oh," I said.

"No, no, it's nothing bad exactly," she said. "In fact, I don't think it's bad at all!"

"Then why are you shifting around like you're nervous?" I asked. "Or are you excited?"

Hermione shrugged and blushed. "Well…Julian told me about how you thought you saw yourself pull you out of the way and wrap your jacket around you at the Ministry."

I nodded and rolled my eyes. "Yeah. I don't know if I'm going crazy or if there's a reason for this."

"Well, that's just it," Hermione said. "I think there is and I think I might have found it."

I turned to look at her. "What?"

She nodded eagerly. "I mean, I'd been trying to figure it out since Fred and George left. When Julian, Ron and I saw you across the entrance hall but you and the others claimed you'd been in the common room. The situation had just gotten increasingly weirder. There were more people involved who were adamant about what they saw. And then after the Ministry, something clicked and I had to go back to check some research but—"

"What'd you find?" I asked in anticipation. This could finally be the answer to the issue I'd been dealing with for months.

"Astral projection," Hermione answered simply.

"Astral projection?" I asked. "As in…I'm making myself appear somewhere else?"

"Pretty much," Hermione answered. "I mean, I'm not _entirely_ certain about this because some things seem to fit and others don't, but it's the only thing I could find that was similar to what you've experienced."

"Okay, well, can you elaborate? What fits and what doesn't?"

"Astral projection is supposed to be an out of body experience. Usually in order to accomplish it, you need to be relaxed. But every time this has happened to you, it's been a time of great stress." She paused. "And from what I read, usually the people who can astral project themselves are aware of what's going on and where their projected selves are going and what they're doing. You never even knew what you were doing."

"But in my mind I really wanted to do what my…astral projection did. I just couldn't. For instance, I really wanted to save Danny, but the Slytherins got in my way. I really wanted to warn Fred and George about Umbridge and Flint finding their hideout but I couldn't get to them in time. And I wanted to warn them on the day they left that Umbridge was on to them, but again, I wouldn't have reached them in time. And neither did my projection that day, either, for that matter. And at the Ministry….."

"You wanted to save yourself," Hermione answered. "At least in some part of your mind, subconscious or not, you knew you'd die if you were left unattended for too long. And that's the common thread that I've picked up on. Each time your projection has made an appearance, you've desperately wanted to save someone. Danny, Fred and George and even yourself. It's almost as if stress and the desperation to help people…_enhances_ your ability." She paused. "Or you're just so skilled you don't need to take the extra time to relax yourself." She smiled.

"Hermione, how can I be skilled at something I didn't even know I could do?" I asked, returning the smile.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "Like I said, perhaps the stress enhances it for you. You do always feel a desperation to get people out of trouble. Maybe it's so strong that you project yourself and let your double do what you can't."

I didn't answer as I thought it all over. "Well, I certainly like this explanation more than someone taking Polyjuice Potion to pose as me."

"I may not even be right. Except I'm actually quite certain that I am and it's just your specific situation that's a little different. I mean, it makes sense. More sense than someone posing as you, anyway. It's why your double seems to appear and disappear at will. No one really sees it—her—you—come and go. It explains why people have seen you in places you're not."

"Will it ever stop?" I asked curiously. I wasn't sure if I wanted it to or not. I wasn't sure how I felt about this at all yet. I'd have to take time to process and maybe do some research of my own. But I just wanted to know if losing this ability was even an option. If what I had been doing was some kind of fluke.

Hermione shook her head. "I doubt it. Astral projection is something people usually get better at over time. And even if you stopped getting so desperate to help people that the projection didn't appear, the worst that would happen is you'd just be out of practice."

"But I never even needed practice in the first place," I said. "It just happened one day."

Hermione smiled and shrugged. "I guess you're some sort of prodigy." She paused. "It could be something that runs in your family. You could ask your parents. Do some research, perhaps. But I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it. It's a very cool skill to have. Useful too, especially since your projection doesn't do anything bad or dangerous necessarily. It just saves people."

I nodded. "Thanks Hermione. If anyone were going to figure this out, it was you."

She smiled. "If it were me, I'd want someone to tell me if they had gotten an idea…."

Before I could answer, there were footsteps from outside, coming towards my door. There were also the sounds of voices.

"I'd better go," Hermione said. "Feel better."

"Thanks for visiting and thanks for the news," I said. "Really, it's good to know I'm not insane."

She laughed before slipping back outside into the hallway. A few moments later, the footsteps we had heard had stopped and the raised voices were right outside my door. It sounded like my parents and it sounded like they were arguing. Wonderful. I certainly hadn't missed that in the years since their divorce.

Suddenly, the door opened and Fred slipped into the room. "What's going on out there?" I asked.

"Your parents are having a heated discussion," he informed me matter-of-factly.

"About what?" I asked.

"You," he replied, clearing his throat.

"Ah. Are you going to be more specific?" I asked.

Fred sighed. "They're trying to figure out where you're going to live after you get out of the hospital."

"What do you mean? I'm going to live with my dad. That's where I've been living." I had been meaning to tell him about the information Hermione had given me, but now that idea had completely left my mind. My stomach was suddenly in nervous knots. What was my mother up to now?

"But your mother wants you back at her place now so that you can adequately heal and recover," Fred answered.

I gaped at him. "But...she _kicked me out_."

"I know," Fred whispered, staring at me.

"What happened between you two?" I asked. "I've kind of heard the story, but...I heard she had you thrown out of the ward. And then you talked to her in the lobby and she let you come see me when it was supposed to be family only? Is that true?"

Fred nodded. "I think she was just exhausted. Exhausted of fighting me. It's not like she's going to have a change of heart, Lie. She and I aren't going to sit around having tea and biscuits laughing about the good old days when she despised me."

I glared at him. "Well, what if...I mean if she wants me back home then maybe she-"

"She wants you back home because she doesn't think your father will do a good enough job watching over you. She wants you to have enough room and be in your own bed that you grew up in."

"She said that?"

Fred shrugged. "Essentially." He was quiet. "I get the feeling she thinks that kicking you out hasn't had the desired effect. You and Julian still run off left and right and get yourself into danger. She probably thinks George and I had a part in this as well. She's probably itching to blame me."

"She can't possibly," I said. "She must know you left school. You weren't around to influence me.""

"I don't know. I know you didn't tell her and I certainly didn't, so unless my own mother clued her in, then she has no idea. But I'm sure she won't be too keen on that anyway. So either way, I've done something wrong."

"You're running a successful business," I said. "She can't hate that."

"But I left school to do it," he replied.

"Why do you care?" I snapped.

"I don't care!" Fred answered hotly. "Not about what she thinks of me, anyway. But when it concerns you..." He sighed. "I just don't know, Lilah. It's not good for you to have her be yanking you around. First she wants custody of you after the divorce, then she kicks you out, now she wants you back. She wouldn't let you see Julian, now it's okay because you'll be back home. She wants to keep you away from me, but then decides to let you make your own mistakes, but now she's bringing you back under her roof and will probably try to order you around and tell you who to befriend again."

"Well, I'm not going to listen to her," I cried. "I'm eighteen. I've told you this time and time again. Even when we were younger. I'm of age, I make my own decisions and I will always decide on you."

"Over your own mother, Lie? Get real."

"Yes, over my own mother! In case you haven't noticed, we aren't some kind of mother daughter dream team. She's...barely anyone. It's sad." I let out a bitter laugh and looked away. "And you know what? I'm tired. I'm tired of wasting time on this. If she isn't going to change..." I shrugged. "I'm eighteen. I'm legally of age. There's no reason for my parents to even argue because I'm old enough to decide who to live with."

"And you're going to pick your dad?" Fred asked. "What about Julian? What if you can't see him if you choose your dad? And I mean, even if your mother agreed to let you see him, he has to go back to school in September. You won't be seeing him anyway."

"Exactly," I said. "No matter who I live with, I won't see Jules when he's at school. I've always known that was coming."

"But if you were with your mother, you'd definitely see him the rest of the time."

I was quiet as I stared down at my hands. That was the one downside of insisting I choose where to live. If I chose my dad, which I so wanted to, I would willingly sacrifice being able to see my brother, which I had never done before. I had never chose to leave him and I had always said I never would. But I couldn't go back and live with my mother. Fred was right. I couldn't be pulled back and forth like the rope in some huge game of tug of war.

"I need to get a job," I groaned. "Start earning money so I can pay to rent my own place. The savings I have now will probably only get me a few months and that's not including food and furniture and-"

"That's it!" Fred exclaimed excitedly, his eyes lighting up with an idea. "Come live with me. Until you can get on your feet and get your own place. Or _don't_. Don't even bother for that matter. Just live with me."

I stared at him, dumbfounded. "Fred-I-what? What about George?"

"He'll be fine. He'll agree in a heartbeat, actually. And if not, I'll hex him for being a heartless prat."

"If you're asking me to live with you forever, doesn't that make our relationship sound-"

"Serious?" Fred asked. "Yeah, because it is, don't you agree?"

I nodded slowly. "I don't think my mother would go for it."

Fred laughed. "Lilah, you've just said you're eighteen. You can make your own choices. And you're right. You don't have to live with either of your parents anymore. You can live with me. I mean it. I've offered for you to come live with me before and you've always said we didn't have the money or the room. And now we do! Three mouths to feed are a lot easier than nine—ten including you. Besides, the shop is doing fantastic already and I think it'll only get better from here."

"Okay, but even if you can afford it, what about room? The Burrow was cramped with so many people living there but even in your flat…do you have room?"

"We'll make room."

"I don't know," I said with a smirk, "you already told me George was sleeping in the trash bins outside, remember? So where will that leave me?"

Fred smiled. "I have a bed big enough for two," he whispered.

I shot him a look. "So I get a bed, while George gets garbage bins? How cruel. George is your twin brother."

"That may be, but he is _not_ an extremely beautiful girl."

"Oh, you are unbelievable," I said with a laugh as I shook my head.

Fred grinned as his eyes searched my face. "For a bit, I thought I may never hear you say those words to me again."

I stared back at him as my smile slowly slid from my face. "Fred..."

Before he could say anything else, the door was quickly pushed open and my parents breezed into the room. I met my mother's eyes. I was still taken aback by how terrible she looked. Tired. And practically disheveled by her standards. I could actually see a few wrinkles in her clothes. And she looked as if she'd been crying.

"Oh, Lilah," she finally sighed, sinking down on the side of my bed. She reached her hand out and hesitated for a second before placing her hand on my arm. It looked as if she had tears in her eyes, but she wasn't looking at me so I couldn't be sure.

"It's nice to finally see you here," I told her, keeping my tone even. "I saw you for about two seconds earlier. The first time since I've been here."

"Lilah, please," she said with a sniff, swiping at her nose and looking up at me as she composed herself. "I do have a job to keep and I had to sort a lot out-"

"I'm your daughter and I am in the hospital," I said firmly, looking her in the eye. "I had to have four organs repaired. I could have died. It was a time when most people would need or at least want their mother around. But no, instead I had everyone else deliver on that front while you did what you always do and threw yourself into your job when things get tough and stressful."

"Lilah," she said, her voice filled with exhaustion as she looked at the ceiling. She didn't speak for a moment. "I was here that whole first night."

"Great, so was everyone else, and they've hardly left since then. And they stayed and came to visit the second I was awake. I woke up and got to see Dad and Jules. I got to see every single one of the Weasleys—at least the ones that are around, anyway. I even saw Oliver and Grace before I saw my own mother. And then you have the nerve to try and get me to come back to live with you?" When my mother looked at me in surprise, I continued. "Yeah, I know what you and Dad were discussing out there. And I'm not going to live with you."

"Ha," I heard my dad whisper under his breath. I fought the urge to smile as I looked at him. "And I don't think I'm going to live with you either, Dad," I whispered. "I'm sorry." I glanced at Fred. "Fred offered to have me move in with him."

My mother let out a shrill laugh. "Are you kidding me?'

"No," I answered.

"Lilah, you need to recover from a _very _serious injury. I must impress on you how serious it was. You're not going to be able to-"

"I know. I'm not going to be able to do certain things while I heal. I'm going to need rest. Trust me, I know. Oliver's dad will tell me what I need to do and I'll do it. Whatever it takes. I'm of age and I'm a big girl and I can follow directions. And I'd probably be moving into my own place soon enough anyway. It's about time."

"Not while you're injured like this," Mum said.

"Fred can help take care of me just as well as either of you could," I pointed out.

"If not better," Fred commented. He said it lightly, but I knew what he was thinking. How well would my mother watch over me if she was hardly ever home? She seemed to pick up on this as well and looked ready to say something, but then just sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

"Fred works now, too, doesn't he? I expect it takes a lot of hours to keep that shop open. And he's the same age as you, Lilah. He's still essentially a child, even if he's technically of age."

"I'm not an idiot," Fred said. "I'm not going to be _operating _on Lilah or anything. All I'll have to do is make sure she does what she's supposed to do in order to heal. The Healer's work will mostly be done by the time she walks out of this hospital. I can handle the rest. Besides, I run my _own_ business, which means I'm the owner and I'm the boss. I can make my own hours in emergencies and times of need. I can be flexible when someone I love needs me. George helps run the business and we're more than happy to work around things or pick up extra shifts if the other needs to be somewhere. And we also have Verity, our assistant. In fact, she was there that first day while George and I were here and our friend Lee has been going in a lot, too. We manage. But all I knew was that Lilah was here in St. Mungo's and I wasn't leaving her until I knew she was okay."

I smiled as my mother let out a heavy sigh. "Well, I suppose that's you and how _you_ operate, isn't it? Don't chastise me for not being the same way."

"She's your daughter!" Fred exclaimed, standing up and practically overturning his chair. "Act like a mother for once!"

"He's not chastising you!" I said at the same time.

"Okay, okay, everyone calm down," my dad interjected, seeing my mother gearing up to freak out on all of us. We were all quiet for a long moment. A moment that felt as if it went on forever. Finally, my dad let out a sigh of his own and spoke. "I suppose since Lilah _is_ of age, she's legally allowed to make this choice on her own, Joanna. Injured or not, our daughter is technically a legal adult."

"She's eighteen," Mum argued.

"And in our society, the legal age is seventeen," Dad argued. "That's how it is."

"Oh, _now_ you're so keen on rules and social norms?" Mum asked. "You wouldn't be saying _that's how it is_ if-"

"Joanna," Dad sighed, closing his eyes and swallowing. "Please. Just stop making a big case out of everything. Stop trying to control everything-especially the decisions of someone you not too long ago told you didn't want to have anything to do with."

"She's my daughter, as _he_ so kindly pointed out," Mum snapped, jerking her head towards Fred, who scowled.

"You did kick her out," Dad replied calmly. "You did say that you didn't want to associate with her as long as she was associating with the Weasleys, did you not?" He raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms. "And given that Fred has not left her side since she's been here, it looks like she's still associating with him."

Mum set her jaw and stared at Dad, obviously working out what to say next. "She's still my daughter," she finally said.

"And she's mine too," Dad replied calmly. "And I think that she can decide for herself what she wants."

Mum scowled. "Fine," she snapped. "Fine." She looked at me. "If you want to go live with this boyfriend of yours, then go right ahead. And when you see that I was right, well, don't say I didn't warn you."

"Right about what, exactly?" I asked coolly. "How he won't look out for me while I'm healing-or ever? How he won't be there for me when I need him? How I'll end up being the bad guy all the time because I'll get tired of his pranks? How his jokes will stop being funny one day?"

"I don't _want_ to be right about those things," Mum answered.

"But you think you are," I said. "Fred loves me, Mum. I don't know how you can't comprehend that."

Mum was quiet for a second and something actually softened in her face. "I know," she whispered. "I do know that, actually. I realized it when he refused to leave the hospital. Especially after I tried to kick him out. And then when I let him come sit in here with you while you were unconscious..." She looked at Fred. "I saw you. I saw you sitting with her, holding her hand. I saw the look on your face." She swallowed and looked away. "I know you two love each other. But that's _now_."

"Were you this way when you and Dad dated?" I asked. "Were you this doubtful? Because if you were asking yourself all these _what if_ questions then, then why did you even bother getting married?" I smirked. "You married him because you did love him and you thought it could work. I mean, sure, there's always a shot it won't, but you didn't worry about that at the time, did you?"

"Not at all," Dad chimed in. "Said yes right away when I asked her to marry me."

Mum sent Dad a glare before looking back at me. "Contrary to what you seem to think, Lilah, I do love you very much. I'm hard on you, yes, but because I see so much potential in you. I know you can have a great future. I know life is short. And you don't have time to waste making the same mistakes I did."

"Ouch," Dad commented, raising his eyebrows.

"But see, I keep trying to tell you...Fred and I are not you and Dad! Just because Fred likes jokes and pranks like Dad does, doesn't mean that he and I will end up the same way. And he will not hold me back. Any potential you see, he sees just as much, if not more. Secondly, even if this was a mistake, which it's not, it's my mistake to make. I have to actually experience things for myself you know. You just warning me and steering me clear of things you think will hurt me will not help me to learn anything. If moving in with Fred turns out to be awful, then I learn from it and move on. If we get married and it doesn't work out, it'll be sad, it'll be painful, but we'll learn from it and move on." I looked at my dad and smiled. "Someone reminded me that it's what people do after tornados hit, after all."

Dad beamed. "That was a pretty insightful analogy, huh?"

"Very," I nodded, grinning back.

Mum sighed heavily. "Well...fine. If you want to be free to make your own mistakes, like I said...go. If you want to move in with Fred, if that's what you think is best, then go. But Julian is staying with me until he is of age."

My smile slipped off my face. "Will I be able to see him?" I asked. "Please don't uphold all those strict rules because you're afraid of being connected to the Weasleys somehow. I need to see my brother."

"You should have thought of that before-"

"Joanna," Dad sighed. "Please. Try to be flexible."

"I've explained this to Lilah already. This family is a family of blood traitors. They'll be some of the first to be targeted if-"

"We know," Dad said. "But they're _good_ people. I know you never bothered to get to know them that well and that you love to see just what you want to see, but I know you've been seeing some things that have proved you wrong lately."

Mum sighed again. She tapped her foot as she stared at the ceiling in thought. "Fine," she finally answered briskly. "But Julian can go to them. Not the other way around."

"Gladly," Fred jumped in. I wished I were in a position where I could've kicked him. Instead, I sighed and rolled my eyes.

My mother shot him a glare. "I do hope you're happy now," she said briskly. And with that, she breezed out of the room.

* * *

"I don't think you should be carrying a bag that heavy."

I sighed heavily and rolled my eyes as I slid the strap of the bag off my shoulder, plopping the entire thing onto one of the chairs by the fireplace. I started taking off my coat next, swiftly moving down the line of buttons on the front, undoing them one by one.

It was the last week of October. I'd moved in with Fred during the first week of July—nearly four months ago. And I'd been tutoring since the end of August. I had been approved almost immediately after going to the Ministry. After that, I just had to take a short course myself at the Ministry to prepare me for the job and then I could start. I had been working with a bunch of kids pre-Hogwarts age, including Grace. She had talked to her mother about it, just as she had said she would. And I certainly wasn't going to complain about seeing her regularly again. She was great and so were the rest of the kids I worked with. In fact, I liked doing this a lot more than I had thought I would. It was really rewarding, seeing someone improve in a subject because of you. And this way, it was almost like I was teaching without having to leave home for an entire school year. That just wasn't something I would want to do at this point. Maybe years and years down the line, but not now.

"It was on my shoulder, Fred, first of all," I said now, in response to Fred's comment, meeting his eyes from where he was sprawled out on the couch, staring at me. I hadn't been in the door two seconds and he was already chastising me. "It doesn't put a strain on my stomach. Second of all, I've been getting better. The amount of stuff I can do has definitely increased."

"How do you know?" Fred asked, sitting up and looking at me. "How do you know you haven't been making things worse? All those times I've caught you trying to lift things over the past few months when I was preoccupied."

"I had to do it when you weren't looking because you treated me like I was made of glass!"

"You weren't supposed to be doing any lifting," Fred said. "It's my job to take care of you."

"Someone wants to prove my mother wrong," I snorted, flopping down into the chair next to my bag.

"It has nothing to do with your mother," Fred snapped. When I raised my eyebrows, he sighed and rubbed his eyes. "It really doesn't. I couldn't care less what she thinks. But it's still my duty to look after you. And I also want to. Because I love you and all that nonsense." He smiled and waved his hand around dismissively as I giggled.

That was another thing that had changed over the summer besides my living arrangements and my first official job. I hadn't seen or heard from my mother since that day she walked out of the hospital. I saw my dad all the time, and Julian too. He came to Fred and George's flat, just like my mother had said he'd have to do. And we never talked about her much. I didn't particularly care to. It wasn't even that I felt angry at her. Just tired. Tired of her. Tired of playing games. Tired of wondering if she could possibly be changing or coming around. First it would seem like it, then it wouldn't. I just didn't have the time for it, or the desire to put up with it anymore. And I just felt so much better being away from her. It made it a million times better that I was allowed to see Julian now, too.

But the thing was that I couldn't help but think that she was cutting me off for good now. I had chosen Fred over her time and time again and moving in with him had been the final straw. I probably hadn't heard from her because she didn't want to have anything to do with me, Dad, Fred, or the rest of the Weasleys. She had finally seemed to have given up on her version of 'protecting' me. The only reason that I suspected she was letting me see Julian was because she probably knew I'd figure out how to see him anyway. She probably thought I'd try to come to the house. And she probably was afraid of Julian sneaking out to see me and it was obvious she wouldn't have that. I doubted she wanted to be fooled again by one of her kids sneaking out of the house under her nose. Too bad Julian had already done it once. Last Christmas. With the help of Fred and George, of course.

"Anyway," I finally said, "to answer your question, I haven't made it any worse."

"How do you-"

"How do I know? I had my monthly check-up with Oliver's dad tonight, remember? And he informed me that I am now officially good as new. He ran all his tests and he said I'm back to normal. And _no_, Fred, my abdominal organs are not going to split open again."

"So you did ask him that," Fred said with a smirk. "You must have been worried too, then, even though you laughed in my face when I told you to ask."

"I didn't actually ask him. I told him what you wanted me to ask just because it's so ridiculous sounding! He's a Healer, Fred. It's his job. It's what he's trained to do and he does this every single day! I think we should give him a bit of credit, don't you?"

"I suppose," Fred said, peering at me. A smile started to lift the corners of his mouth. "He said you're okay, though?"

I nodded. "He said I should obviously continue to be careful and if anything does happen to come see him, but I should be fully cleared to do everything I used to do without any problems."

Fred grinned as I got up and moved to sit next to him on the couch. "You don't have to treat me like a porcelain doll anymore," I whispered, looking up at him with a smile.

"No?" he asked vaguely, his eyes wandering over my face as I shook my head. He smirked. "So what is it you're giving me permission to do?" He wiggled an eyebrow as he tried not to laugh.

I felt my smile grow wider as I tried to fight back my own laughter and play along. "What did you have in mind?" I asked, letting a little giggle escape at the end of the question as I raised my own eyebrow at him.

Fred tilted his head and narrowed his eyes thoughtfully at me. "Lilah Fitzgerald, are you trying to seduce me?"

I couldn't hold in my laughter anymore after that. I fell into a fit of giggles and leaned into Fred as he laughed too.

"Because," he continued, "I was thinking more along the lines of being able to do this." He reached out and swatted me upside the head. "Can't do _that_ to a porcelain doll! But now that you're better…." He trailed off and shrugged, smiling angelically as he did so.

"You ass," I grumbled, trying to return the favor and swat him back, but he laughed and blocked my attempt.

"What did you just call me?" he asked, reaching out and starting to tickle me.

I let out a shriek of laughter as I tried to swat him away to no avail. "An ass," I managed to get out through my laughter.

"Thought so," Fred answered as I laughed even harder and his hands darted from spot to spot, quicker than I could swat him away. I fell back onto the couch cushions as Fred hovered over me and started going for my most ticklish spot: my neck.

"Stop, stop, stop," I squealed through my laughs.

"Not until you apologize for calling me an ass."

"Can't do that," I giggled.

Just then, we heard a door open from down the hallway: George's bedroom door. "If you two are going to _insist_ on being that loud, I better be made godfather of your child!" he yelled.

"You've made that joke before, Georgie," I cried back, still laughing as tears now streamed down my cheeks from laughing so hard.

"But see, it's not a joke," he yelled back. "If you're going to make me put up with this hanky panky, it's the least you can do."

"Did he just say hanky panky?" I asked as Fred paused in his tickling and I caught my breath.

"I'm going to pretend he didn't," Fred answered. He smirked down at me before wiggling his fingers menacingly.

"Please don't," I laughed, but it was no use. He mercilessly started tickling me all over again. I tried to swat him away to no avail once again, but then finally I got an idea.

I let out a gasp of pain and grabbed my stomach. Fred froze in horror and his face went white as he looked down at me.

"My organs," I said, pretending to be in pain, but already feeling a smile lifting my lips, "they're…exploding." And then I fell into giggles once again. I had been laughing so hard for so long now that my stomach muscles actually did hurt.

"Now who's the ass?" Fred muttered, retreating to the other end of the couch. But when I opened my eyes, he was smiling slightly.

I propped my head up on the arm of the couch as I rested my arm behind my head and slid my feet into Fred's lap. He stared over at me as he absentmindedly traced circles into my ankle with his thumb.

"What?" I asked him as he got a thoughtful look on his face.

"I was just thinking about what you told me back when you were in St. Mungo's. What you said Hermione found out you were doing."

"The astral projection thing?" I asked.

He nodded. "Oliver's dad did a lot to save your life, sure, but he told us that what really helped that night was the timing. If much more had been wasted, you could have died. But what saved a lot of time was your…astral projection. You saved yourself that night and it's just funny that the person I owe it to the most for keeping you with me is…you. And the other person is your ex-boyfriend's father. It's just…odd."

I laughed. "Funny how the world works sometimes, isn't it?"

Fred nodded again and gave me a smile. "I'm really glad you looked out for yourself for once," he said. "Usually it's all about everyone else."

"I didn't know I was doing that though," I said. "I mean, I didn't—don't—want to die, but it's not something I could control either and I'm not sure if I ever could. I think I could—I'm assuming so with practice, but—"

"Have you thought about it?" Fred asked. "Learning to control it? Get better at it?"

I shrugged. "A little, but not really."

"Why not? Lie, if you could control it, think of what you could do! You would know what you were doing and could send your projection out to save lives whenever you wanted! And not just that, but loads of other things! Everything George and I use our identical features for, you could do too! Send your double out to do things you don't want to do."

"I'm not sure it would exactly work like that. I don't think it's quite like having a twin, Fred," I said. "I'd have to be the one controlling the projection. And how much energy would that require? How much focus?"

"You don't control her now," Fred said. "From what I understand, to control the projection, you'd have to be calm and relaxed and almost…sleeping. But you're apparently so good it happens when you're awake. So imagine what you could do if you looked into it more."

I shrugged. "I don't know. I suppose it could be useful."

"Could be? Lilah, you're all about saving lives. You mean to tell me if this projection thing were able to save my life or George's or Julian's, you'd simply think it was just _useful_?"

"No, you're right," I said thoughtfully. "It would be great if I could save people with my projection that I couldn't save normally, but how dangerous would that be for me? What if we find out that any danger my projection walks into, the same will happen to me physically? You know, like if my projection gets her head chopped off, is the real me done for?"

Fred was quiet for a second before he shrugged. "Don't know but you could find out. Honestly, I don't understand why you're not more curious about this. You don't even talk about it."

I didn't answer right away. "I'll think about it," I finally said.

"Will you?" Fred asked. "You're not just saying that?"

"No, I will, honestly," I said. Then I smiled and pushed myself to a sitting position. "But until then, I'm hungry. What've we got to eat around here?"

"Not much," Fred answered. "It was George's week to restock the fridge and he hasn't done it yet."

"For your information," George yelled out from his room, "it was my week last week."

"No it wasn't," Fred yelled back. He froze in thought. "Was it?" He got up and wandered into the kitchen. I followed him and watched as he looked at the calendar, narrowing his eyes at the Monday box, where a tiny letter F stood in the corner, marking his week to buy groceries. "Shit," he muttered as I laughed.

"Leaky Cauldron?" I asked.

"Leaky Cauldron it is," he answered, nodding vigorously.


	68. Chapter 68

By the time my nineteenth birthday had arrived, I was missing Julian immensely. I had been missing him since he had gone back to school on September first, but two months later, the odd feeling of not being back at school with him hadn't gone away. We still wrote multiple times a week, but it wasn't the same. And tomorrow would be the first birthday that I spent without him since I had first gone to Hogwarts and probably the third birthday without him since he was born.

"So, the whole family's coming to your birthday dinner at the Burrow tomorrow," Fred said, making eye contact with me in the mirror above his dresser as he began to pull off his magenta work robes. He had just gotten in from the shop and I had followed him to the bedroom, where I now lay sprawled on the bed.

"I figured," I answered with a smile. "But I'm assuming we're still excluding Charlie and Percy."

Fred grimaced and nodded. "Charlie simply can't get home often and Percy…."

"He hasn't contacted you at all?" I asked as Fred tossed his robes onto his desk and began unbuttoning his shirt. "He knows You-Know-Who was back. He was there at the Ministry. He saw him! The fact that he hasn't come back to apologize is unbelievable to me."

"He's got too much pride," Fred muttered, tossing his shirt onto his floor. I stood and collected it, intending to bring his things to be washed once Fred was done.

"Yeah, but—"

"He's like George and I in that sense," Fred sighed. "And Ron, too, for that matter. Saying sorry is _hard_. Especially when we realize how ridiculous we've been acting."

"I think it's like that for a lot of people," I said.

"But we seem to really struggle with it," Fred went on, pulling a t-shirt over his head and starting on un-doing his belt. "We're stubborn, in case you haven't noticed." He smirked at me as he kicked off his jeans and pulled on a pair of green pajama bottoms.

"Do you think that's the only thing stopping him?" I asked, gathering the rest of Fred's clothes in my arms. "Pride?"

Fred hesitated for a moment. "I hope so."

"Because it means he'll come back eventually," I said. "Instead of staying away forever."

Fred shrugged. "Let's not talk about Percy anymore!" he exclaimed. "We _were_ talking about your birthday dinner tomorrow. Your nineteenth birthday." He hesitated. "Bill's bringing Fleur, as I'm sure you've guessed."

I nodded. Mrs. Weasley had been inviting us all back to the Burrow every Sunday for dinner during the summer. And Bill had been bringing Fleur every week. One week in July, they had announced their engagement, which I was thrilled about. Fleur looked genuinely happy and she deserved to be that way after what had happened. I was glad she had found Bill. He loved her and from what I had heard, he'd been taking good care of her.

I still hadn't managed to have much of a conversation with Fleur, and didn't know all that much about her, but Mrs. Weasley and Ginny didn't like her much. They thought she was too self-centered and not good enough for Bill. I wasn't sure if I agreed. Sure, like I said, I didn't know her well, but I felt for her. She had lost her sister. If I had lost Julian, I'd need all the support I could get. And now that Fleur was away from her family, working here instead of back home in France, she needed someone to be there for her. And Bill had been there. I was happy that she had found someone to be honest. Bill was a good guy and despite whatever Fleur may be like, she deserved a good guy.

"How's your mum been about the engagement? Has she warmed up to it any?" I asked.

"Not really," Fred said. "She thinks it's just like the last war, when people were running off and getting married in a hurry because they were all fearing for their lives."

"I think Bill and Fleur really love each other, though," I said.

"I do too," Fred agreed, his eyes wandering over my face.

"What?" I whispered, smiling up at him.

Fred shook his head and smiled back. "Nothing. I just love you is all."

"Really," I laughed. "Are you leading up to suggesting perhaps _we_ should run off and get married?"

Fred raised his eyebrows and grinned. "You want to?"

I burst into laughter. "I'm not ready for that yet, Fred."

"Are you sure? Now with You-Know-Who back in the open, we could be dead tomorrow…." He sighed dramatically.

"Don't joke," I said quietly, reaching up to tenderly run my hand through his hair.

"I'm not," he replied seriously, looking down at me.

I leaned up and pressed a kiss to his lips. "I'm going to go put these in the wash," I said, holding up his clothes.

"I can do it," he murmured, taking them from me. "They're my clothes and you've been picking up after me all week." He gave me an apologetic smile. "I know I've been coming home and collapsing into bed almost at once. I'm sorry for that. It's just been an exhausting week."

"I get it," I answered. "Really."

"You're too good for me," Fred grinned. "Really." He quickly gave my nose a kiss before turning and heading to put his clothes in the laundry.

The next night, the twins and I headed over to the Burrow around six. It wasn't a large gathering considering Percy and Charlie weren't coming and Ron, Julian, Harry, Hermione and Ginny were at school. So it was just Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Fred, George, Bill, Fleur, my dad and me. I missed my brother and the others, but I was looking forward to the night all the same.

"Happy Birthday, Lilah, dear!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed when the twins and I walked into the house. She wrapped her arms around me and gave me a big hug.

"Thanks, Mrs. Weasley!" I exclaimed. "And thank you for having us over for dinner."

"Of course! Everyone else is in the kitchen. It's too cold to eat outside so it's going to be a tight squeeze, I'm afraid." She anxiously began to wring her hands, but I smiled.

"We don't mind," I said. "We're just glad we can all be together."

Mrs. Weasley beamed and led the way into the kitchen, where everyone else was waiting. I was met with a chorus of birthday wishes from almost every direction and it made me break out into a wide smile.

Dad immediately wrapped his arms around me and lifted me off the ground in a tight hug. "Oh, I can't believe my little girl is nineteen!" he exclaimed. "Just yesterday I could've sworn I was toilet training you!" He paused. "But I am glad those years are over."

I giggled as he set me on the floor again. "I'm sure you are, Dad."

"Did Jules write to you yet?" Dad asked as Mr. Weasley handed me and Fred firewhiskeys.

"This morning," I answered. "It was good to hear from him."

"How's he doing?" Mrs. Weasley asked. "Staying out of trouble, I hope?"

"Yeah, as far as I know." I paused. "He told me Snape's the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and some man named Slughorn is the Potions teacher."

"Oh yeah, Slughorn was there years ago," Mr. Weasley said. "He was there when Molly and I were at school. "Decent teacher, but he did like to pick his favorites."

"Julian says Harry, Ginny and Hermione are part of Slughorn's favorites," I said with an amused smile. "Harry for obvious reasons, but Hermione because she's so smart and I guess he saw Ginny perform a really great hex."

"Ooh, I bet it was the Bat Bogey Hex," Fred said, nodding. "She's scary good at that one."

"If she's going around hexing people, I'd like to think teachers aren't _rewarding _her for that behavior," Mrs. Weasley huffed.

"I heard she hexed Zacharias Smith on the train in," Fred said. "He's a prat, so he probably deserved it."

"How's Harry dealing with everyone realizing he and Dumbledore have been right all along?" Bill asked. "I hope all this _Chosen One_ stuff hasn't gone to his head."

I snorted into my drink. "I think he's just glad people aren't trash talking him and looking at him funny anymore. But Julian did tell me that Harry's been getting private lessons with Dumbledore. Something to do with You-Know-Who, but I'm not sure what exactly."

Bill let out a low whistle. "What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall for those meetings. Think of all the information Dumbledore's probably giving him!"

"It's probably information you're better off not knowing," Mrs. Weasley said tensely from the stove where she was stirring a pot of soup. "All of you. Especially Harry. He's so young…."

"He's got to know," I said quietly. "It's important." I looked up at Fred, who laced his fingers through mine and squeezed my hand. Harry had told Julian, Ron and Hermione what the prophecy had said and in turn, Julian had told me and I had told Fred and George, only after making them promise not to tell a soul. I didn't think Harry wanted people to know. I even felt as if _I _shouldn't know, but Julian had told me, never being one to keep anything from me.

"And why is that?" Mrs. Weasley asked, turning to look at me. "I'm sure whatever it is can wait until he's at least _older_. Think of how much he's been through lately. All that at the Ministry in June…losing Sirius. And before that—watching You-Know-Who return, being called a liar, and all after competing in that tournament and watching—"

Mrs. Weasley stopped abruptly and looked at Fleur, who had frozen stiff.

"Sorry," Mrs. Weasley said jerkily before falling silent and returning to the soup.

The room was eerily quiet for a moment before Mr. Weasley spoke. "I trust Dumbledore. I think we all do. So if he thinks that Harry needs to know this stuff and is ready then—"

"Needing to know and being ready to know do not go hand in hand, Arthur," Mrs. Weasley said. "Don't we need to take Harry's health and well-being into account?"

"Of course, but maybe _needing_ to know is more important right now. Like I said, I trust Dumbledore. I think he knows what he's doing."

Mrs. Weasley let out a grunt of dissatisfaction, but didn't say anything else. Finally, she did speak, but changed the subject entirely.

"Did you remember to bring in firewood, Arthur? We'll need it for the fireplace."

"Er, no, Molly, I forgot," Mr. Weasley said hurriedly. "I'll do that right now."

My dad and Fred agreed to go with him, claiming they could bring in three times as much wood with the three of them and get it done faster. After they left, the others filtered into the living room, giving Mrs. Weasley the space she needed to finish up dinner. It could get crowded in there with so many people and more often than not, Mrs. Weasley moved around like a mad woman and it was best to stay out of her way. But I felt awful sitting around without offering to help, so once everyone had gone, I joined Mrs. Weasley at the stove.

"Can I do anything?" I asked.

She looked over at me and smiled fondly. "You're the birthday girl, dear," she said.

"I know, but that doesn't mean I'm useless," I insisted, returning the smile.

"Would you mind setting the table?" she asked, turning to get out a stack of plates.

"Of course." I took the stack of plates from her and turned towards the table to see Fleur entering the room again.

"Let me take half," she offered, lifting half of the plates from my stack.

"Thanks," I said with a smile.

We began setting the plates in front of each seat at the table in silence. Then, I finally spoke quietly and broke it. "How's the wedding planning coming along?"

Fleur shrugged. "As well as it can be," she said. "I asked Ginny and my cousin, Isabel, to be bridesmaids. I thought it would make Ginny 'appier about the wedding. She said yes, but…." She shrugged. "Anyway, I still wish—I wish Gabrielle was here to be in zee wedding. She would 'ave been so thrilled to see me get married."

I set down my last plate and looked at Fleur as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and looked down at the table.

"I'm sure she would have been so happy," I told her. "I could tell how close you two were."

"We were zee best of friends," Fleur said.

"That's how I am with my brother," I said. "We're closer than anything. I'd be lost without him." I paused. "I never really got the chance to tell you how sorry I am about what happened. I can't imagine losing Julian and then being able to wake up each and every day and go on with my life the way you do."

"Eet eez a challenge for sure," Fleur whispered.

I nodded solemnly. "You're brave," I said. "You really are. I know you probably don't feel like you are, but it takes strength to put yourself together again—and so quickly—after such a loss."

Fleur finally met my eyes with her now watery blue ones. "Thank you, Lilah," she whispered. "Zat means so much."

"For what it's worth," I said, lowering my voice so Mrs. Weasley wouldn't hear. "I don't think you're rushing into anything. I know you and Bill love each other and I think he's probably helped you out more than any of us know. I get it. I mean, Fred's been there for me through some pretty tough times and I love him for it. I don't know what I'd do without him, either. So you're lucky you've found someone like Bill—someone who was there for you and so willing to help you with so much. He helped you with your English, he helped you get settled here, he helped you deal with Gabrielle….And I think anyone who believes otherwise will come around."

"Zey think I am stuck up because I talk about France so much," Fleur said. "But eet eez where I grew up. There were still so many great memories there. My family is there. I miss eet and I miss how things used to be. Before Gabrielle…..Anyway, I couldn't stay there, because now eet eez so different. Everything has changed. But I still miss eet."

I nodded. "Of course you do."

Fleur was quiet for a moment as I turned and grabbed napkins and silverware, splitting them up and giving half to Fleur.

"I don't mean to be too forward, but how have you been? After—after zat man was released from prison this summer?"

I had to take a split second to think about what she was talking about before it clicked. Sam. He had been let out of Azkaban in July and was now a free man. I knew it had happened when it did, but I had done my very best to push any and all thoughts of him out of my mind since. He hadn't come after me so far, but a part of me was still afraid he would find me, looking for revenge.

"How did you know about that?" I asked quietly, fiddling with a napkin.

"Beel told me," Fleur said. "I'm sorry. Maybe it wasn't his place. And maybe it wasn't my place to bring it up now, but it wasn't really a secret in the family, apparently," she said. "Apparently, Fred ranted and raved about the guy when all that stuff was happening with him. And Beel's father heard news about the trial floating around the Ministry. I just didn't theenk it was a secret."

"It's not," I said. "I just—I've tried not to think about him. It's scary that he's out and I don't think he's too happy that I'm the one who landed him in jail. He'll probably hold a grudge for the rest of his life."

"Well," Fleur said matter-of-factly. "At least you know if he ever comes near you or tries to lay a finger on you, Fred will probably kill him."

I snorted. "True. If my brother doesn't get to him first."

Not long after the table was done being set, dinner was ready. The others shuffled back into the kitchen. Fred made his way over to me and kissed my temple before sliding a chair out for me. I grinned and kissed his cheek before sitting down.

After a delicious dinner—Mrs. Weasley had cooked all of my favorites, a cake was brought out and everyone sang Happy Birthday to me, while I blushed and smiled down at my hands. And after _that_, I opened gifts.

Mrs. Weasley had knitted me a scarf, but there was also a second item at the bottom of the gift bag. A square black box made to hold jewelry. I slowly opened it and my eyes widened as I pulled out what was inside.

"This is—this is _yours_, Mrs. Weasley," I said, holding up the delicate gold necklace.

"I've seen you eyeing it," she said. "That day you and Ginny helped me sort through all my jewelry and I was telling you two the history behind some of the older pieces. Merlin, some things I own date back _generations_."

"Your grandmother gave you this," I said, gesturing to the necklace. "On your seventeenth birthday.

"And I could tell you fell in love with it," Mrs. Weasley said firmly.

I looked down at the necklace. It was a delicate piece of jewelry. The chain was thin and so was the actual pendant. It was circular with a pattern of raised dots bordering the edge. And in the center was an intricate looking design. But the cool thing was that if you looked closely, you could see that the design formed three letters. P, L, and H. "Peace, love and happiness," Mrs. Weasley had said. "Three things you should never be without in life, and if you are without them, you should make a point to look for them."

"I can't take this, Mrs. Weasley," I said quietly, tears brimming my eyes as I gently touched the necklace.

"But you must," she insisted. "I want you to have it. It'll look much prettier around your neck anyway. Keep it. And remember how important those three things are. Peace, love and happiness. I've had my fair share of all of those in my lifetime anyway."

"But surely you could use more," I said. "Especially in times like these."

Mrs. Weasley chuckled. "Keep it, Lilah."

I sniffed and wiped away the tears in my eyes as I nodded. "Thank you…so much."

Mrs. Weasley beamed in response as I turned and handed the necklace to Fred. "Do you mind?" I asked him quietly, giving him a tiny smile.

"Of course not," he answered, taking it from me. I turned sideways in my chair and swept my hair out of the way as Fred gently situated the necklace around my neck and clasped it. And when he was done, I immediately jumped up and threw my arms around Mrs. Weasley.

"Thank you. I love it."

"Happy birthday, dear," Mrs. Weasley said, pulling back and admiring the necklace. "And see? It does look better on you."

I smiled and sat back down to open the rest of my gifts.

"I don't think there's any point in opening mine, Lie," my dad said dramatically. "There's no way I could possibly top that. I have failed as a father." He flopped back in his chair and gazed at the ceiling. "I'm a sham! Years of academy training wasted!"

"You are _so_ dramatic!" I exclaimed with a laugh as everyone else tried to hold in their own laughter. "Honestly, there's no academy training to become a dad and we all know it, so you aren't fooling anyone. Besides, even if there was training, you wouldn't do it. You'd wing it for all you're worth. _Mum_ would go to the training."

"True," Dad said, sitting up straight again. "I'll give you that."

"I'll open your gift next," I said.

"It's actually from me and Jules," Dad said. "We worked on it together for a good chunk of time this summer."

"Ooh, interesting," I said. "I'm sure it's brilliant, Dad."

And it was. Inside the box was a photo album, organized in chronological order and filled with pictures from when I was a baby until now. The date and a description of each photo was filled in next to every one as well as funny notes from my dad and brother.

I laughed as I came across one of the funnier notes. It was beside a photo taken when Julian was five and I was seven, almost eight. Julian had just lost both of his two front teeth at once. I remembered that day clearly. One had been loose already, but it hadn't fallen out. And then we had been playing in the backyard. Julian had been chasing after me in whatever game we were playing when he had fallen and face planted, knocking out his already loose tooth as well as the one next to it. Needless to say, he had swallowed them both and was in much distress, lying in the grass and screaming at the top of his lungs.

I had been at his side in a second, but he wouldn't even let me or dad touch him, he was so upset and screaming so loud. His mouth was bloody, but he didn't seem to care about that. Finally, he wailed that he was going to be toothless forever. He was convinced new teeth wouldn't grow in, no matter how many times we told him they would. It wasn't until Dad and I showed him our own teeth and reminded him that we weren't toothless that he finally calmed down. But sometime before all that, Dad had snapped a picture. Julian was lying there, wailing, the new gap where his teeth used to be displayed perfectly for the camera as I kneeled above him, an eyebrow raised, clearly not sure what to do at that point to console him since he wouldn't let me touch him.

"Which one are you laughing at?" Dad asked now, jolting me out of my memory.

"The day Jules lost his two front teeth," I said. And then I read the caption out loud. "'June 1985. Lilah beats Julian up. Again." I fought back another giggle. "That's in Julian's handwriting."

Dad nodded. "And then I believe I filled in my own two cents underneath."

I glanced back down and read aloud. "'Julian falling is the story we tell people in order to look more civilized'." I snorted as Fred laughed from beside me and took the book from my lap.

"Oh, I've _got _to look through the rest of these," he chuckled.

"I think you'll take a particular interest in the photo of Lilah with gum in her hair. What were you, Lie, nine maybe? Anyway, she got it stuck right at the end, but panicked and tried to pull it out herself and it ended up stuck in half of her hair!" Dad laughed. "She ran to find me, crying her eyes out, and asking me to fix it, but I put on my best horrified expression and told her it was too late, too much damage was already done and we'd have to completely shave her head." She lost it and started absolutely _wailing_! And that's when I snapped a picture." He chuckled as I rolled my eyes and nudged Fred as he hurriedly began searching for the photo. But then I turned back to my dad and smiled.

"Thanks, Dad," I said, getting up to hug him. "And I'll write to Jules later to thank him as well. This was a really thoughtful gift. It must have taken a while to put it all together."

"It was fun, actually," Dad said. "Getting to reminisce, you know? Time goes by way too fast. As I've said, it does seem like yesterday you were a baby."

I smiled and threw my arms around him again. "Love you," I whispered.

"Love you back," Dad answered.

I opened the rest of my gifts after that, marveling at each and every one. Bill and Fleur had gotten me a glittering jeweled hair barrette with the silver jewels forming the shapes of three daisies.

"Your favorite flower, yes?" Fleur asked hopefully.

I nodded. "Yeah, how'd you know?"

"We had some help," Bill said smugly, glancing at Fred.

George had gotten me a new bag to carry my tutoring stuff in. My old one had been falling apart considering I had just been using the one I'd used all during school at Hogwarts and it had been getting old. The one George gave me was a lot nicer than my old one, too. And roomier.

"More room for all my things," I chirped happily, peering into the bag.

"Which means it's going to be heavier, so be careful lifting it," Fred said with a cheeky grin. "We don't want your organs splitting open again."

I groaned. "Fred, they're _not_ going to split open."

"I was joking!" Fred exclaimed.

"Are you _sure_?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Mm," Fred nodded, leaning closer and pressing his lips to mine. "I'm going to give you my gift later, okay?" he whispered against my mouth before kissing me again.

"What is it?" I asked quietly, my eyes still closed.

"You'll see," he answered, pulling away.

"Okay," I whispered, meeting his eyes.

We hung around after gifts for a bit before Fred, George and I decided to head back to the flat.

I gave everyone another hug and thanked them for their lovely gifts before Fred took my hand and we Apparated back to the flat together. Fred charmed my gifts to float down into his room on their own before flopping down onto the couch.

"I don't know about you two," he said, "but the birthday festivities have me exhausted."

"It wasn't even your birthday!" I exclaimed with a laugh. "And you didn't even do anything. Your mother prepared an entire meal, plus a cake."

"She didn't do that for Fleur's birthday," George commented with a laugh. "Hers was last month. She just turned nineteen too."

"Well, they did just meet…." I said with a shrug.

"Mum hardly speaks to her," Fred said. "Don't know if you noticed tonight, but—"

"Of course I noticed," I sighed, leaning back into the couch. "Fleur and I got the chance to talk, though, before dinner. I told her Ginny and your mother would come around. She just probably hates that they're so young! I mean she's my age and I don't feel ready for marriage yet."

"And yet if you and I announced an engagement tomorrow, I don't think Mum would be that mad," Fred snorted. "She'd probably be elated."

I scoffed. "Please, Fred, she'd definitely tell us we're too young and rushing into it. The same thing she told Bill and Fleur. The way she's acting is nothing against Fleur personally."

"Of course it is!" George sighed. "She and Ginny hate Fleur. Ginny calls her _Phlegm_."

I didn't answer right away. "Yes, Fleur did mention something about them thinking she was stuck up. But she's not! I can see that. Why can't they?"

"You see people differently anyway," Fred argued. "You can see past certain things easier. Plus, you weren't around Fleur as much this summer. Ginny and Mum had to see her all the time. And, I mean, she _did_ insult Tonks. Compared her to a traffic cone."

"And she _did _say Tonks would be prettier if she didn't change her appearance so much."

"And she _does_ always talk about how things are in France," Fred went on. "In France it doesn't rain as much. In France, the food is so delicious. At Beauxbatons, the uniforms were made so much better."

I swallowed as I considered all this. "Cut her some slack," I finally whispered. "And Ginny and your mother should too. She just lost her sister. Imagine going through that, then finally falling in love only to be hated by the person's family!"

Fred sighed and rubbed his temples. "I suppose you're right, Lie." He paused. "She does handle herself pretty well, considering, doesn't she?"

"But then again, so do you," George smirked. "Don't forget that _your_ girlfriend's mother hates _you_."

"George, please," I groaned as Fred actually laughed. Honestly, of course he would find that funny. He wasn't even insulted in the least.

"Yeah, at least Mum didn't tell Bill to leave and never come back if he was going to associate with Fleur," Fred chuckled. "At least she doesn't wipe her hand on her clothes after touching Fleur."

"That's because she doesn't go near her with a ten foot pole," George said. "Never even hugged her."

"You two are awful!" I exclaimed, standing up and marching away towards Fred's room as they snickered. My face flamed red with annoyance as they made a laughing matter about some of the most embarrassing and awful things my mother had done. I paused at the archway that led to the hallway and turned around. "Your mother _did _imply that Bill and Fleur's relationship wouldn't work out, did she not? By saying they're rushing into things and that they're too young to be married? She doesn't think it'll work, just like my mother doesn't think you and I will work out, Fred. Your mother isn't giving Fleur a chance just like my mother never gave you a chance. So how different is it really?"

"Do not compare my mother to yours," Fred growled, standing up and staring at me stonily. "My mother has done more for us and you than your mother's ever done for anyone. She's accepting of everyone who walks through her door and doesn't hesitate to give someone a place to stay when they need it, despite not having the room. She doesn't like Fleur and still lets her come to dinner regularly and stay overnight when Bill stays. That's the difference. And maybe if she doesn't like Fleur, she's on to something, wouldn't you think?"

"No!" I argued. "I told you, I talked to Fleur! She wants your family to like her! She seems nice!"

"You could figure that out after talking to her for five minutes?" Fred asked, taking a step closer to me. He shook his head. "I just can't _believe_ you'd compare my mother to yours, Lie. That's low, especially for you. And right after my mother gave you that necklace." He pointed to it as my hand instinctively went up to touch the necklace hanging around my neck.

"Fred, I didn't—I love your mother, you know that! I just don't agree with her where Fleur is concerned! And you were sitting there laughing about all the awful things my own mother's done. How do you think that makes _me_ feel?"

"_Your_ mother actually is a horrible person, Lie! That's the difference," Fred exclaimed.

I stared at him, a glare on my face and my hands balled into fists. "I know what she's done," I whispered. "And I hate it. But for you to sit there and make fun of—"

"Don't be such a hypocrite," Fred scoffed. "So you can disagree with my mother but I can't disagree with yours?"

"Dragging up all the things I can't stomach about my mother and laughing about it is very different from me disagreeing with how your mother feels about Fleur," I answered, my voice low, but now shaking slightly. "I disagree with my mother just as much as you do. But I prefer not to bring her up. I prefer to not talk about what she's done. And certainly not laugh at it. Because I don't find it funny." I paused. "Sometimes I think you forget that. That not _everything_ is funny. Not every situation is a laughing matter and not everyone wants certain things turned into a joke."

I watched as Fred seemed to think that over for a moment. "Lie…." he finally said, but I shook my head.

"I love you, Fred, and every effort my mother made to break us apart was like a knife to the chest. I wanted her to accept you and love you as much as I do. You may not care about her acceptance, but I did for a while. Until I realized it wasn't going to happen, gave up, and had to make a choice. You. I chose you. And Bill and Fleur will do the same thing. They're very much in love. It's quite obvious. And I think Fleur actually really cares about being accepted by your family, unlike you with mine. Because as you've said, there's a difference. My mother is…well, she's the way she is. And your family is _amazing_. Look at the way your mother—your entire family, really—treated me tonight. Don't you think Fleur wants that? Don't you think she deserves it? A warm, loving, big family to surround her in the wake of losing her only sister while she's in another country from her parents? In a different country from the one she grew up in?"

Fred, who had lowered his gaze to the ground, finally let out a breath of dry laughter and shook his head. "Damnit, Lie," he whispered.

I glanced at George, who was simply standing back over by the couch, an amused smile on his face.

"What?" I asked, looking back at Fred.

Fred sighed and looked at the ceiling as he ran a hand through his hair. "You drive me up the bloody wall sometimes," he said. Finally, he looked back at me and smiled. "But I love you too. I think more than even you realize. It just never ceases to amaze me how intuitive you are to other people."

I let out a quiet breath of laughter as I smiled and looked away. "It's not hard, Fred."

George sighed heavily and made his way across the room, brushing past me and heading down the hallway.

"Where are you going?" Fred asked.

"Just snog the girl senseless already," George said. "It's practically radiating off of you how much you want to throw yourself at her." And then he disappeared into his bedroom, shutting the door with a click.

Fred laughed and looked back at me, slowly making his way over to me. I tilted my head up to look at him. "I'm sorry," I said. "I love you…and your family."

Fred nodded, but instead of answering, he simply leaned in and kissed me, his mouth pressed firmly against mine as he backed me into the wall. I sighed and ran my fingers through his hair.

"I still have to give you your birthday present," Fred finally muttered, pulling away just slightly before going back to kissing me again, this time in a line down my neck.

"I thought—I thought this was my present," I responded quietly, tilting my head to the right to expose the rest of it and give Fred more room.

"No," he whispered against my collarbone. "This is just a bonus." He pressed his lips back to my collarbone and I swallowed thickly and let out another sigh.

"Fred," I muttered.

He pulled back and smirked before taking my hand and leading me to his bedroom. "Come on," he said as I pouted and let out a whine. Honestly, I wouldn't have minded if a good snogging session was my present. I never got tired of them and I felt like I never could get enough.

Fred made a beeline for his desk and opened one of the top drawers before pulling out an envelope. He smiled before crossing the room and handing it to me. "Here you are. Happy Birthday, Liles."

I gave him a curious look before sliding a finger under the envelope's flap and opening it. Finally, I averted my gaze downwards as I slid out the paper inside the envelope and unfolded it. "'Certificate of Adoption'?" I read, looking back up at Fred, my eyes wide.

"Keep reading," Fred replied quickly. "I did _not_ adopt a child, I can tell you that much, because I know it's what you're thinking."

I looked back down at the paper and scanned it, finally realizing what it was. It _was_ an adoption certificate, but not for a child. Instead, it was for a cat. A kitten, to be exact. A kitten named Daisy, ironically. But despite her name being the same as my favorite flower, I had been drawn to her ever since Fred and I had gone into the pet shop a few weeks ago to pick up food for Casper, as well as Comet and Cleo, Fred and George's new owls. Clearly, we had wanted to stick with the 'C' theme.

Anyway, Daisy the kitten had been found tossed in the dumpster behind the Leaky Cauldron and Tom's wife had found her and brought her to the pet shop. She was a tiny little kitten—scrawny, underfed and scared looking. She still barely allowed the pet shop staff to feed her and bathe her, usually shying away and letting out constant cry-like meows. I would know because I was in there regularly, visiting her. What could I say? I had taken a liking to the little cat. I had expressed offhandedly to Fred—_once_—that I would've liked a cat. Julian and I had never even been allowed to have normal pets as kids because Mum didn't want to fall responsible to taking care of them and she didn't trust us to do it either apparently. Julian's hamster, Bernard had been one thing because one, Dad had gotten him for Julian and two, he was supposed to stay in his cage. Not like Julian had really followed that rule, though. I still shuddered at the Christmas party incident.

"Fred…." I breathed, looking up at him. "Is this—are you serious?"

"Yeah," he nodded, smiling. "Daisy's ours. We can go pick her up tomorrow."

My eyes filled with tears as I dropped the certificate to the floor and covered my face with my hands. "Oh, my goodness, Fred," I whispered, my voice muffled behind my fingers.

Fred chuckled and tried to pry my hands away from my face. "I take it you're excited?" he asked.

"Thank you so much!" I laughed, throwing my arms around his neck and laughing. "I love you, I love you, I love you." I cradled his cheek in my left hand as I pressed my lips to his other cheek repeatedly.

Fred laughed. "You're welcome, Lie." He pulled back and looked down at me before kissing me on the cheek. "Happy birthday," he murmured in my ear.

Without stopping to think, I immediately kissed him again, pressing my lips to his and placing my hands on his chest. His hands found my hips and it didn't take long for him to start gently pushing me backwards as he walked forwards. We fell onto his bed and Fred hovered over me, his lips kissing my neck again. My shirt had ridden up from both Fred's hands moving over my waist as well as the action of falling onto the bed and now Fred's hand was ghosting across the fairly long scar left behind from my accident at the Ministry.

I opened my eyes when I felt Fred's body pull away from mine and a whimper of protest escaped my lips. But then the next thing I knew, he had started kissing the scar, beginning at one end and moving all the way down to the other in small, quick increments.

"Fred, don't," I whispered. "It's…it's ugly."

"No," he murmured, his lips moving against my stomach, sending a wave of warmth through the inside of my body, but chills and goosebumps along my skin. I didn't know if he meant no, the scar wasn't ugly or no, he wouldn't stop, but I didn't bother to ask. It didn't feel important right now.

I involuntarily squirmed beneath him as Fred made his way back up to the beginning of the scar, his movements slower and more deliberate this time. And then his hands were on the button of my jeans as he fumbled to undo them. I froze for a fraction of a second and Fred noticed.

"You okay?" he asked quietly, pulling back a bit.

I took in a deep breath before nodding. "Yeah," I whispered, my voice sounding higher and breathier than normal. I hoped I wasn't completely giving away how nervous I was. After all these months of me and Fred sharing a bed, we hadn't actually done anything. It was nice that there hadn't been any pressure, though, and there never had been with Fred.

Fred finished undoing my jeans and began pulling them down as I lifted my hips up to make it easier. Once he was done, he was back to kissing my lips and neck again, pausing only to pull off my shirt. I made some sort of protest about how unfair it was that he was still clothed. I'm not quite sure what I said, exactly, things started to get hazy from there. But even if some of the specifics escaped my mind, I was still well aware of one thing: that I was falling even _more_ in love with Fred every day.

I hadn't thought such a thing was possible, but it was the truth. I loved him and I could see a future with him. It didn't matter if his jokes stopped being funny one day like my mother feared because I loved him for more than just his humor. I loved his playfulness, his friendship, his kindness, his protectiveness and his fiery passion about so many things, including me.

I loved how _good _I felt when I was around him. Good in general and good about myself because he would always be there reminding me that to him, I was flawless. And that I was pretty damn great to everyone else too. My mother's voice in my head disappeared when I was with him. And now, as Fred pulled off his shirt and tossed it to the floor, my head was clear enough for me to realize how good it felt to choose what made me happy. I wanted this. I wanted Fred in every sense possible. My mother could say I was making the wrong decisions all she wanted, but personally, I've never been able to see anything wrong with choosing what made you happy.


	69. Chapter 69

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I looked at George with a shy smile as I pushed a strand of hair behind my ear and put a plate of eggs in front of him. It was the day after my birthday, a Saturday, and it was one of my days to make breakfast. We each were assigned the duty two days a week and on Sundays we went out to breakfast at the bakery down the alley. Fred wasn't awake yet, but if he didn't wake up soon, he was going to be late for work.

"For one thing," George said, biting into a piece of toast. "You're smiling like a lunatic." He ignored my blush and pressed on. "For another, you're wearing Fred's shirt from yesterday. It was also your birthday last night. Do you think I can't piece things together? Honestly, I'm actually quite surprised and glad you remembered to put pants on for my sake."

"I haven't forgotten you live here, George," I whispered with a smile.

"Flattering," George said with a raised eyebrow. "Especially considering Fred was probably the only thing on your mind last night."

I looked down at my own breakfast and blushed again.

"Don't be embarrassed," George said with a grin. "He's a catch. I should know. He looks just like me."

I had to laugh as I looked back up at him. "He adopted a kitten for me."

"I know…that tiny thing you're obsessed with at the pet shop? I heard all about it. Fred discussed it with me since I do live here as well. Something you were so quick to point out that you hadn't forgotten."

I laughed again. "I just—I can't believe he'd do that for me. That he'd notice how much I adore that cat and that I'd never really had a pet growing up."

George shrugged. "He loves you, Lie. He wants you to be happy."

"I am happy!" I exclaimed. "I'm the happiest I've ever been, really."

Before George could answer, Fred's voice sounded from the doorway. "I guess I'm just that good, huh?"

I looked up to see Fred standing there, shirtless and in his pajama pants, his arms folded over his chest as he looked at me.

"I came looking for my vanishing shirt," he said with a smile.

"Oh, you wanted this?" I asked innocently, looking down at the shirt I was wearing. "Here, take it now." Smirking, I grabbed the edges and pretended to start pulling it over my head. George yelped and dived under the table, yelling about maintaining his innocence.

I began to laugh. "George, come on," I giggled. "You really think I'd start stripping with you sitting right there?"

"I would _hope_ not!" George cried.

I shook my head as Fred came to stand beside me, wrapping an arm around my waist and leaning in to kiss me.

"Morning," he whispered.

"Morning," I mumbled back, resting my head on his chest. "I made breakfast. And I hate to rush you, but you're going to be late if you don't get a move on."

Fred nodded and sat down at the table as George crawled back into his own chair.

"I was thinking we could go pick up Daisy around noon?" Fred said, glancing at me. "We can grab something to eat for lunch, then go grab her and bring her back."

I beamed at him. "I'd love that!" I exclaimed. "I can't wait to bring her home. Do you think she'll be happy here?"

Fred nodded. "_You_ are, so why wouldn't she? This is a very happy environment, Lilah."

I laughed. "That is true."

"Besides," Fred went on, "she'll have you taking care of her. She'll be in wonderful hands."

I smiled wider and continued eating my own breakfast, counting down the hours until we could go pick up our newest flat mate.

* * *

I was obsessed. I didn't want to put Daisy down for the rest of the afternoon after we'd picked her up. I sat in the back room of the shop, playing with her and letting her get acquainted with me. Fred and George were in and out, always in a hurry to handle the busy afternoon, but today I didn't mind that they were busy. Today I had company.

Later, around three, I brought Daisy upstairs to feed her. I walked into the kitchen and set her on the floor by her water and food bowls. The instant I turned away, she started meowing.

"What? I'm right here," I said, grabbing her food and sitting down on the floor beside her. She instantly tried to climb into my lap but she was too small and not quite back to full health and strength yet, so she couldn't make it. I laughed and picked her up with one hand as I poured her food with the other. Then, I set her back down and watched as she began to eat. I stroked her grey and white spotted fur slowly, admiring the shape and pattern of the spots that somewhat resembled daisies, which was how she'd gotten her name.

I smiled to myself about what my mother would say if she knew I'd gotten a cat. She probably wouldn't react much at all. At least I wasn't bringing the thing into her house for it to make a mess. But that wouldn't make her like the cat any more. She had never been much of an animal person.

"You look like you're falling in love."

I looked up to see Fred in the doorway, watching me. I smiled. "You're right. I'm head over heels for this cat. I might even love her more than I love you."

"Don't make me regret getting her for you, Lie," Fred snorted.

"In all seriousness, thanks, Fred, really….This is the greatest birthday gift I could've asked for."

Fred grinned back. "I'm glad you're so excited."

I got up and threw my arms around him in a big hug, but the second I did, Daisy was meowing again—it actually sounded like she was crying.

Fred laughed. "Merlin, she's already attached to you! This is going to be awful when you're tutoring during the week."

"She'll grow to like you as well. She just hasn't seen you all day. She hasn't gotten the chance to get to know you." I smiled as Daisy came over and began rubbing against my foot. "Maybe you could bring her into the shop with you during the day and let her hang out with you."

"Lie, she's still so small, I'm afraid we'd lose her."

"I was just suggesting it so you could bond and so that she wouldn't be alone up here all day….I'd hate to think of her sitting here crying. You could keep her in the back room or something." I looked up at him pleadingly.

"How am I supposed to say no to that face?" Fred sighed, taking my chin between his thumb and pointer finger and kissing me lightly. "I'll figure something out, okay?"

"Okay," I agreed happily.

But apparently, my hopes for a bonding session with the twins and Daisy didn't go as I had hoped.

I came home Monday night to see the twins and, surprisingly, my dad, all sitting in the living room, staring helplessly at the coffee table. Or, rather, what was on the coffee table: an incessantly meowing cat.

"She hasn't stopped all afternoon," Fred said.

"Why?" I asked, setting my stuff down and walking over to the table, scooping the cat up and holding her to me as I gently scratched her ears. She quieted almost immediately and started purring.

"_That's_ why," George scoffed. "She loves you. It's like she thinks you're her mother."

"She might," Dad said. "She's only a kitten and she's been abandoned. She might not know her own mother."

"You guys just have to let her get to know you," I said, "and staring at her while she meows doesn't count."

I held Daisy out to Fred, who looked hesitant at first, but finally, he reached out and took the kitten from my hands. Daisy meowed and struck out a paw to swipe at Fred. He retracted his hand as I frowned. "Come on," I whispered, scratching the cat behind her ears. "Don't be like that." I sat down and set Daisy on Fred's lap. Daisy's eyes flicked to me and she meowed once, but quieted as I slid closer to Fred and started petting her head. "Go on," I told him. "You try."

Fred's hand replaced mine on Daisy's small head and to my relief, the cat didn't lash out at him. "She's shaking," Fred commented. "She doesn't want me. You take her back." He tried to pass her back to me, but I stopped him.

"She's scared," I told him. "She hasn't learned to trust you, yet. Just give her a bit."

We were quiet for a bit as Fred continued to gently stroke the cat with the back of his index finger, moving from the top of her head all the way down her back. Finally, I turned to my dad.

"So, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"Fred and George did as you said and tried to bring the cat down into the shop with them. But when they kept her in the back room, she started causing trouble."

"I saw her sniffing at a discarded Ton-Tongue Toffee lying under a shelf," George said. "She had just gotten to it when I walked in and I rushed over in a panic, afraid she'd try to eat it. I think I startled her, because she let out a pretty loud howl for such a small thing. And she gave me this." He rolled up his sleeve to reveal a long, thin scratch on his arm.

"So then," Fred continued, "we thought maybe we could keep her contained behind the register. We put up barriers to keep her back there, but she wouldn't stop meowing and getting underfoot. We tripped over her so many times that we finally just called your dad over to cat-sit."

"And I took her up here, where she didn't really eat much and then just sat and cried until you came home," Dad finished.

I let out a low whistle. "Okay, so maybe she is too much of a distraction in the shop right now. But I hate leaving her alone up here while she's still so small."

"If you baby her, she'll never grow," George said with a dramatic, dignified sigh.

I laughed. "I suppose you're right. She'll be okay, do you think?"

"She'll be fine," George answered. "She has food, water, and plenty of room up here to move around. Plus, there are no inventions up here she can get herself into. Animals are used to fending for themselves, Lie. It's in their nature."

I nodded and turned to my dad again. "Thanks for coming over and for trying to help. I appreciate it, and I'm sure Fred and George do too."

"Definitely," the twins agreed.

I turned back to look at Daisy and watched her for a bit longer before she all of a sudden started to relax in Fred's grip, letting out a quiet meow and closing her eyes. And something relaxed in Fred as well. He beamed down at the small animal in his arms as he continued to gently pet her.

"She really is quite cute," he commented. "I think I rather like this cat."

"You won't say that when she's crying for Lilah again tomorrow," George laughed.

"Well now that we're bonding, maybe it won't be so bad," Fred said. "And soon you're going to have to bond with her too, Georgie."

George shrugged. "I'm not sure if I'm too keen on that after this nasty scratch she gave me. I mean, look at it! My arm might need to be chopped off now."

"Don't be so _dramatic_!" I cried, flinging a pillow at George, who laughed and caught it before rapidly throwing it back, hitting me in the head as he did so.

As the weeks wore on, George continued to refuse to go near Daisy. He continued to make up excuses why he couldn't—or wouldn't—bond with her.

"My scratch hasn't healed yet. It still hurts," he'd say. "Fred and I have to work on inventions." "If we bring her downstairs, she'll get in the way again." "I'm not a cat person."

But I was determined to one day melt his cold, cat hating heart.

Meanwhile, Fred was falling as much in love with Daisy as I was. And she was growing to love him, too. She wasn't crying as much in my absence anymore—at least, as long as he was around to go to. I even came home one night in late November to see Fred lying on the couch, sleeping, with Daisy on his chest, chewing on his shirt buttons while George looked on in mild disgust.

I laughed at George's expression. "You look completely repulsed," I commented with a raised eyebrow.

"I never knew my brother was such a—." He paused and shook his head. "To see him fawning over a _kitten_, and slowly becoming almost as obsessed as you are….it's odd. I mean, why couldn't he have picked a bigger, cooler animal? Like a large dog. I mean, the two of us had discussed getting a dog one day, you know, but _no_, instead we get a tiny, handheld _kitten_." He grinned up at me to show he was joking, but it almost seemed as if he'd did it as an afterthought. Like he just wanted to prevent an argument.

"You can still get a dog if you really want to," I said, sitting down on the couch by Fred's feet. Daisy immediately noticed my presence and began crawling down the length of Fred's body to get to me, wobbling all the way over the uneven mass under her. When she was close enough, I scooped her into my arms and looked back over at George. "I know two pets would be a lot of work, but…." I trailed off. "And Daisy is going to grow, you know."

"Yeah but not by much," George said. "And as for getting a dog….I don't know, I think the flat will be too small to handle all of us. Plus dealing with a new dog _and _a new cat? I mean, Daisy's not even fully bathroom trained yet."

"Sorry," I said. "About all of it." I paused. "I didn't even know you and Fred had talked about getting a dog."

George stared at me before letting out a heavy sigh. "No, Lilah, I didn't mean it to sound like this was your fault or like I'm mad at you for it. I'm not. I know you didn't know about us wanting a dog and besides, we only discussed it briefly. A few years ago. Wishful thinking, you know? But you fell in love with that cat the second you laid eyes on it. And Fred knew he needed to get her for you because….well he loves _you_."

I nodded as I stared down at Daisy. "Do you think you'll ever end up liking her as much as Fred and I do?" I smirked as I looked up at George.

He shook his head and laughed. "Doubt it, Lie."

Just on a whim, I held Daisy out towards George. Both he and the cat pulled away from each other at the exact same time. I burst into laughter.

"Well, we'll give it time, then," I said, holding Daisy back close to my chest.

As Christmas drew closer, I began to get more and more excited. I mean, not only was it Christmas, but my brother would be coming home for the holidays, along with Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny.

Two weeks before Christmas, I was lounging on the couch, my feet in Fred's lap and Daisy on my stomach as I read a letter from my brother. "Oh my goodness!" I finally exclaimed with a laugh as I pushed myself up onto my elbows.

"What?" Fred asked, turning his eyes away from his invention sketches to look up at me.

"Yeah, tell us all the Hogwarts gossip," George said interestedly.

"Well," I began slowly. "Do you remember that girl Kat my brother liked last year?" When the twins nodded, I continued. "Well, he tried to ask her out at the end of last year, before the Ministry thing happened. And she said she wasn't ready for a relationship. But he never really stopped liking her. And they've been spending a lot of time together this year and they wrote all summer…but he asked her to go to Hogsmeade with him next weekend and she said yes."

"That's great!" George exclaimed.

"Yeah," Fred agreed. "Look at that, Jules scoring his own girl—and after she originally turned him down, too! Sound familiar?" He tapped me on the leg playfully as I rolled my eyes.

"Anyway, there's more," I went on, my eyes scanning the letter. "I think you two will enjoy this next part—but you have to promise you'll leave Ron alone! I don't want to tell you and have you tease him."

The twins' faces lit up and they both sat up straighter. "What'd Ron do?" Fred asked in interest.

I sighed. "Who am I _kidding_?" I groaned. "You'll tease him no matter what! I don't think I should tell you, although I assume you're going to find out anyway…."

"Tell us!" George cried.

I sighed again. "Fine, well Julian said that Ron caught him and Kat snogging behind a tapestry last week." I paused and sent the twins a look. "I wonder where he could've ever found out about said tapestry."

The twins cleared their throats and looked at each other. "It's practically a duty for blokes to pass on information like that to other blokes," Fred finally said. "We were just helping a guy out."

"Uh-huh," I said with a slight smile.

"Just get to the part about Ron," George said hurriedly.

"Okay, well after Ron found Julian and Kat, he was apparently only slightly bothered…understandably. I mean, that is an uncomfortable thing to walk in on. But _anyway_, then later that night he and Harry walked in on Ginny and Dean behind another tapestry and that really made Ron lose it."

"I thought Ginny was dating that Michael kid!" George exclaimed.

"She dumped him at the end of last year," I said. "He was a sore loser about Gryffindor beating Ravenclaw at Quidditch."

"Yeah, even I knew that, Georgie," Fred said. "I'm not pleased with this snogging behind a tapestry business, though. Did Julian mention anything more about that?" He leaned over to try and read my letter. "Like how hands-y Dean was getting? How intense it was? Did it look like they were going to move over into…other territory?"

I laughed. "No, but I'm pretty sure they were just kissing, Fred."

"When they're home for the holidays, worm it out of Ginny how far they've gotten," Fred said. "I just want to know!"

"No!" I exclaimed. "If she wants to tell me, she'll tell me. Besides, then she'll probably ask about us."

"I don't care," Fred said. "Tell her for all I care. Tell the world! I just want to know if this Dean fellow is taking advantage of my sister."

I sighed. "You _know _Dean, Fred," I said. "He's a nice guy."

"He's still a guy," Fred said. "And I know how some guys work."

"Have some faith in your sister," I said. "She's a strong girl. If Dean was pressuring her to do things she didn't want to do, she'd surely punch him in the face or perform one of her Bat-Bogey Hexes on him."

Fred and George paused and looked at each other. "True," the said together. "Okay, go on."

I laughed and looked back down at the letter. "So after Ron saw Ginny and Dean kissing, he got super weird. And Ginny told him off. She told him that he's the only one who acts like kissing is disgusting because he's the only one who hasn't kissed anyone yet. Which really got Ron feeling upset. So then after the next Quidditch match, which was apparently this past weekend, Gryffindor won and Ron started kissing Lavender Brown at the after party in the common room. Out of nowhere. They just started full on snogging in the corner. And then Hermione got upset and set a bunch of birds on Ron."

"Why?" George asked.

I sent him a look. "Because _she_ likes Ron."

"I knew that too, George," Fred said with a laugh. "You need to get with the program."

"Wait," George said, holding up his hands. "Hermione _likes _Ron. As in, really likes him?"

I nodded.

George let out a laugh. "_Why_?"

I threw a pillow at him in frustration. "Ron's a great kid, George. Lay off."

"But I mean, I never thought he'd be the kind to get _two_ girls after him. That _is _impressive," George said with a nod. "I'd like to think it was Fred and I who taught him well."

"Probably not," I said with a smile. George threw the pillow sitting at his feet back at me. "But promise you won't tease Ron?" I asked pleadingly. "Just let him enjoy himself."

Fred and George looked at each other again. "That's a promise I'm afraid we can't make, Lie," Fred said. "Ron's our brother and it's also our duty to mercilessly tease all our siblings."

I sighed. "I knew I shouldn't have told you two. You're astounding."

"We know," Fred said, trying to tickle the bottom of my foot and effectively getting me to let out a squeal of laughter.

That weekend, I got another letter from my brother, but this one was a lot less lighthearted.

I burst into the back room of the shop the second I had read the letter, startling Fred who was reaching up to pull down a box of Headless Hats. He swore as he jumped and almost dropped the box. "Lilah, what—," he started in frustration, before he turned and saw my expression. "Hey, what's wrong?" he asked, setting the box down on the table and coming over to me, immediately taking my arms in his hands and looking down at me. "What's going on? Talk to me."

"Julian's a wreck," I whispered. "He was on his Hogsmeade date today and now Kat's in St. Mungo's!"

Fred's mouth dropped open. "What happened?"

"He said she went to the bathroom and came out with a package in her hands. She walked right by him and out the door without even looking at him. So naturally he followed her. He kept trying to ask her what was wrong, but she kept answering in a really flat tone, saying nothing was wrong. And finally she snapped at him and yelled that she was fine. And Julian was kind of shocked for a second, but then he grabbed for the package in her hand, but she pulled it away. And the paper ripped. And then—and then she apparently started screaming and she floated up into the air for a bit, then crashed to the ground."

"_What_?" Fred asked in shock and confusion.

"Harry, Ron and Hermione were actually right behind them when it happened, so they saw the whole thing as well. Harry went and got Hagrid, who brought Kat to the hospital wing and then Madame Pomfrey sent her to St. Mungo's. Julian's distraught, Fred, I don't know what to do! I can't even be there for him because I'm _here_." I was visibly shaking. "And to think that he was so close to touching the necklace himself!"

"The necklace?" Fred asked, peering down at me in confusion.

"That's what was in the package," I explained. "A necklace. McGonagall and Snape tested it and they discovered it was _cursed_."

"Cursed?" Fred asked. I nodded and he took in a deep breath before exhaling. He wrapped his arms around me and lowered us to sit on the bottom step. "Okay," he said, clearly fighting to stay calm. "Where could Kat have gotten a cursed necklace?"

"In the bathroom," I said. "I mean, she went in without it, then came back with it and was acting funny when she did so. Julian said she had been fine up until then."

"Well, who would give her a cursed necklace in the girl's bathroom?" Fred asked. "What would someone have against her?"

"It wasn't for her," I said. "I forgot to mention that part. Julian said the one full sentence she spoke to him that wasn't just one word was that she was bringing the necklace to Dumbledore."

"Dumbledore?" Fred asked. "Who would give Dumbledore a cursed necklace and why?"

"To finish him off, probably," I said with a heavy sigh. "Harry thinks it was Draco Malfoy."

Fred was quiet for a moment. "Malfoy. He thinks Malfoy gave this girl a necklace in the girl's bathroom? What, so he's just hanging around in there? Waiting to hand her the necklace and hex her into following his orders to give it to Dumbledore? What would he even want to off Dumbledore for?"

"He could've just left the package there in the bathroom," I said. "Or not. I don't think anyone carrying around cursed objects for the headmaster cares much about being in the wrong bathroom." I shook my head. "But that doesn't matter. Harry also thinks Draco Malfoy is a Death Eater and that he's following Orders from You-Know-Who."

Fred was silent again. "He thinks, what, that he took over his father's spot now that Lucius is in prison?"

I shrugged. "I guess. Or that he just joined them regardless. He said he saw Draco acting fishy over the summer. The day they first came to visit your shop. They snuck off to Knockturn Alley and spied on him. He went into Borgin and Burkes and wanted something fixed quickly. And he wanted another item put on hold for him. And he threatened Borgin by showing him something. But Julian said they aren't really clear on what was going on. It could've been anything that Malfoy was inquiring about and it could've been anything that he threatened Borgin with."

"Yeah, it's certainly hard to say without all the information," Fred said quietly. He closed his eyes and rubbed a hand over his face. "So…how bad is this curse? Will Kat be okay?"

I nodded. "She's expected to recover. It was just a really strong curse. She touched it with the tiniest bit of skin, exposed through a small hole in her glove. But Madame Pomfrey said if she had touched it with more skin, she would have died." I bit my lip and sighed. "Julian must be _so _terrified. And he can't even get on the train home until Monday. I just don't know what to do. I've always been there to console him when he needed it and I can tell from this letter that he's just—," I broke off and sighed.

Fred was quiet for another moment. "Well, maybe we can't go to Julian, but we _can_ go to Kat."

"What?" I asked, my head snapping up to look at him.

"You said she's in St. Mungo's, yeah?"

I nodded. "She's unconscious, though, Fred. It's not like we can ask her who gave her the necklace. And when she wakes up she might not even remember."

"No, Lilah, I'm not suggesting this to figure out what happened. I want to figure it out, sure, and I want justice, but that's not why I said it."

"Then why?" I asked.

"Well, I figured we could sit with her, keep her company in her unconscious state and then we'll be able to update Julian. Give him some peace of mind, you know? If he knows how she's doing and that she's being taken care of and on her way to recovery, maybe it'll make him feel better." He paused and looked down at his hands. "I—I know how he feels. And I was lucky enough to be able to get to you when you were in the hospital. But if I hadn't been able to get there, I would've liked someone to do this for me so I wouldn't drive myself absolutely _insane_."

I hastily wiped away the tears that had started falling down my cheeks before throwing my arms around Fred. "Merlin, I love you," I whispered. "Thank you." I pulled back and looked at him. "But I'll go myself. You can't just leave work."

"I'll call Lee in," Fred insisted. "Just in case, but we aren't that busy today. We'll be even busier when Hogwarts gets out for the holidays, so we've still got a few more days before the real crowds start coming in."

"But Fred, it's still crowded out there now. How can you say it isn't? It's close to Christmas and it's definitely picked up since the lull that came after Hogwarts started classes again. It's packed out there." I paused. "You should stay here. I can go to St. Mungo's alone."

Fred shook his head. "Lilah…it's dangerous out there. Obviously. I don't know if I like the idea of you traveling around alone."

"I'm only going to the hospital and back."

"Yeah, and a million things can surprisingly happen in that short time. Please, let me come with you. Just so _I_ can have some peace of mind."

"I go do all my tutoring alone," I pointed out.

"I don't like that either, but I know I can't accompany you to do that, however much I wish I could. But this time I can come with you."

"Did this attack put you on edge?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It should've put you on edge too," Fred said. "This is serious business. Remember what I told you after you got hurt? The Death Eaters are aiming to kill. They'll blast apart anyone or anything in their way to get what they want." When I didn't answer, Fred hooked a finger under my chin and tilted my head up. "I love you and I'm not going to lose you. I don't even want to come as close as I did this summer ever again."

I stared at him before finally nodding. "Okay, go write to Lee," I whispered. "You can come. As long as you're _sure_—"

"I'm sure," Fred insisted, leaning in to give me a quick kiss before jumping up and rummaging around the cluttered work table looking for parchment and a quill. I sat where I was, watching as he located what he needed, scribbled down at note and attached it to Comet's leg. Comet hooted from his perch and lifted his leg to make Fred's task easier. And then the reddish brown owl took off in a flapping of wings once Fred had opened the door.

"I'll go let George know what's happening," Fred said. "You go get ready to go. Make sure Daisy has enough food and water, grab anything you need, then meet me back here in five."

I nodded and pushed myself to my feet before hurrying up the stairs. Five minutes later, I was impatiently pacing the length of the front room, awaiting Fred's return. A second later, he burst back into the room. "Lee responded. He'll be here in a few. Are you ready?"

I nodded as Fred shrugged off his magenta robes and tossed them onto a chair, leaving him in just a shirt and jeans before crossing the room and taking my hand. A second later, he was Apparating us to the alley beside St. Mungo's. We looked both was before emerging and heading for the deserted shop window that served as the hospital's entrance. Fred whispered who we were to the mannequin and then we stepped inside. A second later, we were asking the receptionist where Kat's room was, and then after that we were in the lift, heading up to see her, a bouquet of flowers from the gift shop in Fred's hand.

I gave the hand of his that I was holding a squeeze as the lift began to rise upwards." Thank you again," I said. "For doing this."

"Of course," he answered. "I know how much it means to you and I know you'd do the same for me."

"Anytime," I said. "All you'd have to do is say the word."

"Exactly," Fred whispered, leaning over and gently kissing my temple. There was a pause between us. "You know, it feels like yesterday when I was in this very lift, on my way to see you."

I stared up at him, unsure of what to say, so just deciding to wait and give him the chance to continue.

"I was so impatient that I'm surprised I didn't break the lift as I jammed my finger repeatedly into the button and then tried to force the doors open." He sighed and rested his head against the wall of the lift. "My dad tried to warn me that things were a lot more serious than I understood, but I didn't want to listen. I needed you to live because I had no idea what would happen if you didn't. I had no plan for that option. That option scared me. The whole thing _scared _me."

I turned my body into his and rested my chin against his upper arm. "I'm so sorry," I whispered, closing my eyes.

"It's not your fault," Fred whispered back. "Not really. It's Dolohov's. I mean it, Lie, if I _ever_ see him again…."

I brought his hand to my mouth and pressed a kiss to his knuckles. And then the lift made a dinging sound and the doors opened. The two of us looked at each other for a second before Fred gave me a tiny smile, squeezed my hand, and then the two of us stepped into the hallway together.


	70. Chapter 70

On the day Julian was supposed to come home for the Christmas holidays, my dad and I waited patiently on the platform as the train pulled in. My brother had managed to convince Mum to let him stay with Dad during the Christmas holidays since she was going to be working anyway, as she did every year. Finally, after many arguments, she agreed, but she wasn't happy about it. But I was. And so was Dad.

Dad picking Julian up at the station meant that I could meet him there and be around when Julian got off the train as well. If it were Mum, I probably wouldn't have gone, not wanting to run into her. I'd just have told Julian to immediately come over to Fred and George's flat. But getting him from the station was better.

And the best part was that we had all been invited to stay at the Burrow. Even Dad. Mrs. Weasley seemed to know Julian would want to stay where not only his friends were, but where I was as well. And she also knew that we would hate to leave Dad alone during the holidays when getting to see him frequently had always been such a struggle. So she'd invited the three of us to stay. I didn't know where she was going to put us all, but she had claimed to be able to manage it.

"I hope Jules is doing okay," I said nervously as I stood beside my dad on the platform, watching the train slow to a stop in front of us. We had offered to round up Julian, Harry, Ron, and Ginny and bring them back to the Burrow. Hermione had been invited as well, but she was spending the holiday skiing with her parents instead. As for Fred and George, they were doing a few more things around the shop, then meeting us there. And after that, we planned to take Julian to see Kat at St. Mungo's. I had promised him we'd do so in the letter I'd sent him reporting how Kat was doing and he seemed thrilled at the offer. She still hadn't woken up from her coma yet, but she was expected to. It was just a matter of when.

"He'll be fine," Dad said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders. "He's tough. Like you. And Kat's going to live, so that's a plus."

Students began pouring out of the train, lugging their things behind them. They started saying goodbye to each other and hello to their families as they spotted them.

"Okay, look for the flaming red hair," Dad said. "I think that's the best strategy in all this confusion."

I snorted. "What about if we see someone with red hair who is not a Weasley? Those people do exist, you know. Surprisingly."

"Well, it's probably a distant cousin anyway," Dad said with a shake of his head.

"But the thing is we need to bring the correct children to the Burrow with us, distant cousin or not."

"I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to convince Molly and Arthur that the _short, un-freckled_ kid we brought home is Ron," Dad laughed. "Just as long as he's got the hair."

"Oh, no, no one will notice at all," I said. Just then, I noticed a pack of people not too far away. Two redheads, one head of light brown hair and a mop of jet black hair. "Found them," I said, pointing.

"Ah," Dad said. "Good job, Lie." He started waving to get the attention of at least one of the people we were supposed to be bringing to the Burrow. Finally, Harry noticed him and pointed. Julian turned around, saw me and Dad, and immediately broke into a run, roughly dragging his trunk along behind him. When he got closer, he let go of his trunk and pitched himself at me, wrapping his arms around my waist and lifting me off my feet. I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him back as tightly as I could.

"I've missed you so much," I whispered before he gently set me down and hugged Dad.

"I've missed you guys, too," he said. He looked me up and down. "How are you doing? Healthy?"

"Better than ever," I said. Then, my face fell. "But what about you? I'm so sorry about Kat, Jules, I truly am."

Julian shrugged one shoulder and gave me a half smile as the others caught up to him. "She's going to live, so that's really all I can ask for."

"Head count!" Dad suddenly called, preventing me from saying anything more. Instead, I wrapped my arm around Julian's waist in a comforting hug, which he eagerly returned.

"So how are you guys?" I asked as Dad finished his headcount and we turned to walk back to the car. Uncle Jesse had let us borrow it for the day. He had also put an undetectable enlargement charm on it for us. We'd just be using it to drive back to Dad's flat, where we'd then all Floo to the Burrow. "Actually, Jules, what's this I hear about you being found snogging Kat behind a tapestry?" I raised an eyebrow at him as he groaned.

"I knew I shouldn't have written you about that!" he said as Ron snickered.

"And you!" I said playfully, swatting Ron's arm. "You and Lavender Brown?"

This time it was Julian's turn to laugh as Ron blushed. "Shut it," he said.

"Ooh, who is this Lavender Brown girl?" Dad asked as we reached the car and he unlocked it.

"She's Won Won's girlfriend!" Ginny exclaimed, practically cackling with mirth as we piled into the car. I climbed into the passenger seat beside Dad and craned my neck to look at the others behind me.

"And from what I hear they've been doing _quite_ a bit of snogging themselves," I said.

"Catching up to the rest of us, hm?" Ginny asked. "Maybe you'll finally stop acting like it's so gross! Tell me, is it _gross_ snogging Lavender, Won Won?"

"Of course not!" Ron scoffed. "It's great."

"That's not what you told me and Julian on the train," Harry snorted. "You said your lips were getting chapped from all the snogging _she_ wanted to do."

I had to even try to hold back a laugh at that one. Ginny, however, wasn't as successful as I was. She let out a scream of laughter and had to lean against the window. Ron looked totally miffed.

"You know, Ron," I said, "kissing really isn't all that bad as long as you _like_ the person. Do you like Lavender?"

"Of course I do or else I wouldn't have kissed her in the first place."

"Do you kiss her or does she kiss you? Because it sounds like she's doing most of it." I raised an eyebrow.

"I—well—both of us of course!" Ron answered.

"Okay," I replied.

"Leave Ron alone," my dad said with a grin, looking at Ron in the rearview mirror. "He doesn't need teasing from all of you." He paused. "Especially since he'll be getting it from the twins once he gets home."

Everyone laughed except for Ron, who groaned.

"I tried to tell Fred to go easy on you," I told him. "Keep it to a minimum. And keep it at least playful and not mean. But I don't think I got through. Sorry."

"Thanks for trying anyway," Ron muttered.

Eventually, we made it safely back to my Dad's flat, where we parked the car and tramped inside, lining ourselves up in front of the fireplace.

"Should we do this in pairs?" Dad suggested. "It'll be a tight squeeze with all the luggage, but I think we can manage pairs in order to make it go by faster. And minimize the amount of soot we traipse into the Burrow. I'm sure Molly's been busy cleaning it from top to bottom."

"Ron and I will go first," Harry suggested. He and Ron dragged their trunks into the fireplace. Dad offered them the pot of Floo Powder and Ron took a handful.

"The Burrow!" he cried, throwing the powder down. He and Harry then disappeared in a whoosh of green flames.

Julian and Ginny went next, and Dad and I followed shortly after. When I stepped out into the Burrow's living room, I felt the familiar sense of warmth and utter joy that I usually felt when entering the cozy house. It truly did feel like another home.

Ginny, Ron, Julian and Harry were already being hugged by Mrs. Weasley, who had come running out of the kitchen at our arrival. Finally, she got to me and pulled me into a tight hug, dusting some soot off my shoulders as she did so. "So good to see you, dear," she said.

"You see me almost every week," I laughed.

"Even still," she replied briskly. "You all beat the twins here, but they should be along shortly. I know you all just got here, but I'll still need a few things done in order to prepare for Christmas, if you all don't mind."

"Chores already, Mum?" Ron asked as Ginny nudged him hard.

"Of course, Mrs. Weasley," Harry said.

Mrs. Weasley nodded. "Okay, so I'm putting Remus in Percy's old room since he's staying tonight as well as Christmas Eve into Christmas. And Chris, you can take Charlie's old room. Bill will be staying in his room of course, and Fleur and Lilah will be with Ginny. Lilah, I know you're used to living with the twins, but—"

"No, I don't mind being with Ginny and Fleur," I said. I smiled as Ginny mouthed a silent _thank you _in my direction. I knew she wouldn't want to be alone with Fleur and something told me I'd end up having to be the referee at some point. Although I was sincerely hoping I wouldn't.

"Oh, good," Mrs. Weasley went on. "Now, as for Ron's room, it is the smallest and I think it would be quite cramped with three people, so Julian and Harry, if one of you wouldn't mind sharing with the twins…."

"I will," Julian volunteered. "I don't mind."

"Wonderful!" Mrs. Weasley said excitedly. With that, she waved her wand and sent all the luggage up the stairs to the appropriate rooms. "Now, Ron, I'll need your help in the kitchen with some sprouts."

Ron let out a sigh, but Harry quickly volunteered to help him and they headed into the other room together.

"Ginny, I'll need you to go grab the laundry from the clothesline please, and Lilah, why don't you go help Julian unpack. Is Fred bringing your stuff along later?"

"He is," I grinned. "When he and George get here, we'll probably be bringing Jules to see Kat if that's okay. But we won't be long. We'll be back in time for dinner."

"Of course!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed. "Now go on, go upstairs. Make yourselves at home."

Grinning, Julian and I headed up the stairs to the twins' room. The second I opened the door, I could smell a lingering smell of gunpowder as well as a sweet scent that reminded me of the Skiving Snackboxes.

I looked around the room as I went to sit on Fred's bed, pulling my legs up under me. Four large cardboard boxes were stacked up between the two desks against the opposite wall, the flaps still hanging open. There had been a lot more over the summer, the last time I'd been in the twins' old room, but I expected Mrs. Weasley had cleaned up a bit in anticipation of having people over.

Julian peered into one of the boxes. "Looks like extra joke products," he said.

I snorted. "I wouldn't touch any if I were you, just in case."

"I'm not dumb enough to pick up any joke items the twins have left behind, Lie," Julian snorted. "If they didn't bring it with them, they must be faulty."

"Exactly," I laughed as Julian headed for the extra bed in the room, where his trunk now lay. I took the time that he was distracted in opening his trunk and unpacking to really give him a once over. I didn't know if it was just me or not, but he looked thinner since I saw him last. I frowned.

"So…how are things going?" I asked.

"Fine," he answered without looking at me.

"Jules," I sighed. "Come on. You look pretty rough. Is this about Kat? Because she _is_ going to live. It's a tough situation and I know you must be scared, but she'll be fine. At least you know that. You're not sitting around wondering."

"No, I know," he said, looking up at me. "And I'm glad. But the day it happened _was_ really tough. And the few days after as well."

I nodded. "I can imagine. I freaked when I read your letter. I was worried. About you, about her….I was so glad when Fred suggested we go to St. Mungo's."

"I'm glad you did," Julian said. "Thank you for that. Both of you."

"Of course," I answered honestly. "You know I'd do _anything_ for you, right?"

Julian nodded and continued unpacking his trunk. "Yeah, I know."

"I mean it, Jules. Anything. You tell me what to do and I'll do it."

"I know," he said again, his voice quieter this time. He paused with a sweater in his hands as he fiddled with a loose thread hanging from it. "I think right now I need you to keep doing what you've been doing. Listening. Talking. Offering to take me to St. Mungo's. That kind of thing."

"Okay," I said quietly.

Silence fell between us again as I watched my brother continue to unpack. A few moments later, we heard a commotion from downstairs and the swell of voices as if someone had just arrived.

"The twins, I think," Julian said with a smile.

I grinned back at him as we heard footsteps on the stairs and the twins' voices filling the stairwell and the landing as they got closer. Suddenly, the door swung open to reveal Fred, George, and Daisy, who Fred had lying over his shoulder. And I could tell she was shaking from here.

"Lilah, your cat just got fawned over by my mother and Ginny," Fred announced to me as he grinned at Julian and ruffled his hair in greeting. "And now the poor thing is petrified. She climbed up to my shoulder on her own and dug her claws into my coat. I thought you should know." He came to sit next to me on the bed and I began cooing over Daisy as I pulled her from Fred's coat, my movements slow since her claws were still digging into the fabric.

"Yeah, sure, fawn over the _cat_," Fred muttered with an eye roll.

I peered up at Fred as Daisy nuzzled into my chest. "I love you, Freddie," I said, fluttering my eyelashes. I leaned in and pecked him on the lips. "Thanks for bringing Daisy over. And my stuff." I nodded towards one of the bags Fred had deposited on the bed, the other being his own.

"Don't mention it," Fred said with another eye roll.

"Seriously, Lie," George added, "he may complain, but you've got him wrapped around your finger."

"Shut it," Fred said as George laughed.

"So this is Daisy?" Julian asked, starting to head over towards the bed where I was sitting

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," George said, from where he was now sprawled on his own former bed.

"Why not?" Julian asked, stopping in his tracks and looking at George.

"That cat is seriously territorial of your sister. Lilah was the one taking care of her mainly when we first got her and Daisy got attached fast. And since Fred and I weren't around as much, we were both not only strangers to her, but strangers that kept coming near Lilah. So Daisy would start swiping at us whenever we got closer than half a yard away. And if Lilah was holding her and one of us got too close, she'd swipe at us _and_ start hissing. It's not a loud hiss as of yet, but a hiss nonetheless."

"But Fred's sitting right next to Lilah now and Daisy seems fine to me," Julian pointed out.

"That's because now Fred and Daisy are the best of friends," George went on. "They bonded."

"They had to," I pointed out. "Fred's constantly coming near me. I couldn't have Daisy scratching his eyes out. Plus we all live together and I want us to do it in peace. I keep telling you, Georgie, you really should get to know her. This way you won't keep getting scratched whenever you take care of her, pick her up or come near me. She doesn't like strangers and understandably so."

"Cats aren't my thing," George said with a shrug. "I'm more than content to let you and Fred handle her." He smirked. "Good practice for your future _real_ child."

I felt a blush heat up my cheeks as Fred groaned and Julian made a noise of disgust. There was a moment of silence and I could feel Julian looking at me apprehensively.

"She's scared of people," I finally said. "Like I said."

"Doesn't seem so scared when she's swiping at me," George said.

"That's because she can recognize you but doesn't know you," I said. "She's never seen Julian before so she might be more scared of him than territorial right now." I held Daisy out to my brother. "Here, try holding her."

Julian hesitated for a moment before taking another slow step closer and slowly holding his hand out towards Daisy. He stopped a few inches away, waiting to see what Daisy did.

I felt the cat start to shake in my hands as she tried to climb up my arm, away from Julian. I let out a quiet hiss of pain as her claws dug into my hands a bit, leaving a few red marks.

"Maybe we should consider getting her declawed," Fred suggested quietly as I brought Daisy back to my chest and stroked her ears.

I shrugged. "She'll get used to people eventually." I set Daisy on the bed beside my leg as I looked up at Julian. "Sorry, Jules," I said.

"It's alright," Julian said, watching Daisy closely.

"Watch, I bet anything if you get any closer to Lilah, right now, the cat will freak," George said casually.

Julian tilted his head and took a step closer to me so he was standing about an inch away from my knee. Sure enough, Daisy gave a meager swipe at him (which didn't even come close considering how small she was) before trying to climb into my lap.

"Ow, Dais," I groaned as I felt her claws slightly through my jeans. I leaned back on my hands and watched as Daisy finally made my way into my lap and stared up at my brother curiously. Julian squatted down so he was eye level with her and smiled.

"Hey there, I'm not going to hurt you," he whispered, holding out a finger to the cat again. He moved slowly and stopped a little bit away again. Daisy just watched him and this time she didn't move. She surveyed him for a second before sticking her nose out a bit closer to his hand. And then she slowly reached out a paw and rested it on his wrist before starting to lick his knuckles.

"What?" George cried in surprise as Fred and I laughed. "Not fair! Why does she immediately like Julian?"

"It's because I'm so charming," Julian said, reaching out with his other hand and taking Daisy from me. She didn't protest at all and continued licking his hand.

"Come on, Fred and I had to pay our dues. I'm still paying mine!"

"Julian kept trying with her," Fred pointed out. "You barely go near her."

"Yeah and you refuse to spend time with her," I argued.

"Because she keeps scratching me! And hissing!"

"George…are you _afraid _of her?" I asked with a smile.

"I—no!" he answered as Fred burst into laughter. "I'm not afraid!"

I shrugged. "Seems like you're at the very least a bit wary of her." I looked over at him with a smirk. "Don't worry, I promise you'll grow to like her. And then it won't seem so ridiculous that I fawn over her. She'll melt your icy heart, I'm sure of it."

George rolled his eyes and flopped back onto the bed. "Julian was only persistent for about five seconds," he said.

"Yeah, well it only took Fred about a day to win her over," I said. "I bet she's starting to warm up to people as long as they're gentle and actually show an interest in her. Clearly it hasn't been taking _that_ long."

"I'm not a cat person," George insisted. "I told you that."

"Well, I'm sorry you couldn't get your dog then," I snapped.

"Hey, knock it off," Fred demanded. "Both of you."

"It's not my fault you cater to your girlfriend twenty-four seven and give her _everything _she wants," George said. "Honestly, Fred, you're getting just as bad as she is with that cat. It's like you're already one big happy family."

"What is _with _you?" Fred asked. "Are you jealous? Is that it?"

"No, I'm-," George broke off and sat up, staring at the ceiling in thought. "Never mind," He finally said, standing up and heading for the door. "Just forget it."

"I thought we were going to bring Jules to St. Mungo's," Fred said. "Where are you going?"

George paused at the door and sighed. "Yeah, fine, let's go."

Julian and I looked at each other as Fred stood up and crossed the room to the door. I saw him say something to George in a low voice and George just shrugged, his face expressionless before leaving the room. Fred looked back at me and Julian with an apologetic smile. "Come on, guys, let's go. I know you must be aching to see Kat, Jules."

Julian looked back at me again and I nodded, standing up and following him to the door. The four of us headed downstairs and into the kitchen where Harry and Ron were peeling sprouts. Before actually entering the kitchen myself, I deposited Daisy in the living room, which didn't do much good. She only followed me into the kitchen and meowed as she rubbed against my ankles.

I glanced at George as I entered and saw that he had his arms crossed and still looked pretty stony. I felt my stomach turn unpleasantly. I had never had a problem with him before. We'd always gotten along so well and we never fought. I'd gotten into fights with Fred before, but never George. It was odd. I wondered if he _was_ jealous. Did he feel like he was losing Fred to me? The thought made me feel awful. I never thought I'd given him any reason to feel that way. I thought he knew that he meant just as much to Fred as I did, if not more. Fred _loved _him. And both twins had confirmed that George had been checked with and had given the okay about adopting Daisy. If he didn't want a cat, he could've just said so.

"Yeah, well passing over Fred's left buttock," Harry was saying to Ron. I instantly snapped out of my trance. Merlin, what had I missed?

"I beg your pardon?" Fred asked with a raised eyebrow, leaning up against the kitchen table and crossing his arms.

"I was just telling Harry about the time you tried to get me to make an Unbreakable Vow with you," Ron said.

"Ah, yes," Fred said, nodding and looking at the ceiling thoughtfully. "Never seen Dad so angry. Usually it's Mum who does all the yelling."

"Why were you two talking about an Unbreakable Vow anyway?" I asked, crossing the room to the sink, where I leaned over to inspect the boys' progress.

"I overheard Snape talking to Malfoy the other night," Harry said. "Snape said he made an Unbreakable Vow."

"Really?" I asked. "Are you sure?"

Harry nodded. "Positive."

"What was the vow?" Fred asked.

"Don't know," Harry answered. "He didn't say. But he was offering Malfoy help with something and Malfoy wouldn't take it. I think it has to do with something You-Know-Who sent Malfoy to do."

"Because you think he's a Death Eater now," Fred said.

Harry nodded. "It makes sense!"

"We can't say for sure, though," Ron argued. "Some bits add up but others don't." He looked at me and Fred. "Honestly, you shouldn't have gotten him going on the topic. He's been obsessed with Malfoy and his Death Eater theory lately."

"Fine, I'll shut up about it," Harry snapped.

Fred and I looked at each other, sensing the tension growing in the room. Already having to endure George in a sour mood, we surely didn't need Harry and Ron bickering as well.

"Ah, look everyone!" Fred suddenly said jovially, looking at what Harry and Ron were doing and changing the subject abruptly. "They're using knives and everything! Bless them!"

Julian and I snorted, but George actually rolled his eyes. I was honestly about two seconds away from shoving his moody head through a wall, but I forced myself to push his attitude out of my mind.

"I'll be seventeen in two and a bit months' time," Ron muttered. "And once I'm seventeen, I'll be able to do it by magic like the rest of you!"

"But meanwhile," Fred said, "we can enjoy watching you demonstrate the correct use of a—whoops!" He laughed as Ron's hand holding the knife slipped, making a cut on his finger.

"Fred, it's not funny," I said, shooting him a look as I grabbed Ron's hand and waved my wand over the cut, healing it instantly.

"When I'm seventeen…." Ron muttered, angrily returning to peeling the sprouts.

"I'm sure you'll dazzle us all with hitherto unsuspected magical skills," Fred sighed, letting out an exaggerated yawn.

"Come on, leave him be," I sighed. "Please? I asked you to leave him alone."

"Yeah," Fred said, "but only about—"

I shot him a look and Fred broke off. He glanced at Ron, then looked back at me. Finally, he nodded and took my hand. "Fine. Come on, let's get out of—"

"Speaking of hitherto unsuspected magical skills, Ron," George said loudly, sinking into a chair and putting his feet up on the table and his hands behind his head as he smirked lazily. I groaned and rested my forehead on Fred's chest.

"What's he doing?" I asked.

"Being a prat," Fred said in annoyance—a rare tone he ever used to or about his twin.

"What's this we hear about you and a young lady by the name of—unless our information is faulty-Lavender Brown?" George asked.

Ron instantly turned pink, especially at the tips of his ears. "Mind your own business," he mumbled as I glared at George.

"What are you doing?" Fred asked his twin with a sigh. George ignored him.

"What a snappy retort," George said to Ron. "What we wanted to know was, well, how did it happen?"

"What are you talking about?" Ron asked warily, glancing at George.

"Did she have an accident or something?"

"What?" Ron asked irritably.

"Well, how did she sustain such extensive brain damage? Careful now!"

Ron had turned and flung the knife he was holding at George as Julian and I let out cries of anger. I didn't know if I was angrier that George had provoked Ron like that or that Ron had thrown a knife. However angry at George I was, I didn't want him to be used for target practice. But I shouldn't have worried. George had turned the knife into a paper airplane with a lazy flick of his wand.

"George, come off it," Fred snapped. "I told you we'd talk later about whatever mood you're in right now." He paused. "Is this still about Lilah?"

I blushed crimson and stared down at my feet, where Daisy was still circling. I still hadn't quite known what exactly I'd done to make George so mad. If there was anything at all.

"Can we go now?" George asked, standing up.

"Where are you going?" Ron asked. "Can't you help us with the sprouts? You can use magic and then Harry and I will be free too!"

"No can do, Ronniekins," Fred said with a small smile. "It's actually very character building stuff, doing things the Muggle way. Makes you realize how hard it is for people who can't do magic. Muggles, Squibs, that kind of thing."

"We won't be long," I told them, trying to keep my voice cheerful. "We're just bringing Julian to visit with Kat."

"Oh," Ron said awkwardly, glancing at Julian. "I hope she gets well soon. Really."

"Thanks," Julian said quietly, giving Ron's shoulder a squeeze. And after that, we left the house and walked towards the front gate, which marked the edge of the protective charms around the house.

None of us said a word the whole walk there. And none of us said a word as we Apparated, me taking Julian along with me. And still we were silent the whole way into the hospital and up to Kat's room.

"I'm going to go get tea," George muttered as we came to a stop outside of Kat's room. "I'll meet up with you all later." And then he was headed off in the other direction without a backwards look at the rest of us.

I looked miserably over at Fred. "I don't even know what I did!" I exclaimed. "I thought he was okay with everything!"

"Lilah, don't worry about it," Fred said calmly with a shake of his head. "I'll go talk to him. You stay with Julian, okay?" He put a hand on my shoulder comfortingly and I nodded, tears welling up in my eyes.

"I'm sorry," I said. "He seems really irritated."

"You didn't do a thing wrong," Fred whispered. He leaned in and kissed my forehead tenderly before walking backwards down the hallway. "Take your time," he said to Julian. "Honestly, there's no rush."

Once he had rounded the corner, Julian and I looked at each other.

"Ready?" I asked.

"Are you okay?" Julian asked, ignoring my question. "What _was _all that? I've never seen George act so odd."

I shrugged. "I don't know. It just kind of came on all of a sudden. I mean, we checked with him about me moving in and he said he was fine. Fred checked with him about getting a cat and he said it was okay. And then he did mention to me he and Fred had discussed getting a dog years ago, but he didn't even mind that the plans had changed because the dog thing was a while ago and he could see how much Fred loved me and how happy having the cat made me." I shook my head. "So I really don't understand. Fred and I have been dating for a year and a half. He's always been _fine_ with it!"

Julian studied me for a minute. "Maybe there are just some things that are starting to take a toll now."

"What do you mean?" I asked quietly.

"Maybe he is jealous in some ways in light of things going on recently," Julian said. "Think about it. You moved in, which was probably an adjustment. Then, over the summer Fred was probably fretting over your injury. It was probably all about you. Then he goes and gets you a cat and even though they discussed getting a dog ages ago, it could've still felt like a jab. You know, like you wanted a cat, you got a cat. And Fred and Daisy have gotten pretty attached to each other. And then just now, when you reminded Fred not to tease Ron about Lavender, he agreed right away. Teasing is what he and George _do_, especially to Ron."

I frowned. "But why wouldn't George just speak up about all those things! Tell me or tell Fred. Tell us both, for Merlin's sake!"

Julian shot me a look. "What's he going to say? No, Lilah can't move in? No, don't buy Lilah a birthday gift she'll absolutely _love_? Don't show your girlfriend any signs that you absolutely adore and respect and love her? Of course not. George loves you, too, Lilah, and ultimately he wants you and Fred to be happy, but I think everything happening so fast—one after the other—maybe it sometimes seems like he's losing his brother. I mean, Fred was never like this with Ange, really, so George never had another person to compete with like this."

I sighed. That did sound like a good explanation. "Maybe you're right," I said. "It does make sense. I just hope George comes around. I didn't mean to make him feel like he's any less important to Fred."

"He knows," Julian said. "Trust me. He knows."

I grinned and pulled my brother into a hug, leaning up to kiss his cheek as I did so. "I've missed you," I sighed.

Julian grinned. "I've missed you too."

"Thank you," I said. "You didn't have to do that. Take the time to make me feel better when we're here for you." I paused. "How are you feeling, by the way? I've been awful to not ask." I did feel terrible as I realized I hadn't talked to Julian at all about how he was feeling about being here. Surely it was tough and weird for him, but I had been too consumed with my own issues to ask.

"Lilah, you taking me here speaks _volumes. _You know that, right?" He asked as if he were reading my mind. "You coming here in advance to check up on her and give me updates speaks volumes. You've gone above and beyond and did so much for me. As usual. You're the best big sister anyone could ask for."

"Thanks, Jules," I whispered.

Julian smiled and pulled away as he gestured towards Kat's room with a tilt of his head. "Don't mention it, you selfish lunatic. Now if you don't mind, I'd like to _finally_ make it in to see my girlfriend."

"Merlin, that sounds odd coming from my baby brother's mouth," I laughed, nudging him.

"Get used to it, Lie," Julian snorted, rolling his eyes. "I'm not a kid anymore."

"No, I know," I answered, looking at him fondly before gazing at the door to Kat's room. "Are you too grown up for me to come in there with you?" I asked.

Julian hesitated before shaking his head. "No. Come in with me. Please?" He looked down at me with pleading green eyes and I nodded.

"Of course."

I reached out and grabbed his hand, giving it a squeeze as we both steeled ourselves and walked towards the door of room 418.

* * *

We returned to the Burrow about an hour before Mrs. Weasley had told us dinner would be served. Julian and I had sat with Kat for about forty-five minutes before Julian had sighed, pressed a kiss to her forehead and stood up, saying there was no point in staying any longer. It was pointless, not to mention nearly unbearable, to stay while she was unconscious.

When we left the room, Fred and George were waiting outside for us. Fred had given me a small smile and taken my hand. George looked less upset, but he still didn't say anything to me. And he remained quiet even as we reached the Burrow. He seemed to liven up as the night wore on, joking and laughing through dinner, but he never spoke to me directly and I wondered what was going on between us. Where did we stand? Fred hadn't mentioned it either and I was almost afraid to ask.

Once dinner was over, Ginny, Julian, Harry, Remus, and I helped Mrs. Weasley clean up. And then everyone dispersed to do their own thing. I decided to go look for Daisy. I hadn't seen her once since I'd gotten back and I wondered where she'd gotten off to. I chewed my lip nervously. It was likely she was hiding. There were a lot of people here. A lot of strangers. And there were also a lot of hiding places.

I wandered into the living room first, which was dimly lit, only one lamp shining from its place on an end table. I almost didn't see George at first. He was laying on the floor, his torso under the coffee table, his legs sticking into the middle of the room and his arms extended under the couch.

"Okay, kitty...listen up," I heard him mutter. "Maybe I'm not your biggest fan, but I'm still not going to hurt you. Because then Lilah would probably hurt _me_. And maybe someday—not saying immediately, but someday—we can be friends. But to do that, we have to start somewhere. So if you'd please let me help you out from under that couch—or come out on your own—that'd be brilliant. If Lilah can't find you before bedtime, she'll rouse the whole house and have us look in every nook and cranny until we find you. So….come…out. Please." He stretched his arms a bit further, then yelped in pain and retracted his arms in a flash.

"I appreciate your effort," I said quietly, smiling slightly as George looked up at me, nursing his now scratched hand. He rolled to his back and pushed himself to a sitting position, leaning up against the couch and leaving his legs stretched under the coffee table. After a second, I joined him and gently took his hand, waving my wand and successfully healing the scratch. "Sorry about the scratches," I sighed.

George was still silent and I pressed on, his silence making me uneasy.

"I don't know what I did to make you so angry with me," I said, "but whatever it is, I'm sorry." I hesitated and when George still didn't say anything, I sighed. "Do you feel like you're losing Fred? To me?"

George was quiet still, but he looked over at me and studied my face. "I started to," he finally whispered, a guilty look crossing his features. "It's insane, I know. You two have been dating a year and a half. But all of a sudden, I just felt…." He let a puff of air out of his mouth and shook his head. "I felt as if I'd lost my place in Fred's ranking." He swallowed. "Family's always meant a lot to Fred and I. We're fairly close to our whole family, but Fred and I even more so. We're the closest of all. We've always known just where we stood with each other and what we meant to each other and I suddenly felt as if I didn't know that anymore."

"I'm sorry, George," I sighed. "I never meant for you to feel that way."

"It's really nothing you did," he said. "Which was why I was feeling so conflicted with myself. Like I said, you've been dating for a year and a half. We were friends before that. Nothing really changed much when you started dating and for almost the whole year and a half you were dating I never really felt as if my relationship with Fred was any different. I never really felt that _Fred_ was any different. Until you moved in."

"How was he different?" I asked.

George inhaled slowly and let it out just as slow. "Not _different_ exactly. Just….Okay, take today for example. He stopped teasing Ron after you reminded him not to _once_! Usually you beg for us to stop teasing people and neither of us ever listen. Fred even tried to tell you a few weeks ago when you were reading us Julian's letter that teasing Ron is our job as big brothers. But today he listened to you. And I was already feeling irritated about the cat. I know it's ridiculous, but I keep thinking about how Fred and I always used to want a dog. We both always said we were dog people. And now he got you that cat and he and the cat bonded so quickly and now he _loves_ the thing and the three of you…it's like….I just kept thinking that this is the real deal. You live with us, you adopted a cat….I've never had to share Fred on this level before. With anyone. Fred is _crazy_ about you. Your happiness matters so much to him and for a bit I started feeling like mine didn't matter anymore. Like you two and the cat, oddly enough, were all ganging up on me." He gave a dry laugh. "It sounds so dumb when I say it out loud! This isn't even like me at all. Fred was right, it's like I suddenly got possessed or something. I sound idiotic." He let his head drop back onto the couch as he groaned.

I didn't say anything as I looked at him for a moment. "If you didn't want me to move in and if you didn't want Fred to adopt Daisy, then why didn't you say anything? You told me you were fine with it all. You said you weren't mad."

"I couldn't say anything!" George said. "And I wanted you to move in. I wanted you to get well after what happened over the summer. I wanted to see your face light up when you realized you were getting that cat. You're one of my best friends, Lie. I want the best for you, too, but I just got crazy and I'm sorry. I was being stupid, as I said."

"I don't think you were being stupid," I said, shaking my head. "It makes sense. Like you said, you've never had to share Fred before. Not like this. And I get what you mean. Me moving in and adopting a cat and then Fred falling in love with her and helping take care of her must have made things seem really...serious. The most serious he's ever been about someone. Well, romantically at least."

George nodded. "Exactly. I just thought….this is it. This is the girl Fred's going to decide to settle down with and start a family with. He's serious about her-which is all good. Just…a bit odd for me. I've never given much thought to me and Fred settling down before."

"You don't know that he and I will yet, though," I said with a shrug. "Things could go south extremely fast. The fact that I live with you now and that we have a cat doesn't mean anything."

"They're big things, though," George said. "And now _you're_ being ridiculous. Fred loves you. He's told me he's not letting you go _anywhere_. I'm fairly certain he plans on marrying you, even if he hasn't said so yet."

I smiled. "Do you ever wish things were back to the way they were? Before Fred and I dated?"

George shook his head. "Not really. Like I said, how I've been feeling recently….it's just been a little while. A few weeks, maybe? I really didn't mind having you move in or getting a cat when those things happened. But lately, it just started freaking me out, you know?" He looked at me. "I want you to know I'm sorry for how I acted today. I was awful and mean. You don't deserve that. You love Fred. And he loves you. I just need to learn how to share."

"Did you and Fred talk it all out?" I asked with a smile.

George nodded and chuckled. "If you call him telling me I was a prat and that I needed to get over myself because I was stuck with him as a best friend for the rest of my life a talk, then sure." He paused. "He also said that if you and I ever started going at it like we started to this afternoon, he'd kick us both to the curb."

I laughed. "Of course he did." I smiled as I looked over at George. "We could always beat him to it. Ditch him before he can ditch us. What do you say?"

"I like the way you think," George grinned, lightly punching my arm. He met my eyes. "Friends?" he asked, holding out his hand.

"Friends," I told him, giving his hand a shake.

Just then, I felt something press into my leg. I looked down to see Daisy poking her nose out from under the couch. George and I were both still as she slowly inched her way out, sniffing at George's leg, her body stiff. She looked back at me and meowed.

"Go on," I told her. "If I can make nice with that big prat, you certainly can."

"Hey, shut it," George whispered, as if he were afraid of scaring Daisy away if he spoke louder. He reached out to stroke Daisy's small body with his fingertips. She snapped her eyes over to him as she stiffened again. George retracted his hand before slowly going back to pet her. "Please don't scratch me," he muttered, slowly reaching out with his other hand and gently picking her up. Daisy let out a cry and remained stiff as a board. He brought her to his chest and slowly continued to pet her. I smiled at how uncomfortable Daisy looked. She was laying stiffly in George's hand, practically enveloped by how large it was and she actually looked terrified.

"At least she's not scratching you," I said.

"Maybe she watched us this whole time and finally realized I'm not out to hurt you…or her," George said.

"Well seeing as she's trembling and stiff as a board, I think she's still afraid of you," I pointed out.

"Shut up," he murmured.

We sat together as George held Daisy for another few minutes. He didn't give up and continued to pet her as I watched. And then, Daisy finally relaxed and started to purr as her eyes drifted shut.

I giggled. "She's happy," I said. "And falling asleep. That's good! You did it, Georgie, you won her over."

George looked up at me and smiled softly. "She's not so bad after all, this cat," he said.

I laughed. "I told you. Has she melted your icy heart?"

"Partially," he answered with a grin.

"Better than nothing," I replied. "Want to keep her with you, Fred and Jules tonight?"

"No," he said, promptly handing Daisy to me. "Don't push your luck."

I shrugged. "It's your loss. I did try." I stood up and scratched Daisy behind the ears as George got to his feet as well.

"I really am sorry," George said again, leaning in to wrap his arms around me in a giant hug. I returned it with the one arm that wasn't holding Daisy as I grinned.

"I promise I won't take it to heart and believe you just hate me. And I promise I won't dump Fred in some crazy attempt to be selfless so you can have your twin back," I told him.

"Thank goodness," George groaned. "He'd be heartbroken. And I can't handle a heartbroken brother. How are we going to invent quality products if one of us is falling apart?"

I laughed and rolled my eyes. "Goodnight, George," I called as I headed for the stairs.

"Goodnight, Lie," he called back. "And tell your cat just because she snuggled into my arm and started purring doesn't mean I'm as in love with her as the rest of you are!"

"It'll come with time, George. Promise," I said as I continued up the stairs, smiling as I heard him laugh.


	71. Chapter 71

Over the next few days, Daisy slowly started getting used to all the unfamiliar faces and the unfamiliar environment. She would still hide occasionally, but would usually make her presence known if Fred or I left the room so she could follow us. She even followed George out one time. She followed him all the way up to his room and when he shut the door in her face, she kept meowing out in the hallway until he finally opened the door, stared at her quizzically, and then, surprisingly, picked her up and carried her inside.

Ginny was almost as obsessed with the kitten as I was. The first day we'd arrived at the Burrow, she'd found a ball of yarn for Daisy to use as a toy. And now, two days later, she was sitting on the floor, playing with Daisy.

"I was planning on using that," Mrs. Weasley commented with a raised eyebrow as Daisy clawed at the yarn.

"For what? You've already made your sweaters for this year," Ginny said. "At least I hope so. Tomorrow's Christmas Eve."

"Yes, but there's next year!" Mrs. Weasley argued. "What, did you think I never used any leftover yarn and let it all go to waste? It costs money, you know, and buying enough yarn for all the sweaters I make adds up in cost."

"How many _do _you make?" I asked curiously from my spot on the floor next to Ginny. I was sitting in between Fred's legs, leaning up against his chest as he leaned against the couch. I craned my neck to look up at Mrs. Weasley, who was actually sitting on the couch at the other end.

"This year I made eleven," she said proudly. "One for you, Harry, Hermione, Julian, and every member of the family—besides myself of course. And—well, except Percy too this year." She looked as if she were about to cry, but then the expression was gone in a flash. "Since he sent his last one back, I didn't want to waste another one…."

"You only did that because Dad told you to, Mum," Fred sighed. "You don't really think it's a waste. You'd send him another one if it were totally up to you. Even after he sent last year's back!"

"The git," George growled. "Honestly, where's his Christmas spirit and his gratitude?"

"I really hoped after what happened at the Ministry, he'd…you know…come back," Ginny said.

"I thought so too," George said. "I mean, not right away, but after he could swallow his damn pride. But the battle at the Ministry was six months ago and he still hasn't shown his face around here or even contacted us once! And that just makes me angry at him…still."

"Agreed," Fred said. "One hundred percent."

"Maybe he's embarrassed," I said. "_Extremely_ embarrassed."

"Even so…it's been six months," Fred said. "And you'd think his desire to get away from the people who had been lying to him all that time would be stronger than his embarrassment to come back here."

I shrugged. "It's hard to admit someone else is right. Especially after the fight he had with you. That was nasty."

"Definitely," Julian piped up with a shudder. "My own mother never argues like that. With anyone. Not Dad, not Lilah…."

"Jules, shut it," I groaned, rolling my eyes as Dad snorted.

"Arguing with your mother could get pretty ugly, Liles," he said.

"I know, but I don't need everyone else to know that as well!"

"I'm pretty sure we know," Ginny said. "We all witnessed an argument, remember? The night your mother invited us over for dinner?"

I groaned again and rested my head back on Fred's shoulder. "Don't remind me. That's a night I've worked on wiping from my mind every single day since."

"But think of it this way," Fred muttered, kissing my jaw, "I witnessed all that and I still love you."

I snorted. "Only because I defended your sorry ass."

Fred laughed. "That is true."

We were all quiet for a moment, the only sounds the crackling fire and Daisy's occasional meows as she played with her ball of yarn.

Suddenly, Mrs. Weasley yawned and announced she was turning in for the night. And little by little, we all followed suit. I made a pit stop in Fred and George's room first to say goodnight to the two of them and my brother before heading back down to Ginny's room. Once outside the door, I hesitated as I heard arguing coming from the other side. Sighing, I pushed the door open and stepped into the room to see Ginny and Fleur bickering.

"I am not doing anything wrong 'ere," Fleur hissed. "And yet you and your mother practically ignore my existence!"

"Do you even hear yourself talk sometimes?" Ginny asked. "Sometimes it's better to just ignore you! You complain about everything. From the food to the weather to Merlin knows what. You bitch about Tonks every time she's mentioned and—"

"Excuse me for not being too 'appy about your mother trying to set Bill up with another girl!" Fleur answered hotly.

"What should it matter if he loves _you_ so much?" Ginny replied. "Or do you have some kind of trust issues going on?"

"Woah, enough!" I finally exclaimed, stepping forward and grabbing Fleur's arm as she took an angry step towards Ginny, her wand extended. "_What _is going on in here?"

"She jumped down my throat the second I walked in," Ginny said, "about Mum not knitting her a sweater for Christmas. As if it's all _my _fault."

"How do you know you're not getting a sweater?" I asked Fleur in surprise.

Fleur scoffed. Tears were actually welling up in her eyes and she was doing her best to blink them back. "So you didn't notice either?"

"Notice what?" I asked gently.

"She said she made eleven sweaters," Fleur said. "And then she listed everyone she made one for. Her whole family except Percy and herself. That's seven. Then she made one for you, your brother, 'Arry and 'Ermione. Eleven. She did not make one for me."

I sighed and closed my eyes as my heart almost physically ached for her. That was rough. And I honestly _hadn't _picked up on it downstairs when we had been talking about the sweaters. Perhaps I should have. It was actually surprising that I didn't. Usually I noticed things like that.

"Maybe she did but she wants to surprise you?" I asked feebly.

Fleur scoffed again and turned away from me. "Yeah, right."

"Why would you even _want_ a sweater anyway?" Ginny asked. "Won't they be way less fashionable than what you would wear in France? Is handmade clothing too _common_ for the _princess_? Is it too _itchy_? It must be compared to those nice _silk_ outfits you wore back at Beauxbatons, right? You know, why don't you just go back there if you love it so much? Go back to your _silk_ and your _bigger _and _better_ school and your _bigger _house! Go back to your better country and your better family—"

"I barely have a family anymore!" Fleur practically screeched. Even I jumped and took a step back. Ginny stopped midsentence and stared at Fleur with wide eyes.

"My sister," Fleur went on, "is dead." She took a step closer to Ginny. "My sister was _murdered_." Another step. Now she and Ginny were almost nose to nose. "My mother cries all the time. My father has become terribly quiet. None of us are the same anymore. After I went back, we hardly spoke to each other. For days. So my family is _not _better, Ginny. If you think it is—if you'd like to trade, I will do so _gladly._" She hissed out the last word and glared at Ginny, who had gone pale and was now gaping up at Fleur.

"Then why did you come here?" Ginny finally asked. "To England? Why didn't you stay with your parents? Surely you all need each other."

"Everywhere I went back home, I was reminded of Gabrielle," Fleur said, turning and sitting down on her bed. "I couldn't stay. It was practically making me claustrophobic. I tried to get my parents to come here with me, but they wouldn't. They're the opposite, you see. They're afraid if they walk away from home, all memories of Gabrielle will vanish. They'll come for the wedding, though. They're actually excited." She let out a bitter laugh. "It gives them something to do. Something to plan. It occupies their thoughts. And mine."

"Is that the only reason you're doing it, then?" Ginny asked. "To distract yourself?"

"Ginny!" I scolded, grabbing Fleur's arm as she jumped up again.

"You don't know anything about me," Fleur cried. "I need Bill. If you'll remember, the first time I saw him, Gabrielle was still alive."

"Yeah, you _saw _him," Ginny said. "You thought he was good looking. You didn't know him."

"And when I moved here to work at Gringott's he decided to help me with my English all on his own. Sure, maybe I flirted with him a bit, but he talked to me because he wanted to! He continued talking to me because he wanted to. And he's marrying me because he wants to! I got to know him plenty after I came back here. And coping with everything is easier with him around. I've done a great deal of healing in the time since Gabrielle…died. But I still have good days and bad days. And on the bad days it's nice to have someone around. Someone who loves me."

Ginny and I were both silent as we looked at each other. Finally, Ginny closed her eyes and sighed as she sunk down onto her own bed. "I didn't even think—I should have—I….Everything with your family and Gabrielle. I can't even imagine what that's all like. I just—"

"Assumed I was a snob?" Fleur asked. She scoffed. "You would not be zee first."

Ginny let out a dry laugh. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

Fleur didn't say anything. Instead, she crossed her arms and turned her head in the other direction. Honestly, a part of me couldn't blame her. I wasn't sure if I'd be rushing to accept an apology just yet either.

"Ginny," I began, "maybe you and I should sleep down in the living room tonight. Give her some space, you know?"

Ginny shot me a look. "This is _my _room!"

"Ginny," I sighed. "Come on. Please. You could cut the tension in here with a knife. Seriously, it's going to suffocate me. Plus I don't want to hear any more bickering tonight."

Ginny sighed and began gathering up a few blankets. "Fine." Once she was done, she breezed out of the room without a backwards glance at Fleur.

I looked at Fleur awkwardly. She was still sitting with her arms crossed, gazing out the window stonily. Once again I found myself forgetting how old she was. She was my age. And she had been through so much. The Triwizard Tournament, losing her sister, making the choice to leave her family and come here. And now she was about to get married and she was clashing with two members of her fiancé's family. One being his mother, the person I'd think she wanted to get along with most.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "About everything. I told you before that Ginny and Mrs. Weasley would come around and I truly think they will. I think Ginny _has_. She's just….processing I suppose?"

"Yes, well Bill's mother still hates me," Fleur said. "She thinks we're making a mistake. That's her main problem with me besides the fact that she thinks I'm snobby. How do I _fix_ that? I love Bill. Marrying him is no mistake. I don't know how I can prove it to her besides saying it and showing it in ways I already have." She paused. "I mean, how can she know you and Fred love each other but not me and Bill?"

I thought about it for a second. "Fred and I were friends for a long time," I said quietly. "Since we were in our first year. She didn't even meet you until, what, less than two years ago and you weren't even Bill's girlfriend then. I promise you, she _will_ come around."

"You can't know that, Lilah. You can't," Fleur argued, finally turning to look at me.

"I can and I do," I said. "I've known her for a very long time. She's protective of her family, that's all." I paused again. "I mean, it _is _obvious that you love Bill. And he loves you. You don't have to worry about him. So I suppose…_maybe_—perhaps you could not be so rude to Tonks anymore? For starters. She's really great too. And like I said, even if Mrs. Weasley is trying to set her up with Bill, she's not going to succeed. Bill loves _you_. And Tonks is in love with someone else too."

"Really?" Fleur asked interestedly. "Who?"

I paused. "Remus."

"That shabby looking man—," Fleur began, but blushed and stopped when I raised my eyebrows. She cleared her throat. "I mean—that…man. The one that used to be a professor?"

I nodded. "That's the one."

"He does seem very nice," Fleur said. She cleared her throat again. "And zat Tonks girl hasn't changed her hair color in quite a while. She used to be quite cheerful….what happened?"

"Sirius, the man who died over the summer, was her cousin. They were pretty close. So she's been kind of miserable lately and hasn't attempted to change any of her features—or maybe she's so upset that her powers are acting up….I'm not sure how that works. Anyway, Remus has been great lately. Sirius was one of his best friends so the both of them are really grieving and they've been a comfort to each other. So you and Tonks actually kind of have something in common." I smirked. "Imagine that."

Fleur looked at the ground thoughtfully. "Hm," she said, chewing on her lip.

I smiled. "She's coming for Christmas. She didn't want to, but Mrs. Weasley practically forced her. And I suppose it doesn't hurt that Remus will be here. Maybe you could try actually talking to her."

Fleur nodded. "Thank you, Lilah," she finally whispered.

I smiled gently. "Anytime. If you need to talk again, just let me know."

Fleur nodded again and I gently slipped out of the room, closing the door behind me.

* * *

By the time darkness had fallen on Christmas Eve, Fleur and Ginny hadn't said a word to each other. The tension was gone and Ginny wasn't rolling her eyes or scoffing every time Fleur did something as simple as breathe, but she still had been quiet. And Fleur had been keeping her mouth shut too. She hadn't talked about France all day. She hadn't criticized Tonks when Mrs. Weasley had reminded us all she was joining us for dinner tomorrow night.

"What's up with them?" Fred finally asked me as we played chess in the corner of the living room that night. "Fleur and Ginny. Haven't heard a peep from either of them all day and Ginny hasn't made fun of Fleur once."

I smiled. "They were going at it last night and I didn't want to hear it for another second, so I stepped in a bit. Plus it's not right for them to be fighting anyway. They're going to be family soon."

"What'd you say to fix it?" Fred asked with a chuckle.

I snorted. "I hardly would call it fixed. They're not exactly best friends."

"No, but this is them practically being _nice_," Fred said.

"I didn't say anything to Ginny, really. Fleur kind of told her off all on her own. Mostly about how broken her family is now and how she just wants to be accepted." I grimaced as one of Fred's pieces knocked mine off the board.

"In other words," Fred said, "nothing you didn't already figure out."

I shrugged. "I suppose." I ordered one of my pieces over a few spaces and smiled triumphantly.

"I wouldn't get too excited yet, Lie," Fred smirked as he moved one of his pieces to knock my recently moved one off the board.

"Damnit," I muttered. "I hardly ever win at this game. How is it that I just never get any better?"

"You don't play all that often," Fred shrugged. He paused. "So if you didn't talk to Ginny, did you talk to Fleur?"

"Sort of," I answered. "I told her that your mother and Ginny would definitely come around. And she could perhaps help it along by doing things like not being mean to Tonks. They're kind of in the same boat after all. Tonks just lost Sirius and she's been so upset over it. And Fleur's still dealing with losing Gabrielle, so…." I shrugged. "I think they could be pretty decent friends. I did have to remind Fleur that Tonks was in no way after Bill, though. And even if she was, Bill is too in love with Fleur to notice or care. And the same with Tonks and Remus. So all your mother's efforts are in vain, I'm sorry to say."

"Nah, she'll get over it, like you said," Fred shrugged.

Just then, I heard Harry, Remus, my dad and Mr. Weasley talking from behind me about what Harry had overheard Snape and Malfoy talking about at school—about the Unbreakable Vow.

"Malfoy's up to something," Harry said firmly. "And Snape was offering to help him. Come on, we know how Snape is. He-"

"Dumbledore trusts Snape," Remus said tiredly, rubbing a hand over his eyes. "And if he trusts him, that's good enough for me."

"But—"

"And it should be good enough for you as well, Harry," Remus snapped, looking at Harry. "Whatever Snape was up to, I'm sure he knows what he's doing. And you may think you've pieced a lot together, but you can't understand a whole story based on a few bits of overheard conversation."

"Plus," Mr. Weasley chimed in, "Snape _is_ part of the Order."

"He wouldn't be if Dumbledore didn't trust him," Dad said. "Remember that, Harry."

The mention of the Order got me to perk up even more. I'd been meaning to ask again about joining. Fred and George had finally been able to join in June. Nobody could complain or protest it anymore either since they were not only of age, but finally out of school. And the same applied to me. I had been of age months before the twins, and by the time the twins were asking to join, I was also out of school. But when I told Fred I wanted to join with him and George, he had laughed and said no.

"You just got injured less than two weeks ago!" he had exclaimed. "I'm not letting you gallivant off on Order missions—even if it is just patrolling Hogwarts corridors. Absolutely not. You can forget about it."

Needless to say, that had started a huge argument between us. It lasted for days. I slept on the couch the first night and refused to speak to Fred. But the next morning I woke up in bed and Fred was on the couch. Apparently, despite his anger, Fred still wanted me to be comfortable. I appreciated it, but that didn't mean I wasn't angry. Every time I tried to bring it up again, he'd shoot me down and it would start the argument up again. As I said, it went on for about two or three days. We weren't speaking and when we did speak, we were fighting. Fred argued that I needed to take it slow and when I argued that once I was fully healed, I'd be fine, Fred argued that he didn't want to risk losing me again. Which, again, I appreciated, but I didn't want to be treated like a child. It wasn't his decision to make whether or not I joined the Order. I even threatened to move back out a few times, but never did.

I had also tried to bring it up at the Burrow. To adults who could override Fred and just initiate me. But to my dismay, my Dad had sided with Fred. Sort of. He had said I was still recovering and that maybe they'd reconsider the matter at a later date. Fred had let out a victorious "ha!" And I hadn't spoken to him for another two days, resorting to angrily slamming things around the flat and glaring at him. That's when George started threatening to kick one of us out if we didn't put our differences behind us and stop giving him headaches and making things awkward between the three of us.

"Speaking of the Order," I said now, glancing between Mr. Weasley and Remus. "It's been six months since my, well….accident. Is that enough time for me to recover and be able to join the Order now?"

Fred groaned from across from me and buried his head in his hands. "Not this again," he said.

I whipped my head around and glared at him. "Do you _want _to start another fight like the one we had in June?"

"Please, Merlin, no," George said quickly from where he was playing with Daisy in front of the fire. He and Daisy had grown a lot closer over the past few days and now it was as if they had never hated each other. It was truly a miracle. "That was the worst fight you two have ever had and I don't want to be put through that torture again."

"I had every right to be angry!" I exclaimed. "It's not Fred's place to say what I can and can't do with my life."

"You had just narrowly escaped death, Lilah!" Fred cried, standing up.

"Fred, calm down," Mr. Weasley ordered with a frown.

Fred looked at my dad. "Tell your daughter she can't be putting herself into danger again."

"Fred—," Mr. Weasley began.

"Dad, please," Fred begged, an edge of panic showing in his voice. "You don't understand! I—we—can't let her do this."

"Oh, but it's okay for you to do it?" I asked, getting to my feet as well. "That's not fair, Fred! It's okay for you to fling yourself into danger and make _me_ worry about you, but I can't do the same?"

"I already almost lost you once," Fred said, his voice low as he looked at me. "I can't do it again." He shook his head and looked away.

"That's a risk everyone here is taking, Fred," I said quietly. "That's a risk we're all _prepared_ to take. Because we're fighting for something good. We're fighting for the safety of more people than just ourselves. If this goes the way we want, _lots_ of people will finally be safe and won't have to worry anymore. I want to be part of that just as much as you or anyone else here does. You can't tell me not to. It's not fair and you know it. Besides, we could all be at risk by just sitting here, too. You know that, right? No one is safe, no matter what. And I don't know about you, but I'd rather die _doing_ something than just sitting around."

The room was quiet for a moment. Fred still wasn't looking at me and his face was hidden in shadow from the fireplace, but I could see that he was shaking slightly.

"She's right, you know, Fred," Bill said from across the room. "It's her choice, first of all. And we're all worried—for ourselves and for the ones we love. Joining the Order isn't something to do lightly. We all know that. There are a bunch of risks that, like Lilah said, we're willing to take."

"I agree," Mr. Weasley said.

Fred finally looked up to stare at the ceiling. He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. Finally, he turned to look at my dad. "What about you? What do you think?"

Dad was quiet for a moment as he thought over what he wanted to say. He finally looked at me and then at Fred. "Lilah is of age and she's out of school," he began. "And she has been fully healed from her injuries for some time now. And since she is of age, she is capable of making her own choices. She's a smart girl. I don't like the idea of her putting herself in the line of danger any more than you do. Or the rest of us for that matter. Trust me. If it were up to me, none of you kids would have to be a part of this. You're all so _young_. But it's not up to me. It's up to all of you." He looked at me. "So…I think that if you want to join the Order, Lilah, you should. You are healed now after all. That was my main concern when you asked the first time. Your health."

I swallowed and nodded my head. "Thanks Dad."

He looked around at Mr. Weasley, Remus, Mrs. Weasley and Bill, the only other Order members present at the moment. "What do you think?"

"You know what I think," Mrs. Weasley sniffed. "But…as you said, I suppose it's her choice. We can't really deny them now that they're of age and out of school. And back to full health."

"We need all the help we can get," Bill said. "And Lilah would be a great addition."

"Agreed," Mr. Weasley said, clapping me on the arm.

"We'll bring it up to Dumbledore," Remus said with a slight smile. "You're sure you want to do this? It's not always going to be easy. It is dangerous. You know what happened to Arthur while on guard duty. And you were at the Department of Mysteries. So you've seen firsthand the kind of things that go on. And you're sure?"

"Positive," I said. "Like I said, I can't sit here and do nothing. I want to help."

"Okay, then we'll speak to Dumbledore," Remus said. "I'm sure he won't have any issues agreeing to initiate you."

"He initiated Fred and George," Bill snorted. "If he initiated them, he'll initiate you."

George let out a noise of protest, but Fred's expression changed to irritation at Remus' promise to speak to Dumbledore. He angrily kicked back his chair and stormed out of the room, heading for the back door.

"I need some air," he snapped.

I sighed. "I'll go after him. "I'm the one who made him mad."

"Leave him, dear," Mrs. Weasley said. "You didn't do anything wrong. He'll cool off in a bit."

"Nah, let her go, Molly," Dad said. "I think it's better they work it out now."

I hesitated for a second before heading out through the back door to the yard. It was hard to see in the dark, but I lit the tip of my wand and started to walk further and further into the yard, wondering where Fred had gone. I walked until I finally reached the clearing where the Weasleys would practice Quiddich. Fred was up in the air, on one of the extra brooms from the shed, throwing apples from one of the nearby trees up in the air and smashing them with a Beater's bat.

I watched as he hit one with an agitated cry. The apple smashed into pieces that rained towards the ground as Fred flew over to the tree and reached for another apple before repeating the process.

"Can you come down, please?" I asked, walking to the middle of the clearing and crossing my arms as I looked up at him. I had forgotten a coat and I was completely freezing just from the few moments I'd been out here. I didn't know how Fred wasn't cold since he didn't have a coat either, but then again, maybe he was upset enough that he wasn't feeling it yet. Or he just didn't care.

"Why should I?" Fred asked.

"Because I want to talk to you and I'm not shouting to you from down here the whole time."

"Well, since I'm a _grown_ _up_ that can make my _own_ _decisions_, I'm not coming down," Fred said. "And you're just going to have to deal with it, I suppose." He grabbed another apple and tossed it into the air before smashing it with his bat.

I stepped out of the way to avoid the falling pieces of apple and scowled. "Stop being an ass."

"I wanted you to stop being thickheaded, but that didn't happen either, did it?" Fred asked.

"Fred, you're being unreasonable!" I cried. "You had no problem begging to be in the Order ever since you turned seventeen. You didn't even want to wait until you were out of school. How is it okay for you to do that, but I can't even ask at all?"

"You weren't well enough when you asked the first time," Fred said.

"What about now?" I asked. "I'm fine now."

Fred landed his broom and began marching for the shed on the edge of the clearing. "Just leave me alone, Lie. I've said everything I had to say on the subject and you refuse to listen."

"Answer my question!" I cried, following him. "Why don't you want me to join now? Because you're worried about putting myself in danger? Is that all?"

"Yes, that's what I said inside, wasn't it?" Fred asked, tossing his broom and bat into the shed and slamming the door shut before turning to face me. "You don't seem to get it, Lilah. When my dad came to tell me you'd been hurt at the Ministry and were in critical condition at St. Mungo's, I—I couldn't even _stand_ anymore. My legs just pretty much gave out under me. I'd never experienced fear like that before. You _know_ one of my biggest fears is losing you. And I almost did that day. When I tell you I can't go through it again, I mean it. I can't."

"And how do you think I feel about you?" I asked quietly, stepping towards him. "I'm _terrified_ of losing you. But I didn't stop you from joining the Order because I knew you wanted to and I know what we're all fighting for. We all want to be part of the cause." I paused. "You didn't put up this much of a fight when George joined. And you're scared of losing him. And what about the rest of your family? I assume you're worried about them. So why fight with me?"

Fred sighed. "George hadn't just gotten hurt when we joined," he said.

"Why should it matter? I'm a good fighter. I'm smart. I'm attentive. Just as much as any of you. I'd say we're all on pretty even playing fields here. None of us are invincible. Any of us could die doing this. As I said, we're all prepared to take that risk."

Fred sighed and looked away. "You're right," he said thickly. "I know you're right. I guess….experiencing firsthand what it was like to come so close to losing you….I'm afraid of that happening ever again. It was terrible, Lie. I can't do that with you or anyone else ever again. But everyone else who can be a part of this has already joined. I couldn't do anything about them. I knew I wanted to join and George did too. And as I've said, you still hadn't even healed and were already talking about joining the Order and being sent on more dangerous missions. It was too much, Lie." He paused. "And just…look where we are. We live together, we work, the joke shop's raking in the Galleons. I can afford things now. We adopted a cat." He laughed. "It feels like my life is on its way to being exactly how I pictured it. We're getting there. And I'm scared of things putting it at risk."

"But if we don't _fight_, Fred," I whispered, "if we don't fight at all, there's no chance of us winning this war. And even if we do fight and lose…." I trailed off and shrugged. "If we lose, we're going to be at risk. Our happiness will be in jeopardy if You-Know-Who wins. And the only way he can be taken down is if we try. If we put up a good fight. It's the only chance we've got to defeat him. And like Bill said, we need as many people helping as we can get. And once You-Know-Who is gone, then I think it's safe to say we can live our happily ever after."

"Not if we don't make it," Fred muttered, looking away.

I sighed again. "I don't know, maybe I can't make you be okay with my decision, but you should know that it _is_ my decision to make. That's all I'm asking from you. Not for you to like it, just respect it. I did the same for you. I always do. Or…I at least try." I smirked and Fred actually laughed before stepping forward and hugging me. I buried my face in his chest and took a deep breath.

"I do respect it, Lie," he whispered. "I just—want to protect you. And if something happens and I know I didn't do everything in my power to keep you out of harm's way, I'm not sure I'd ever forgive myself."

"I appreciate that, but you can't keep me in a bubble where danger will never reach me," I said. "The world is full of danger. I think the logical thing to do would be to just try to keep each other safe as the need for it arises."

Fred didn't answer. Instead he pulled away and leaned down to kiss me. "I love you," he muttered. "But I hate when you get all smart and reasonable on me."

I laughed and turned back for the house, holding my hand out to him. "Come on," I said. "With any luck, your mother will have hot chocolate waiting for us when we get back."

* * *

Christmas Day started off pretty wonderfully. I woke up to find a stack of presents at the end of my bed and woke Ginny and Fleur up at once so we could all open gifts together. I got a lot of nice things. Some clothes that I'd had my eye on during a few shopping trips with Ginny over the summer holidays, a variety of my favorite candy from George (which was dominated mostly by Fudge Flies, I'm happy to say), a new winter coat from Fleur and of course my traditional Weasley sweater. My dad bought me some new mittens and a few books I'd mentioned wanting. And my brother had gotten me a gorgeous silver ring with my birthstone in the center: a beautiful, shiny opal. My mouth fell open when I saw it and Ginny even let out a whistle.

"I hope Fred lives up to that gift today," she said. "_And_ he better live up to that ring in the future. Get you a nice rock for your left ring finger." She giggled as I flung a ball of wrapping paper at her.

"Shut it, Ginny!" I cried. "I'm not thinking about marriage now and I'm sure Fred isn't either!"

"Yeah, but it's obvious that when marriage does come along, you'll be marrying each other," Ginny said.

"It's not obvious," I argued, sliding the ring Julian had gotten me onto my right hand and fiddling with it, watching as it caught the light.

"Trust us," Fleur said. "It is obvious." She and Ginny looked at each other and smiled, the first time I'd seen them do so in, well…ever. Great, they finally start bonding and it's at my expense.

"It's not," I said. "Unless Fred physically has a ring waiting for me somewhere…."

"Not that I know of, but he basically said as much to Bill," Fleur said.

My head snapped up. "Said what? That he's looking for rings?"

"No," Fleur laughed. "Bill joked that pretty soon Molly would be planning his wedding. His and yours. And Fred just smiled and said that if everything went his way, she would be."

"See!" Ginny squealed. "He wants to marry you!"

I blushed and smiled as I looked down at my feet, dangling off the edge of the bed.

"Although, I expect she'd be much happier planning yours," Fleur said as her smile faded.

Ginny sighed. "I'll try to work on her, okay?"

Fleur nodded. "Okay."

I smiled and looked down at my pile of gifts—which had now dwindled down to just one. Hardly a pile anymore, really.

"Is that Fred's?" Ginny asked.

I nodded. "I expect so. Although I don't know how he's going to top my birthday." I smiled and reached for the gift.

"Maybe he got you another cat," Ginny suggested as I snorted.

I gently ripped off the wrapping paper to reveal a small, square box.

"Definitely jewelry of some sort," Ginny commented.

I rolled my eyes and smiled as I opened it to reveal a bracelet as well as a tiny note tucked in the cover of the box. I picked up the note and read Fred's cramped handwriting out loud.

"'Lilah'," the note began, "'I started working on this in early July, right after we fought about you wanting to join the Order. I think a part of me knew you'd be joining anyway and that it was inevitable, no matter how much I wanted to stop it. So George and I began working on this handy new invention. And we just perfected it about a week ago. As I'm sure you've noticed, the bracelet consists of a red, heart shaped jewel dangling from it. It's a ruby, if you didn't know that already. In the shape of a heart for obvious reasons. None of them being the fact that I love you or anything. Anyway, the best part is that if you press the charm, it'll activate a temporary Shield Charm. So, in the event that you ever lose your wand, you can be protected for a short time until you can get it back or get away from an attacker. Or let's say you feel unsafe and want to be protected from a sneak attack but don't want attention drawn to yourself by actually performing the spell. You'll be able to do it discreetly with this bracelet. It's also fingerprint activated, so you'll be the only one who can use your bracelet and they can't be activated by bumping up against something. As much as I hope you don't have to use it at all, I do hope you like it and that you'll be able to feel that much safer if you're going to insist on helping to save the world. I love you. Merry Christmas. Always, Fred."

"Wow," Ginny said quietly. "That's pretty spectacular magic!"

"Zat is unbelievable," Fleur whispered.

I smiled as I slipped the bracelet onto my wrist. "He's pretty fantastic, isn't he?" I asked, admiring the new bit of jewelry.

"If I were you, I'd go up and thank him immediately," Ginny said.

"Yes, give him a nice big _thank_ _you_," Fleur said, puckering her lips and making kissing sounds as Ginny fell back onto her bed laughing.

"Oh, shut it," I grumbled, standing up and leaving the room. I made my way up a floor to the twins' old room and knocked on the door.

"Come in!" I heard my brother's voice answer.

"Oi, who do you think you are, inviting people into our room?" George's voice asked. I snorted from my spot in the hallway, my hand poised above the doorknob.

"This isn't technically your room anymore," Julian answered cheekily.

"It used to be and it's ours when we stay here," Fred argued.

"So can I come in or not?" I giggled through the door.

"Oh, no, it's Lilah!" Fred said. "Go away, Lie!"

"Oh….okay, well, I just coming up to thank you for this great Christmas gift and praise you for the wonderful job you did with the magic, but I guess you don't care to hear it, so I'll just leave…." I sighed dramatically and not a second later, the door had swung open to reveal Fred, still in his pajamas, hair a mess and grinning.

"Do come in," he said, grabbing my arm and gently tugging me inside. "Please, be our guest. Give us all the praise you want. We're all ears."

I grinned before making my way to my brother's bed and flopping down next to him. "First of all," I said, looking at him, "thank _you_ for my ring. You must've saved up for ages to get it!"

"So what if I did?" Julian asked with a laugh. "You deserve it."

"Well, I love it," I said, showing the ring off to my brother. "Thank you." I ruffled his hair and gave him a kiss on the cheek before turning to the twins. "And as for you two, this bracelet is great! It took you six months to make it?"

"Just about, yeah," Fred answered.

"You're incredible. Both of you," I said. My eyes flickered to George. "I don't think I'll ever understand how you do it."

"It doesn't feel like work when I know I'm going to be helping people by doing it," Fred said. "And if it helps in protecting you and a lot of other people I love, then so be it. It'll be worth the hard work and late nights. George and I were thinking of making more and selling them. And then giving some to our family and friends so they can be protected too. Of course, we'd have to make a different, more manlier version for the guys. I personally don't think I'd look good in a dainty bracelet with a heart shaped charm dangling from it. I was thinking more of a leather band with a circular stone embedded in it, but nothing's certain yet...That's not important anyway. What's important is that I can contribute to the people I love being protected in some way."

I jumped up and flung my arms around him, burying my nose in the crook of his neck. "I love you," I whispered.

"I love you too, Lie," he whispered, returning the hug.

I pulled back and smiled at him. "Thank you…truly. But there's one thing I have to ask of you."

"What's that?"

"When you have enough of these bracelets and after you make enough for your family, can you make sure my dad and Julian get one too? I'll buy them if you'd like. I just want to make sure they have one."

Fred nodded. "Yeah, of course. And you don't have to pay. I just told you I wanted to give bracelets out to family and close friends. And by that I did mean for free. I want us all to be protected just as much as you do."

"I think you'll still make a huge profit on these, despite all the ones you'll be giving out for free," I said, sitting back down beside my brother. "But…it won't take another six months to make just two, will it?"

The twins laughed. "No," George said. "Now that we've got it perfected we can make them a lot faster now. It was just getting the idea together and the charms right that took forever. Don't worry, everyone else will have one in no time."

I nodded. "Good."

"I couldn't agree more," Fred said with a half-smile, looking down at me. "Merry Christmas, Lie."

I returned the smile and reached out to grab onto his hand. "Merry Christmas."


End file.
